Video Transcript: Stewardship, Part 1

Well, hi, my name is Ben Ingebretson. It's my privilege to provide three teaching  sessions for you on raising funds and growing stewards for a new church plant  or a new church start. We're going to cover a lot of ground today and unfamiliar  territory because most ministry leaders, my experience has been, are first of all  

uncomfortable talking about money. I have worked with church planters for the  last 15 years in my ministry, and I've yet to find a church planter that is excited  about talking about money and finances. And in fact, most don't really want to  preach about money. They imagine that a sermon series on money is probably  the last sermon series they will ever preach in their ministry, they just wouldn't  choose to preach or teach about it. They're uncomfortable about being paid for  

ministry. Oftentimes, church planters are almost apologetic about any payment  for their ministry, they, they really feel like they shouldn't be receiving anything  for what they do, because they're doing it for the Lord. They feel giving is a is a  necessary evil. They consider giving kind of a means to an end, that the real  purpose for their ministry is to help people become followers of Jesus, and and  to find their way into an eternal relationship with Christ. But really, that finances  and money is just a means to an end. And so they really would prefer not to  address that issue in their ministry. A lot of ministry leaders feel that asking for  money is kind of like begging, that, that asking and and requesting funds, feels  beneath them that they shouldn't, they really shouldn't be involved in that kind of work. And that they wish that money were really no object to ministry. Now, with  that long list of feelings and impressions, you can understand why that taking  several sessions, to think biblically about giving and about fundraising, and  about stewardship is worth the while I trust that you're going to find this series  well worth while, we're going to cover five areas together. The first area in this  first session will primarily focus on the core biblical foundation for stewardship  development. In subsequent sessions, we'll talk about leading change, and then  about strategic planning. Finally, we'll discuss in the last session together,  organizational worthiness and some fundraising skills and methods. But really,  when when we talk about stewardship and fund development, the why question  comes before the how question. We have times want to know how to do things.  And this course is a very how to do it kind of a course, it's a very practical kind of a course. But the why question and develop a deep foundation for stewardship  and fund development really is a place we need to go to first. And so that's going to be the purpose of our course today. And as we do that, I just like to pause and offer a prayer together. So Lord, I pray as we teach, and as we listened today  that you would open us to the message of Scripture, help us to hear it perhaps  in a fresh and new way. And help us to deepen our own walk with you so that we might be the most effective ministers even in the experience of raising funds and developing stewards for our ministry. We pray this in Christ's name, Amen. So  come with me for a few moments then into a discussion around what Scripture  says as a foundation of biblical basis for stewardship and fund development. 

And there are three primary biblical realities that we're just going to carefully  walk our way through today. The first comes to us in Genesis 1:1, when it says,  In the beginning God created, or in Psalm 24:1, the earth is the Lord's, and the  fullness thereof. God owns it all. It's a very simple and basic notion. But God is  the rightful owner of all things. Now, that may not seem terribly radical, until you  begin to check your own language. Because we often talk about the things that  are around us and the things that we handle from day to day, and casually use  the pronoun that it's, it's my, or it's our, for instance, this morning when I, I got  up, I thought, well, it's my day, and what am I going to do with my day. But if you  begin with the understanding that God owns time, that time and eternity belongs to God, well, then this day really isn't mine. This is God's day. This is God's time  that I'm occupying. What does it mean for me to live as though God is the  rightful owner owner of this day, and then I got into my car, and I went for a drive to the place where I'm doing this taping this morning. And, and immediately I  thought of it as my car. But if we really recognize that God's the rightful owner of  all things, then it really isn't my car, it's, it's God's car. materials that were used  to construct and to build that car all belong to God, and the creative process.  God's behind all of that. God's the rightful owner of all things. It's not, it's not my  money. It's not my time, they aren't my children. We easily think of our children  as being ours. But in fact, as they grow older, they remind us that, that they are  not going to, to tie their lives to our lives, that God has a claim on their lives, and that they're going to respond and go, where God leads them. And so the simple  notion that God by virtue of creation, and God by virtue of His sovereignty, is the rightful owner of all things, raises the corollary, understanding that, therefore,  there is never a shortage of funds. Pause with that for a moment. If by virtue of  creation, by virtue of position, by virtue of sovereignty, God's the rightful owner  of all things, then it must necessarily be true that for God's purposes in the  world, there's never a shortage of resources, it all belongs to him. There's only a shortage of stewards. There's only a shortage of those who recognize the  rightful ownership of God. There's never a shortage of the funds themselves. So if that's true, why does it often though feel like that there's a shortage of money  for ministry. And so oftentimes, that's the reality you and I live with, is the feeling  that there is a shortage that there's not enough resources in order to accomplish ministry. So that leads us to the second biblical reality. The second biblical  reality comes from Genesis 1:26-28. It's the story of humankind, mankind being  created in the image of God. It says, God, created man in His image, and in the  image of God, He created them male and female, He created them. The the  concept of being created in the image of God is a very interesting one, if you  think about it biblically in the way that the readers of Genesis and those who  understood the Genesis story, initially thought of it, because to, to bear the  image of another ruler, was, was synonymous to being placed out on the outer  ranges of that rulers empire. And in bearing that ruler's image they were to, they 

would represent the rightful ownership of that ruler out on the fringes in the  farthest places of an empire. And so, the writer of Genesis uses that phrase,  God gives us that phrase, to say that we by bearing the image of God, reflect  the rightful ownership of the true ruler out on the edges and the farthest places  of His creation. And, and in so doing, that means we aren't the true owner, it only means that we represent the true owner. It only means that that we image we  bear witness to the reality of the true owner, the true Creator. And that being the  case, then, if our role is not to, not to own but to manage, then every decision  you and I make is a stewardship as a management choice. We're going to talk  about this and go a little deeper into the Gospels because Jesus oftentimes  reflects on this in his parables. Luke 12, gives us one parable, Matthew 25,  another parable. But Jesus again and again, uses this image and it occurs  elsewhere in the New Testament, the image of stewardship, or management,  that God being the rightful owner, he has placed us in the role of managing or or or stewarding his creation. And so that means that stewardship is not just  something that has to do with something with it with a moment on a Sunday  when we ask people to give their tithes and offerings in the collection. With  stewardship, if it's true that God is rightful owner and that we are managers,  then stewardship has to do with everything we do Monday through Saturday.  Every decision we make is a stewardship decision. Every act of management is  a stewardship moment. When I go to the, to the store, when I go shopping with  money that God has entrusted with me to manage every decision I make when  I'm out shopping is a stewardship moment, stewarding the resources that  rightfully belong to God, I bear the image of God I have been placed out on the  out into the kingdom of his son, and I have the role of reflecting the values and  the purposes of God with the resources that ultimately belong to Him. So God is  the rightful owner. We are the managers and, and come with me deeper into that word of management. In the Bible, it's the word the Greek word oikonomos. It  comes from two words, oikos from the word house, and nomos of rulership. The  idea is that is that we have been placed in the role of stewarding a household,  the household that belongs to God, as though he is the rightful ruler of the  household, and we have the responsibility as, as the servants in the household  to manage the the elements of God's house. According to God's purposes. That  word or oikonomos occurs 10 times in the New Testament, and it's associated  with some some, some character qualities. I'll let you look these up if you'd like.  But for instance, in in I Corinthians 4:2 or Luke 12, or I Peter 4:10, we have the  idea that a steward is, first of all to be known as being faithful. It is required that  stewards be found faithful So there's that word, oikonomos, that word  stewardship or manager, and the quality of management of being faithful, faithful to the purposes of the owner, faithful and consistently, using the resources  granted by the owner for the owner's purposes. The second character quality  that comes through in the in the Scripture is that steward is to be wise, you find 

these words, in the Scripture, it says, Who then is the faithful and wise steward  when the master that the master has put in charge that's straight from one of the parables of Jesus, you've perhaps heard it there in Luke 12. That the master the owner, looks not just for faithfulness in their steward or in their manager, but that 

the owner looks for wisdom in that steward that the resources that have been  entrusted to that steward have to be managed, and ought to be managed,  wisely, in accordance with the purposes of the owner. Again, if you read the  parable of Jesus, and we're gonna go there, in a few moments, you find that  underscored how the master departs. He expects the resources to be invested  wisely. And the wise steward is commended. The foolish steward is  reprimanded. And which brings us really to the last character quality, that Jesus  seems to underscore related to this role of being a manager, a steward, and that is that they'll be held accountable. And again, he's he called them together. And  he said, give an account of your stewardship. give an account of how you used  your resources, excuse me, use the resources that have been entrusted to you,  that belong, ultimately to the owner of the household. You see, one day, you and I, along with all other occupants in God's world, the rightful owner, will be called  to account for how we have managed resources that ultimately don't belong to  us. They belong to the Creator, who by virtue of His creation, by virtue of His  sovereignty, by virtue of his position, has the right to call to account, all who  have used that which belongs to him. The scope of that stewardship is real clear in Scripture. It includes our physical bodies. And Romans 12:1-2, the writer Paul, the apostle Paul says, I beseech you therefore by the mercies of God, to  present your bodies as a living sacrifice, wholly and acceptable. This is your this  is your spiritual service. There's the implied the call there to steward our physical selves, for the purposes of God in the world, to steward our gifts and abilities.  That, that the each of us has a spiritual gift is well taught in Scripture, you'll find  it there in I Corinthians 6, and other texts. But that it's a gift means that it doesn't belong to us, it's been granted to us to steward for the purposes that God has in  the world, that our time is to be stewarded, I mentioned that a few moments ago, time is in his hands, and were granted a little time and to use our time for his  purposes. And, and then yes, even our money, that it ultimately doesn't belong  to us. The scope of stewardship is broad. This is when you think about it, an  enormous biblical teaching and that stewardship therefore, and here's our third  biblical principle for today that stewardship is a learned behavior. Stewardship is learned and that leaders and church planters have to grow as stewards.  Wouldn't it be nice if we all had an innate and clear and, and consistent grasp of  the notion that God's the rightful owner, and that you and I are just temporary  managers, none of it belongs to us it, it all passes time and material, they all  pass through our hands like sand, we can't hold on to them very long. Wouldn't it be nice if we were all born with that notion? Innately, we all, we all had that idea  clearly in our thinking. But the reality is, we don't. The reality is that, that we 

forget, the reality is, is that I, I drive out of my driveway in the morning, or I, I  leave my home or I receive a check in the mail, I receive some money from  someone as a as a gift. I, I look my children in the eye, and I revert, I go back  time and time again to a position of ownership. I think it's mine, I think they're  mine. I think time is mine, I think possessions are mine, I continually revert to  that position of ownership. And because of that, I need to, you and I need to  continually grow in stewardship, thinking and behavior. Its stewardship is a  learned behavior. It's not something that comes innately it's not something that  comes naturally. Naturally, we think of things as belonging to ourselves. And that will be true with every potential donor to your ministry. Let's just go there for a  moment. Every potential donor to your ministry will begin their day thinking, first  of all, that they are the owner, that it belongs to them. They may, from time to  time, remember that ultimately, God is the owner, but their normal day to day  functioning will be that they are the owner. Because they're much like you and I  that will be the posture the thinking that they oftentimes let control their mind.  And that and that, as the owner that their responsibility is ultimately only to  themselves, that they are only accountable to themselves. And, and that really  all they have to do side to do all they really have before them is to decide what  to do with their time and their talent and their treasure. That that they've pretty  well moved beyond the first questions that you and I are talking about here  today. And that our role as stewardship developers is going to be to bring them  back even before we asked for a gift of $1 or a small gift of of support for the  ministry God has placed into our hands there our job will be to gently but  faithfully a bring them back to these these fundamental questions and these  fundamental understandings who really is the rightful owner of your time and  your talent and your treasure? And what really is your role in relationship to  those things and How might I help you grow as a steward. Stewardship is a  learned behavior. And the role of you and I in ministry, part of the Our role is to  help people grow in the grace of giving. Oftentimes, we're uncomfortable asking, and even afraid of asking because we're not sure where to begin the  conversation. We're not really certain where to start. Because after all, if we  aren't convinced, in our own thinking, that God is the rightful owner, and that we  are merely managers, temporary ones at best, and that stewardship is a learned behavior, that we have to work at learning and it doesn't come naturally. If we  aren't convinced of those things ourselves as ministry leaders, then we tend to  be uncomfortable asking. Paul writes these words to Timothy. He says,  command those who are rich in this present world, not to be arrogant, or to put  their hope in wealth, which is uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly  provides it everything for our enjoyment. So Paul begins there in verse 17, of I  Timothy 6, by saying, what by saying, command them. He uses a pretty strong  word. He uses a strong word, because Timothy needs to understand that, that  this is not going to come natural for anyone to begin to understand that the 

possessions that they have accumulated around them aren't ultimately thelr's is  going to be a bit of an interruption. To put it nicely. It's going to, it's going to  challenge their thinking. It's going to challenge their heart. And when Paul says,  command them, uses the word twice, command them, he says, verse 18, to do  good, and to be rich in good deeds, and to be Here's the word generous and  willing to share. This is not going to come natural. It's not going to come natural  for the person who possesses a few things. It's not going to come natural for the person who possesses a lot of things. It's going to come little, by little, by little,  and Paul gives instructions here to a young church planter, Timothy, working in  Ephesus, which became a location from which many other churches were  planted there in the western part of modern day Turkey, Asia Minor. And Paul  gives this instruction to Timothy because he knows that as a young church  planter, that this will be a growing edge of his personal development in ministry.  For him to be confident, and to challenge those who possess things that  ultimately don't belong to them, but that one day, they'll be held accountable for  he says, two times, command them, command them. And then in verse 19, he  says, in this way, they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. In that  verse 19, you may be hear an echo of Jesus's words when he talks about don't  lay up treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy But lay up treasure in  heaven. And Paul uses now that same word picture, he says in this way they'll  lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age. So that  they may take hold of the life that's truly life. He says two things there one, there is blessings in the age to come. For those who under stand their roles as  stewards, not owners. And there's blessings. In the present age, they take hold  of a life that's truly life, they experience, the joy of giving, it's more blessed to  give than to receive. There's a favorite writer of mine that writes about the  temptation that followers of Jesus experience from Satan. It's CS Lewis, in his  book, The Screwtape Letters. In that book, you may or may not be familiar with  it, but it's a conversation between Satan and one of his, one of his demons, as  he seeks to undermine and, and curtail and, and misdirect a follower of Christ.  And here's some of the coaching, that that evil enemy of our souls gives to one  of his demons as they seek to undermine the this idea of stewardship in the  heart of a follower of Christ. He says, a sense of ownership in general is always  to be encouraged. The humans are always putting up claims to ownership,  which sound equally funny in heaven. And in hell. We produce this sense of  ownership, not only by pride, but also by confusion, we teach them not to notice  the different senses of the possessive pronoun, my dog, my boots, my wife, my  God, all this time, all the time, the joke is on the word, mine. In the end, they'll  certainly find out to whom things belong, and certainly not to them. So there's a  clever way, an interesting way of illustrating the point that you and I are in a role  of prompting people to think biblically about the resources that God has 

entrusted to them. In fact, given both the number of references and the  theological significance of stewardship in both the Old and New Testament, and  we've covered that, here in this lecture, that over 10 times Jesus uses the word  steward. It occurs frequently in the parables in the New Testament. And that  Paul instructs Timothy in that it's built upon the foundation that we hear in the  Old Testament that God by virtue of creation, by virtue of Providence, by virtue  of His sovereignty, and his position is the rightful owner of all things and we're  merely temporary managers, oikonomos. Those put in charge of a household for a brief period of time. You see, when you begin to think biblically, about  stewardship, this is not just something we must do in order for us to do real  ministry. I can't state that strongly enough. Stewardship development, raising  funds for church planting, growing people as givers. This is not just something  we must do in order for us to do real ministry. It's not just a means to an end.  Stewardship development is ministry, developing stewards, people who  understand God's rightful ownership and our role as temporary managers. This  is the work of ministry. This is what God has called us to in planting a church is  to grow not only those who will hear the message of Christ for the very first time, but also grow those who may be hearing it for the 500th time, but now they're  hearing it from you, as you request them to give money to support the ministry  that you aren't just asking for means to an end. You aren't just talking about  something that's a necessary, evil, a necessary, but undesirable conversation.  No. Talking about about generosity and challenging people to grow in the grace  of giving is a way of blessing them for one day, they will be held accountable for  the resources that God has entrusted to them for a short time. Now, let me go  on and add a few more thoughts to this first session. Because I'd like to talk for a few moments about the problem of external dependency. There's a basic  question and some basic assumptions. That, that I need to just lay out here for a starter in this in this first lecture. The first being can a local ministry be funded  locally? Can a local ministry really be funded with local resources? Oftentimes,  we feel that there's no resources for ministry here, we have a scarcity mentality.  And, as we heard early on, that there is by virtue of God's creation, no shortage  of resources, there is only a shortage of stewards God owns it all. Therefore,  there is no shortage. But oftentimes, we experience a shortage because there's  a shortage of individuals who understand their roles as stewards. And so they  are being unfaithful and unaccountable, and certainly not wise. And so it's our  role to cultivate those stewards, so that that local ministry can be funded locally.  Has God adequately distributed resources for local ministry? are local ministries  best funded locally? Well, I would say that local ministries can be funded locally.  This may require the ministry to be scaled to the setting. Because it may take  time to grow people. As stewards, it may take time for them to mature in their  understanding of their responsibility before God to steward their resources,  according to God's purposes, and in keeping with God's intentions. And that 

resources for location for excuse me, for local ministry are found locally, there's  no shortage of funds, only a shortage of stewards. So those are some  assumptions that I draw from what Scripture teaches. In fact, I would say that  there is a problem with external dependency that prolonged external funding,  cripples local ministry and creates extended dependency. Prolonged external  funding, takes energy away from a local ministry. Prolonged external funding.  And let me just pause when I say external funding, I mean, resources that are  coming, not locally, not from those who are actually participating in that ministry.  But resources that are coming from a distance of away. They may be well  intended resources. They're certainly resources that are given generously. But I  would submit that that is not always for the good of the local ministry. That  prolonged external funding cripples local ministry. It takes the energy out. It  takes the motivation out. It takes the leadership out. It says that that person who is giving those resources from a long distance away. They're motivated about  the ministry. It says that that person who's giving the resources from a long  distance away, they are the real leaders of the ministry. It says that that person  who lives a long distance away they're response responsible for the ministry.  And as a result of those kinds of factors, the dignity of the local responsibility  and the local leadership and the local motivation, and the local energy goes out  of the ministry, the dignity is lost. And I would draw our teaching here from  scripture on this. The problem of external dependency is addressed in Scripture, Paul did not promote extended external support for the churches that he  planted. You can read about this, not only in the text, in I Timothy, 6:17, that we  read a few moments ago. But in I Timothy 5:16, where Paul reminds Timothy, to  teach his people that the, the laborer is worthy of their hire, and that these  resources should be found in the local community of faith. And again, in  Galatians 6:6, and even the the problem of the Jerusalem church in II  Corinthians 8, where they were experiencing a famine, and there was the need  for support. That support was well granted, and well received. And Paul  encouraged it, but it was short term. It was not extended, it was short term. And  so the the teaching that the Scripture gives us and this is a picture, this is a, a  graph that we're going to come back to, and several times over these three  lectures, and this will be the closing portion of this first lecture. The picture that  Paul gives us, and the picture that I would like to suggest is that as we grow  people in the grace of giving, we're growing them beyond the kind of egocentric  way of thinking that belongs to me, that it's all about me. We even grow them  beyond a sociocentric way of thinking, that it's all about us. And it's all about our  project. But we ultimately are growing them into a theocentric way of thinking  that really, it's all about God. It all belongs to him. It all ultimately, rests with his  rightful ownership, and our temporary management. And that growing people in  the grace of giving is a one step at a time experience. As people move from  step, to step to step, they move from being payers, where they'll pay a few 

dollars for the ministry, to being givers where they recognize that there's more  blessing and more joy in giving than in receiving where they recognize that it  really doesn't belong to me anyway. And so I best continually give of my  resources for God's purposes. Well, this concludes our first session on raising  funds and growing stewards for a new church start. We'll conclude we'll continue our teaching in the next segment on some of the practical elements of this  biblical foundation for your ministry. Thank you very much.