Daily Devotional for Monday April 17, 2000

God's People Supporting God's Work

(2 Corinthians 1-15) Having spent 10 years of my young adult life in the business world, many of those years in the financial markets, it always amazes me how the world can always find money to promote their projects. The recent craze of Dot Com start-ups is the latest example of how much money can be raised for ideas those in the world might come up with. The purpose of this Devotional today is to get you to focus, no matter how old you are, on the responsibility God's people have in supporting God's work. My personal philosophy in this area has been to give my tithe to the local fellowship where my wife and I are members. The gifts we give above our tithe each month go to works that I am very familiar with and know for a fact are making an impact on the lives of people for the Kingdom of God. The issue of money has always been very touchy. I have always contended that many people are baptized with their wallets still on dry land, and because this is so important an issue, will devote a series of five Devotionals very soon to the issue of money. Today, I simply want to focus on how we are responsible for supporting those works God has birthed that are reaching out to touch the lives of people with the love and hope of Jesus Christ. One of the divisions of my ministry the last 7 years has been in the area of consulting with major ministries on the area of donor relations and fund raising. Trust me when I tell you, I understand the endless pleas, the avalanche of mailings, and about every method used to get people to give. That is why I took a position very early in my ministry that I would only use the "tell and pray" approach that Paul used in many of his letters we find in the New Testament. I can honestly say, Paul was by far one of the most effective fundraisers in church history and we can see why. Rather than use the blessing of the month approach, or give to get a trinket approach, here is what he would do. He went to those that had been influenced by his ministry. He told them exactly what the need was. He reminded them that everything they had, their life and money included, actually belonged to God. Period. He then let the Holy Spirit work on each person's heart. For those of you who have been exposed to this ministry since we launched Liveprayer in August last year, you will recognize that I have always tried to follow Paul's model. I pray this day that as long as I am in the ministry, this will be the only way I ever raise support. I am a firm believer that it should be God's people who support God's work. I believe it should not be by high pressure techniques but by the prompting of the Holy Spirit. God is more than able to convince people and direct people to give to keep His work going forward.