Have you ever thought how happy someone gets when they receive the help they need. Wither it is a child in Africa getting help so she can go to school, or the people who have survived a natural disaster getting shelter, funds and help until they can get back on their feet. As a church we have a few organizations that do just this from ADRA and Adventist community services to Hope for Humanity (what once was ingathering) we have ways of affecting the lives of millions around the world. But it should not just be the large organizations that do the work. The local congregations and the conference must be involved in this work as will. Honestly I have never seen a more active women’s ministry in any conference than the one here. With their God in shoes program they effectively show us what it means to run a ministry that aids people. It is a great example of what many of our churches should have as ongoing ministry in some form or another. For the shotgun approach which the conference can provide with God in shoes is only affective if it is followed up by the local congregation having ongoing work in reaching that population But the big questions comes how can we do this work, we are so few and there is so much to do. In a few of these discipleship digest I am going to be dealing with the issue of stewardship and then again we will look at the issue in depth from the pulpit in September. But to answer the question of how little churches can make affective change in the lives of others largely comes down to stewardship. Notice I did not say tithe and offering but stewardship. While give of money is a very valuable start and a must, there is also the giving of time and self all of which are gifts from God in the first place. Just south of us in Oklahoma City disaster has struck and not just once, and now not everything is OK in OK. It struck hard destroying large sections, killing some and making many homeless. So how is the church to effectively affect those in need? We have programs like Adventist community services which is supported by tithe and offering. You see the idea of stewardship is we are given some goods to take care of them. As Christians in essence view everything belongs to God, and why would it not be he both created and paid the ultimate price for everything, and we are just the care takers of it. Thus it is easily said that as care takers we should be quick to commit those resources back to God. As we give back to the church both at the Local, Conference, Union and GC levels it gives the fund to effectively affect those in needs. And since meeting needs is a major step in reaching the people of the world making sure we fund the church at all levels should be a important factor to each of us. We should find Joy in giving back to the God who saved us, and we should love to see others cared for the way he cares for us. Thus giving should never be something we have to do, after all the Bible says “God loves a Cheerful giver,” not a have to giver. Yet God uses Human people like you and me to fund and do that work. So are you allowing God to work with you and make you the ultimate Steward? If not then this week’s Challenge is to work to hand it over to Him.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Jul 2013 21:48:01 +0000