“Craig Groeschel is the pastor of LifeChurch.tv in Edmond, Oklahoma…By 2005, the church had grown so much that people were beginning to request his sermons and were willing to pay money to get them. The church investigated the proper way to handle this issue. As the pastor, Craig would own the rights to the sermons and receive royalties from their sales. The opportunity for income was significant.
In a meeting to discuss what to do with the sermons, one of his fellow pastors, Bobby Gruenewald, asked, “What would happen if we just gave them away?” The silence was stunning. Why would anyone suggest he give away something of so much value to him. The ship had come home. The opportunity was there…
In that moment, Craig felt like the Holy Spirit breathed upon him: this was the right thing to do—just give them away. He said, “My only real hesitation was not actually that I wouldn’t get the money, but what if we couldn’t afford to keep giving our sermons away? As a church, we did not have extra at that time—we were actually at the peak of our debt.”
Craig continued, “That moment changed us—the church and I. Generosity became one of my top values.” For the first time, he was giving away something of great value to him and he was giving to people who would never give back…from that moment on, giving became contagious.
It became to penetrate every corner of their church. As they developed resources, it became standard to just give them away. Generosity became a value. As Craig said, “Generosity is not something we do—it is something we are.”
Today, they’ve given away for than five million resources to over one hundred thousand church leaders…One of their most significant gifts has been YouVersion, the world’s most popular Bible application with more than 150 million downloads around the world…Today one of the tenets of their church reads as follows:
We will lead the way with irrational generosity because we truly believe it is more blessed to give than to receive [Acts 20:35].”
Craig Groeschel as recounted by William High in The Generosity Bet: Secrets of Risk, Reward, and Real Joy (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny, 2014).
What I like most about this story is that the idea to be generous was a suggestion from a friend. Next time you see someone who has been blessed richly, encourage them to consider being generous.
God’s abundance flows through ordinary people who are willing to make hilarious, unthinkable choices that the world might deem crazy but make perfect sense according to the teachings in God’s Word!
Read Bill High’s book if you want to be inspired to follow suit.