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« Wednesday Links | Home | Update on LifeConnection »
God’s Generosity
By admin | May 23, 2007
I am continually amazed at God’s generosity displayed to us through his people. Let me tell you one reason why.
When I set out to make connection with churches and individuals to partner with us financially to launch LifeConnection, I wanted to do so naturally, organically, and relationally. So I started contacting everyone I knew and would ask them to lead me to others.
My in-laws are a part of a great church in Independence (across town from where we are planting) called Noland Road Baptist Church. So I contacted the pastor to set up an appointment. I immediately hit it off with pastor EM Hay. He’s a great guy, he’s gracious and kind, thinks big, is a dreamer, and so talking to him was so natural because I love dreaming about possibilities.
[As a sidenote I must give credit to what God did from our first conversation, because it was in that first conversation that the seed to launch LifeConnection in Independence was planted. So God used EM to lead us to Independence.]
Well as we’ve met and talked more over the last several months it seems God is continuing to open doors for us in Independence through this growing friendship. First off, EM is helping us find childcare workers for our Sunday night gatherings. This is huge because I’m trying to find teams of volunteers who can work with the children for a few hours once a month so all the adults can participate in the Bible study and planning sessions.
Secondly, and maybe more significantly, I approached EM about allowing me to use a closet or spare office for myself at NRBC….for free mind you. I have a lot of books and stuff like that, and since we’re probably going into a small duplex of some sort I really need a space to store things, do some studying, etc. I won’t use it very often during a week but storing my junk somewhere will be huge. Well, by the generosity of God displayed through NRBC it looks like I might have some space to use - I go to meet with them tomorrow to check it out.
God has been very gracious to us!
And it is just this sort of thing that leads us (me) to want to be generous people and a church of generosity (a missional community of truth, beauty, and generosity). You see the radical generosity of God drives us to service, drives us to give of our time, talent, and resources.
I think one of the things that happens when believers grow stingy is that we forget the radical generosity of God in the Gospel. Jesus, who had everything, gave it all up to come and take on the form of a slave - having nothing - to redeem us. But we can’t live this life on our own, we don’t have the resources to muster up the gumption to become generous. No, we need Jesus to take hold of our lives, changing us from the inside out.
The reason we give of our time, talent, and resources isn’t just because the Bible tells us so - though it clearly teaches this. No, the more fundamental reality is that our God is a God of radical generosity, displayed through creation and more profoundly through the Gospel. And so we want to strive to become like him in our generosity.
So God has been very good to us and my hope is that we can be good stewards of what he’s entrusted to us.
Topics: Church Planting, LifeConnection |
May 23rd, 2007 at 2:38 pm
That’s awesome. There’s a brethren church here in town where we planted that has let us use their building for our Sunday evening service for a year now. Don’t know what we would’ve done w/out them!
May 23rd, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Great thoughts and well said. Generosity is something I have to keep reminding myself about as we look at housing in the area. Though the bigger and newer house may look great to me, we don’t want to be tied to such a large mortgage that it keeps us from giving generously to those around us.