It’s interesting that often one of the definitions of church success is measured in the size of its buildings or the number of people that attend. If that is true, then this definition of church success is based on how generous people have been to that particular church.
Let that thought sit in your frontal lobe for a minute. If the church has lots of money then isn’t it the generosity of the people that have created the magnificent buildings, gleaming auditoriums and lush park-like settings of many of our churches?
So what does a “Generous Church” look like?
It may be hard to define but I have some ideas of what it is not. Most likely, generous churches don’t see themselves as an oasis in the midst of a hostile and threatening environment. They don’t have a fortress mentality nor create a “Christian” version of every athletic, educational and social program that the world offers. Generous churches don’t consume 95% of all their funds on salaries, benefits, church buildings and programs.
When I was with the ECFA, I visited a large church that was proud that they gave 10% of all of their funds to foreign missions. The only problem was that if you included the debt that the church was also stacking up, they were actually spending more than 120% of all of their income on themselves.
I think that likely a generous church would be people that understand that they are to be salt and light in that hostile and threatening environment. True generosity happens in the church when we understand that the resources we have all been given, including our time and our financial resources, don’t really belong to us; they are to be available when a need is identified and when individually, or corporately, we have the ability to meet that need.
A generous church is staffed by people that don't run ministries but develop people. Their objective is not only to give them a spiritual makeover but to find the very heart of God in everyday compassion for others.
