The heavens are yours, and yours also the earth; you founded the world and all that is in it. Psalm 89:11
“Absolutely essential to insure gifts adequate in amount and prompted by the right spirit is effective instruction from the pulpit on the subject of Christian stewardship and the scriptural habits of giving, especially the habit of systematic and proportionate giving, and giving as unto the Lord and not as unto men.
Such instruction should be supplemented by the use of the most effective printed matter on the subject, and, above all, by actually inducing members of the church to adopt such principles. This latter, perhaps, can best be done by means of another most fruitful method, that of a personal canvass of the entire church membership, to enlist, if possible, some gift from each member.”
John Raleigh Mott in his classic work, The Decisive Hour of Christian Missions (New York: Young People’s Missionary Movement of the United States and Canada, 1910) 141.
John Mott was a catalyst for global missions a century ago. He offers practical insights for effective instruction linked to Christian stewardship and scriptural giving: preach on it, provide printed materials for the people you serve, and personally canvass the homes of church members so that everyone understands and is enlisted to participate. I could not agree more!
This wise counsel applies for every shepherd of a flock (pastor of a church) and every steward of a constituency (administrator of a ministry). Teach your people about biblical and proportionate giving, give them printed materials to help them grasp and apply the teaching, and personally visit them to encourage their participation in the gospel out of what they have.
Do this not because of what you want from them, but because of what you want for them. Tell them that when people don’t participate in God’s work, God does not miss out, people miss out. Remind them that every gift and every giver matter to God. Instruct them that everything belongs to God, and we are merely returning to Him in proportion to His provision.
And exhort them that God cares more about the condition of their hearts than the size of their gifts. He looks not at what we give, so much as what we don’t give and why. Teach these things because you care deeply that they not become slaves to money, but so that they make money their slave as faithful servants of God. Say this lovingly to everyone you serve.