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Ok really, you have to click on the link. It won’t get your fired from your job as a youth pastor if someone walks in, I promise. There’s nothing inherently wrong about the 10 things listed in the article, but the tone and focus just seems to be completely off. Should we be “strategizing” increased offerings? If we follow the steps suggested by the author, what kind of motivations are we betraying? Are we really approaching that bottom line giving number as an indication of spiritual health among the congregation, or do we view it as the limiting factor on how much ministry God can do in our church? Maybe we need a pastoral gut check before we ask for a larger offering check. (Bam! See how I did that? Two more points, some fancy graphics, a modern translation, and I’m a preacher man! )
I’ve never preached on giving. That would be amazing though. It’s in the Bible and it needs to be taught well.
I agree, it’s completely worth teaching on. What get’s my craw up is when I hear it taught from the perspective of “We need you to give so that we can do this ministry thing.” It betrays a lack of faith on the part of the teacher … there is no kingdom work that God wants to do that goes undone because someone fails to give money. He doesn’t need us, we need the connectivity of participation in the kingdom project. If the perspective of the teacher is on spiritual health, then giving is a key component of that, but the emphasis in this article just seems way to far bent in the other direction.
Thanks to “3 From the Archives,” I just read this link. Yeesh. It gave me the heebie-jeebies. And by that I mean: what Michael said.