Challenge Accepted

Last June I and some partners in ministry from EAC attended our biennial district conference which was being held in beautiful Morden Manitoba. District conference is first and foremost the necessary business meeting of the district corporation – but it also is a time for vision casting, reconnecting with colleagues, catching up on district and national initiatives, equipping for ministry, and usually some challenging messages from the key note speaker. This past year was no exception as our district team brought in Rev Steve Kerr from Gateway Church in Caledonia Ontario to speak on the topic of stewardship.

Now stewardship is not usually the type of topic that people get excited to talk about; pastors are nervous to bring up the issue; congregations are reticent to be told what to do with their money; and everyone kind of shuffles awkwardly through the greeting line at the end of the service after a challenging message on the topic. Thankfully this was not my experience at all that week in Morden. I walked away from those messages challenged, excited and inspired to talk to my congregation about stewardship too. That fall we began a sermon series at EAC entitled The Final Taboo: Stewardship in the 21^st Century where we looked at the issue from three vantage points: Idolatry, Responsibility and Generosity – and I’m not ashamed to say that I borrowed heavily from Steve’s teaching in crafting my own messages on the topic.

That’s all a lot of background information to get to the point I want to make in this post. During his second message of the conference Steve challenged us with the story of Gateway’s great giveaway. It’s an annual offering they have been taking to give away an entire Weekend’s offering to worthy causes outside of their own church ministries. If you are reading this as someone who was there (or if you listen to the linked message above – which I recommend you do!) you will remember what I’m talking about. In the story Steve talked not only about how much they were able to raise and give away but how it ended up leading the Owen Sound Alliance Church to out give them and raise the bar in the spirit of giving. The end of the message was a challenge for us in the Canadian Midwest District to out-give those churches in the Central Canadian District by having our own great give away – and when we do – to call Steve up and throw down the gauntlet, challenging Gateway to do better.

Challenge accepted.

This past weekend we held our weekend of prayer and fasting for His Hands Taiwan. We had challenged our people to rise to the challenge and intercede for the ministry of His Hands as they face a financial crisis brought on by changing government legislation. (The call to action can be found in my last blog post here if you haven’t already heard about what we’re doing) Let me tell you that our people rose to the occasion. Let me tell you that we fasted and we prayed and we changed the world that weekend. Let me tell you that we followed the biblical model of 2 Chronicles 20 and we went into battle with our worshippers on Sunday morning. Let me tell you that we praised the Lord in faith for what he is going to do in this situation – we honestly believe that. And then on top of all that we gave. Our people were challenged to give without promise of anything in return. With no guarantee that this offering would be significant enough to meet the goal on its own (it wasn’t) and no assurance that God would make up the rest other than faith in his promises. Our people were challenged to give with no promise of benefits on their income tax return as a result because the offering was non-receiptable. Our people were challenged to give knowing it would mean our church forfeiting a week on operating revenue – but they gave anyways (that last one might have been more scary for the pastor than the congregation). And in the end our congregation gave a grand total of $40,351.07 away!

Now $40,351.07 is not as much as Gateway raised on their most recent great giveaway at the time of Steve’s challenge and we haven’t shown those central Canadian churches a new standard of generosity yet – but that’s where you come in. I challenge you to do better.

If you are a pastor of another CMD church (I’m sharing this on the district Facebook page for this reason) or if you’re a pastor of another church, or a congregant of another church – I challenge you to do better. Estevan Alliance Church has thrown down the gauntlet and issued the challenge. We weren’t able to out-give our sister-churches in Ontario – but one of you can. I challenge you to select a cause, a ministry, or even a person that God is leading you to bless and then on one Sunday give all that you can and give it ALL away. I can’t tell you how much we here have been blessed by participating in what God is doing and giving of ourselves for His Kingdom initiatives, and I can’t tell you what the end result of this prayer and giving initiative is going to be for His Hands Taiwan. I can’t even really tell you what the final tally on the offering is going to be because people keep calling up and asking if it’s too late to get their cheques in – but I can tell you this: God is pleased when his children give away his stuff (Luke 16).

We at Estevan Alliance Church have accepted the challenge. What’s holding you back from doing the same? The gauntlet is cast down – who will pick it up?