Wednesday, May 25, 2011

The Role of Discipleship in TG

Transformational Giving involves discipleship. This may mean different things to different readers.

For example…missionaries work with donors or champions, this does not mean you disciple the champion’s entire spiritual journey. Rather your role is missions, therefore you may have a powerful role in helping the believer become stronger in her walk as she pursues God’s role for her in the Great Commission.

For the relief worker, this may mean assisting the believer in his journey in humanitarian outreach. You may be the one to help the giver see there is much more in the spiritual journey with the needy than just dollars.

For the pastor and the believers in the local church, discipleship will be much more comprehensive and not so ‘segmented’. In fact at the level of the local church, for the pastor and the believer discipling another person needs to be comprehensive. However for the believer helping his fellow believer in the journey, you may want to bring on board a missionary, or rescue worker, etc to assist in the comprehensive plan of discipleship. Imagine if you are working in a discipleship relationship with a fellow church member, if when you being to dive into the role you have in the Great Commission, you call your missionary friend to connect in this teaching. The potential for impact multiplies!

(Let me pause right here to say that have comprehensive discipleship is becoming lost in the local church. There is a new book, The Whole Life Offering: Christianity as Philanthropy, which can be a great resource in recapturing the need for discipleship to be comprehensive. Click here for a review.)

We also may have some we disciple at different levels. For example, the missionary may disciple a national believer in the believer’s wholeness in Christ; at this point the missionary serves the pastoral role to the follower. While at the same time the missionary can be discipling a donor to become a champion of the Great Commission, and stay focused on the mission outreach of the giver.

The point is: for giving to become transformational it must intentional in seeing it as a discipleship move. We must be intentional in helping the giver see his gift is not a matter of money but a matter of his spiritual journey. And anytime we intersect in another’s spiritual journey we potentially have an opportunity to be a part of discipleship. For some this is a small touch that propels them to deeper levels with Christ, for others it is more intense as we come alongside them for significant growth in Christ.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Major Donor?

Does a big gift make you a major donor? Maybe. If all we want are donors and their money, then I guess a major gift would make you a major donor. But if we want more than money and giving is about transformation and people, then big dollars are not the standard of measurement. In Transformational Giving donors become more than ATM’s, donors become champions of the cause. If this is the case then big gifts and big champions are not necessarily equal.

While in Zarephath, we see the widow did not have much to give. In fact her gift was small and it only appeared to be one meal worth in the midst of a drought. Not major gift by traditional standards.

However, it was major for her.

The small gift may not seem major to the mission or church, but it may be to the giver and to God.

Let’s try this: do not categorize the champion of the cause according to the size of the gift. What if instead we looked at the champion based on his/her involvement and ownership of the cause?

Let me ask this question for us to discuss… A while back my office received a LARGE gift for a project. One donor helped us hit the half way mark of the goal with one gift. We followed up the gift by offering this donor work team opportunities, chances to meet and greet the missionary, prayer opportunities, etc. The giver graciously declined any further involvement. They just wanted to help this project and that was all. Major gift yes. Major champion??? You tell me….

If you said, “No” to this donor being a major champion, how should this answer change your efforts to fund your ministry?

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

It's Really Not About Me

In Christian teaching we focus on the fact that it is not about us. The core of Christianity is self-denial. But somewhere between learning this truth and our fund-raising presentations we forget the fact that it is not about us. So our fund raising presentations are usually all about us.

This sounds harsh and you may say, “I focus on what God is doing.” This may be true but is this focus about what God is doing through YOU?

If fund raising is to get beyond just getting dollars and to become transformational, we need the focus where it belongs. Check out this entry sent to me by a fellow missionary/fund-raiser who is doing great TG research.

http://www.futurefundraisingnow.com/future-fundraising/2011/05/your-elevator-speech-doesnt-go-to-the-top-floor.html

This blog entry is great about being sure the focus is not just about us. I love the example he uses about how his group makes it possible for generous people to get involved.

As Christians we can take this lesson one step further. We can help the listener see how our ministry is not about ourselves but about the spiritual discipline we all must be a part of and that is generosity. One mark of spiritual maturity is generosity. The reason this is a mark of maturity is because it reflects our faith in God to be the Provider. When faith is big, giving gets big as well.

If our fund-raising is only focused on us, we may never get past us to them, and ultimately to the Provider.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Parallel Pitfalls

During college I had a New Testament prof that was famous for repeating the same teaching all the time. It must have worked because I still remember it and want to share it with you now.

He said that throughout the Bible and in our lives we always get into trouble with God when He reaches out His hand and we look to see what is in the hand rather than reach for the hand itself.

In the end we really do not need what is in God’s Hand, we just need His hand.

This teaching has guided my prayer life for years. Not to say I always get it right, but I work to strive for God more than the blessings.

As I get into Transformational Giving and teach in various settings throughout the world, I have learned that praying and giving have potential to have the same pitfalls if we stray from a God-centered focus.

If as ministries in need of money, we only look at giving as a resource for just getting funded, then we miss the point of giving. Giving is a spiritual discipline for every believer. So if we miss the chance to see giving as disciple making and just a means to our end, we have reduced the believer to an ATM.

Just as in prayer, if we reduce prayer to just getting what we want, then we miss the needed relationship that makes us disciples. Doing this runs the risk of trying to make God a Genie in a bottle. We must not treat God or His followers as means to an end by always looking to see what is in the Hand instead of just grabbing the hand.

Prayer and fund raising both involve asking. But if this is the root and the only purpose for either, then neither we nor His church will grow. Prayer is about more than what we want or need, so too is giving and receiving.