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Giving & Vision Pt. 2

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Giving & Vision Pt. 2

We’re called to be generous with our money. This week we consider the specific subject of giving money to the church. The New Testament knows nothing of solitary Christianity: to be a Christian is to be the church. It is you and you are it. We cannot escape it (as much as we might like!). So giving to the church is about giving to something we are intrinsically part of. It is a cognitive dissonance to hold back part of ourselves from who we are. There’s more: the church is not just us and ours, it’s also Christ’s. He is the head of the church. When we give to the church we are investing in Jesus. And we are investing in his eternal, infinite, perfect kingdom. There is no better use of money. His kingdom is one of beautiful powerful unified diversity. When we give we are giving to promote and grow the full representation of the people of God- where everyone matters and all have a role to play. The more we operate and develop in our God-given gifts, the more the church looks like and does the things of Jesus.

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Giving & Vision Pt. 1

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Giving & Vision Pt. 1

Twice a year we dedicate two services to the subject of money and generosity. Jesus’ proclamation at the beginning of his ministry was to announce God’s age of favor for humankind. He has come to make us happy. But, in contrast to what culture has often proclaimed, Jesus knows that happiness and wealth are not intrinsically linked. In his parable of the talents, Jesus teaches that all money belongs to God which he distributes as he wishes. Our job is to hold lightly to what we have been given, not compare what we receive to others, but use it all for the building of God’s kingdom, and give it back to him. The more we do so the more we will receive from God - not financially, but in terms of kingdom-building responsibility. This is where we enter into God’s rest and experience his joy, favor and happiness.

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Abundant Living

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In the second of two talks on money as our new financial year begins we’re turning our attention to the NT view of money. In 2 Corinthians 9 Paul appeals to the church in Corinth to give generously to the struggling church in Jerusalem. It’s a passage which tells us much about what Christian giving is all about. It’s rooted in love. Love from God and love for one another is the basis for all Christian generosity. And it means that to be a Christian is to be a giver. It is part of our new identity. But not just a giver, a giver of reckless generosity. We’re called to give abundantly. And whilst we don’t give in order to receive, God’s promise is that when we give abundantly we will receive abundantly: not necessarily materially (although God will always look after all our material needs), but also spiritually. Giving money away robs it of much of its power and frees from anxiety and joyful abundant living. Just like we’re meant to be!

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Gloriously Generous

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The first of two talks on the subject of money. Often people have grown up with a skewed understanding of money in the bible. This is a talk from the Old Testament about what concepts have never applied (but have often been understood to apply), what has always applied and always will, and what applied in OT times but no longer does because of Jesus. Ultimately Christianity is about having our hearts completely changed. And when our hearts are like Jesus’ heart, we are able to be free and gloriously generous with our resources. This paradigm goes way beyond Old Testament concept of tithing- we are called instead to be joyful, carefree, delighted givers. Generosity is us! Allow him to make you more and more like this. And be who you now are by giving generously and abundantly.

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End of Year Giving Campaign (2) - Give To Something Of Lasting Value

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The currency of the kingdom of God will always be people. Jesus began his ministry by finding 12 disciples in whom he could invest - not projects, or buildings, or courses, or initiatives, but people. Bread church exists to carry on this mission and to invest in people - both those who are near and far off. When we give our financial resources to the church we are investing in this currency. We're looking to see people from all backgrounds, experiences, and understanding of faith grow to become more and more Jesus-like. In so doing we’re acting in faith and helping build God’s kingdom of peace and justice and mercy and freedom here and now.

End of Year Giving Campaign – How is your relationship with money?

It’s easy to judge others about their use of money (most often the very rich or the very poor), but less easy to consider our own relationship with money. Jesus talked a lot about money because he knew how a healthy treatment of money was so important to our spiritual health. Allowing Jesus into our finances is one of the most challenging but transformational things we can do. We’re called to put out faith in him, not money. And in so doing we can be free with money - to earn it, to save it and to give it away in such a way as to have a huge impact for God’s kingdom.

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Money Talks - part 2

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Money in the bible is depicted neither as being all bad nor as all good. There is both a light side and a dark side to it. Christian maturity is about holding these sometimes paradoxical sides of money’s power together in tension. Used in the right way, money can actually bring us closer to God. As we give away what God has given us we are in fact giving something of ourselves back to him and we can enjoy his nearness, freedom and pleasure in turn. We want bread to be a community of reckless generosity in all things. Generosity is good for us and it is good for our world.

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Money Talks

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Why is it so many of us find it uncomfortable talking about money in church? Because we’ve had bad experiences with church ‘fundraising’? Because we don’t like what we’ve been taught before? Or because thinking about our relationship with money in church makes us feel uncomfortable things? Probably a bit yes to all those. (NB if you are one of the rare fish who LIKES money talks, teach us your ways!) Jesus taught about it a lot, because he knew it’s power over us, and like all power that isn’t his, he wants us to know how to be free from it. And like always always always, it starts with knowing his goodness.

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Gracious Giving, Gracious Vision

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The gospel is very clear about how we are to think/feel/act on our relationship with money. We can try all we want to squirm out of it (believe us we’ve tried) but Jesus told us to be like himself: not giving out of surplus, not guilt, but being willing to give everything up. Where we (all!) fall short on that, let’s now come back to the grace thing. Grace is where every single thing in our christian lives must begin and end and never ever run dry. It is not a doctrine, grace is a person, our only answer, our only fuel, if we’re to be the kind of self-giving people we know we want to be. So - as we take this moment to remember the kind of church we know bread will be again - let’s make it about grace.

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Giving Pt.2

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The light side of money. Throughout the bible we are told of not just the dangers of money but also of the potential it has to do huge good. God made a bountiful creation for us to enjoy. Using money as Jesus intends not only establishes and strengthens human relationship and experience of life, it also brings us closer to God and deepens our experiences of him. So let us not be scared of or greedy with money, but free and generous.

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Giving Pt.1

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Jesus tells us to be shrewd with our money. But that isn’t always easy. The reason for this is because money exerts some serious power and control over us. But when we treat it as it should be treated we can be free and generous and encumbered by it. That’s the goal for all of us. And it is entirely possible to live out this goal when we allow the power of Jesus, not money, to govern us.