“Lukewarm people give money to charity and to the church…as long as it doesn’t impinge on their standard of living. If they have a little extra and it is easy and safe to give, they do so. After all, God loves a cheerful giver, right?”
Francis Chan in Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God revised and updated (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2013) 69.
I recently received an email from a friend, Jon Wiebe, President & CEO of the MB Foundation, and a portion of this quote was in the footer of his email, so I tracked it down in Crazy Love and decided to post it today. It fits the flow of my recent meditations, for as you may have noticed, I have been studying what different denominations are doing to teach stewardship principles and rally Christian generosity.
One big theme I am seeing is that many movements are boldly calling people to counter-cultural, Christ-like thinking and living. Or in the words of Francis Chan, we must call people out of a lukewarm place to an “all-in” way of life that seeks to live out the red letters of Jesus. This is not about how much we give, because movements where there is not much movement are focusing on increasing giving percentages. Instead it’s about sacrificial giving that flows from cheerful, grateful hearts.