“Emphasizing generosity in disciplemaking involves four key parts: Teaching, Modeling, Inviting and Celebrating.
1. Teaching: Teaching generosity must come from the pulpit and can be worked into nearly any sermon subject. But, generosity teaching that stops here falls short of its potential…
2. Modeling: Effective discipleship requires leaders to model what they teach. Leaders must have a genuine commitment to biblical stewardship, model generosity, share the Word, pray for others to join, be the first to sign up for financial stewardship classes, teach a class, and even make it a subject of discussion in leadership circles.
3. Inviting: Everything can be done well in teaching and modeling, but that doesn’t assure people will respond. The invitation / challenge must be extended for people to give and be generous…
4. Celebrating: Celebration is an important part of nurturing the spirit of generosity…Sharing stories of changed lives is a great way to do this.
In all this, it must not be what we want from our people. It must be about what we really want for them…”
David Viland in “Unlocking Generosity in Your Church” blogpost of Christian Investors Financial.
David is a friend and trusted voice in encouraging Christian generosity. What are particularly liked about his list was that he connected unlocking generosity to disciplemaking with intentional activities for God’s servants. Spiritual growth, that is, what we want for those we serve, won’t just happen. God’s servants must show the way.
On a personal note, this is a a blast and cast (pheasant hunting and fly fishing) break for Sammy and me. God blessed us with six pheasant this weekend, and today we are tracking down Mountain Whitefish in the Crystal River near Carbondale, CO. As Sammy desires to be a voice for God in the world of fly fishing and environmental stewardship, our outings are intentional activities to build his knowledge, and they represent priceless time together.