Why – Your Role
Our role as pastors is to lead and feed the congregation with God’s word.
In John 21:15-19 Jesus said to Peter,
“Feed My lambs.”
“Tend My sheep.”
“Feed My sheep.”
As pastors we are called to take care of God’s flock. The lambs represent people who are young in their faith and the sheep represent the more mature believers. Our heart should be to provide multi-tiered Biblical teaching, where some of the content is meaty enough to challenge and disciple the mature believers, and some of the content is gentle enough to personally engage the new believer in God’s word.
Not only are we called to preach in a way that engages both lambs & sheep, we’re called to preach the fullness of God’s word. The primary reason churches should disciple people in the area of stewardship, is because God’s word is filled with teaching in this area, and we are called to teach all of God’s word.
· There are 2,000+ verses in the Bible related to stewardship
· 62 of the 89 chapters in the gospels include at least one stewardship principle
· Stewardship is introduced in Genesis 1 and is highlighted in every book of the Bible
Follow this link to a study of God’s word on Biblical Stewardship
Why – Their Pain
Your congregation is struggling in this area! You have the only life changing prescription, God’s word. Biblical teaching leads to heart change, which leads to behavior change, and new outcomes. Jesus directly said that mammon would compete for our affections (Matt 6:24) and that the deceitfulness of riches would choke out the word of God (Mark 4:18).
Here are some of the symptoms of this pain in your congregation.
· 78% of people in the U.S. live paycheck to paycheck
· 60% of people in the U.S. couldn’t pay for a $1,000 emergency
· 54% of people report feeling anxiety around finances
· 31% of couples clash over finances at least once a month
Now imagine looking out while you're preaching and seeing 54% of the congregation carrying anxiety and stress related to finances, and you have a written letter from God filled with answers. I’m not saying you have to preach on it every weekend, but it certainly would make sense to tie in a few stewardship principles to every sermon series.
Follow this link for free leadership toolkit to run the Financial Hope Workshop
Culture vs Programs
The goal is to develop a culture of stewardship in the church. This is not a program focused model; this is about long-term discipleship. You want to shift the entire organization to a place where your people are naturally walking out these principles in their lives, so that anytime something unhealthy enters the church, your staff and your volunteers naturally introduce God’s word to the situation to bring healing and restoration.
Creating a culture involves the following elements.
· Preaching – scripture focused motivation from the platform
· Teaching – engaging groups and programs that provide practical application tools
· Celebration – highlighting stories of lives blessed by applying these principles
· Application – paying off church debt, planning and budgeting expenses, generous giving
Overtime your model will change. You’ll exhaust one curriculum and introduce another. The structure of the church will grow from simple organizational structures to complex models, but if you make this a part of your culture by applying the 4 elements above, you’ll see healthy fruit for generations.
Follow this link to see a sample Stewardship Ministry Overview Packet
How to Start
Start by reviewing the vision and culture of your church. Is stewardship mentioned? Is it well defined? You may need to start by adding the cultural value of stewardship to your core language at the church. Often times this principle is laced into other cultural values of the church, so it’s easy to bring fresh life to the concept of stewardship with new language regarding its importance.
Once you’ve established the cultural value, preach a sermon series filled with God’s word on stewardship or generosity, we recommend Beyond Blessed or The Blessed Life. From there,
identify a key volunteer or staff member who can lead the charge of teaching stewardship either in groups or classes, start with a Biblically-based practical program to help people with budgeting and debt reduction, we recommend the Financial Hope Workshop.
I’ve personally seen the fruit of this ministry. Intentionally building a culture of stewardship will bring new levels of health to your congregation and grow God’s kingdom on this earth. May God bless you on this journey!
Blessings,
David Thompson
What is Stewardship Ministry?
How to Start a Stewardship Ministry
Why Teach on Stewardship?
Hiring a Stewardship Pastor
Creating a Culture of Stewardship
Stewardship Pastor Job Description
Training Your Stewardship Pastor
Comments