Now...concerning giving and receiving.
In today’s secularised society, it’s become
the rule never to mention the three-letter word that begins with ‘G’. G-O-D has
become the He-who-must-not-be-named when giving your valedictory speech, when
writing your science report or when talking about the origins of life.
Christians, too, have their own taboo G-word.
It’s the word the pastor has to stay up all night planning on how to broach it.
It’s the word the newcomer or ‘Seeker’ must not hear from the pulpit lest he or
she gets a wrong opinion of the faith. It’s the word that makes the heart of
the congregation jump whenever it’s mentioned...
The G-word is “GIVING”.
It’s not that Believers are intrinsically
stingy or not given to Generosity (another G-word), but in today’s economy,
Giving is tied to Money, and the Church hasn’t had it great with them shekels.
We can’t shy away from the fact that Money is
a real issue in today’s Church, especially for Evangelicals. The news media is
awash with images of pastors with lavish lifestyles of 24-Bedroom mansions,
rare-collection Rolls-Royces and Private Jets. We never miss the juicy gossips
of the latest ‘pastor’ caught fleecing his sheep and carting away with millions
under some weird convoluted miracle scheme.
Unfortunately, we project this
larger-than-life, selective-coverage media image on every local pastor we meet.
Does your pastor (and by that, I mean the person physically in charge of your
local assembly) drive a Rolls-Royce?
The Mega-Pastors that hog up all the attention
on TV and the Internet do not make up to 1% of Pastors worldwide and statistics
show that 90% of American Christians do NOT attend a Mega-Church.
In a sort of paradox, the emergence of
Mega-Churches and Celebrity Preachers has made the average pastor afraid of
broaching the G-word to his congregation because they will say, “he wants us to
give to him”.
However, Generosity is an integral fruit of
godliness and is also a demand on the New Testament Believer (Rm 12:13; Hb
13:16; 1Jo 3:17).
Believers are called to GIVE! We mustn’t allow
the lifestyle and practice of a few ministers and ministries become an excuse
to allow the work of the Kingdom to languish.
Let’s snap ourselves out of this lethargy, and
decide within ourselves to GIVE to God and His work.
AMEN.
More Blessings await you today; you’ll not
miss them in Jesus’ Name.
GREG ELKAN
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