CS Lewis on giving

On Sunday, I preached at Jubilee about giving. Basing ourselves in Malachi 3, we looked at what the Bible has to say about generous, grace filled giving, as part of a life that’s sold out to God and committed to His purposes. We looked at how giving to God is not primarily a financial issue, it’s actually a heart issue. It flows out of a heart totally devoted to God. Anything we give to God, as part of our worship, should actually reflect the whole. The part given represents the whole, because we want to give everything to the Lord.

One of my quotes came from CS Lewis in Mere Christianity, where he answers the question as to how much we should give. He says this:

“I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusement, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our giving does not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say it is too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot because our commitment to giving excludes them.” 

In typical Lewis style, this is a challenging and provocative statement. So, how are you doing with your giving?

A review of North 2011

Over August Bank Holiday weekend, 2,500 people gathered in North Yorkshire for North 2011. We went as a church and had a good number of people staying both on and off site. Despite generous amounts of rain and mud, the weekend was a resounding success. Such a powerful sense of God’s presence and power; outstanding preaching from Terry Virgo, Guy Miller and Jeremy Simpkins; inspiring worship; excellent kids and youth events and a great time away with friends, old and new. Once again, Paul Mogford (Jubilee Church Teesside) and his amazing team served us outstandingly well, by turning a working farm into a venue fit for such a momentous gathering.

In addition to the powerful preaching, God also spoke to us through some very significant prophetic words. Including, being shaped like clay in the potters hands, with North no longer being a holiday camp, but a boot camp where God was raising up an apostolic army!

On the first evening, Jeremy set the tone for the weekend by setting out the key distinctives of the North team and our sphere:

• Being Friends enjoying God together
• Building Churches empowered by Word and Spirit
• Advancing The Kingdom, transforming the world
• Reaching Nations, making disciples

You can watch a video of us as a team discussing these distinctives here:

Terry wonderfully served us, with 3 morning preaches from Ezra, which culminated in taking an offering which currently stands at £132,000! A very tangible example of how North was moving.

Guy Miller brought a challenging word to us, to believe God for significant growth, and he could see us becoming like a runway at an international airport with many thousands of people coming and going. He felt God challenge us to have the nations firmly in our sights and to dream bigger dreams. Guy’s presence and chemistry with us was also a very tangible foretaste of how the new emerging apostolic teams can and would work together in the future.

North 2011 was so much more than just a weekend conference – it felt like God was fashioning us together, building an Apostolic people, an army who can advance His church and His Kingdom across the nations of the world!

You can download all the main sessions and the videos shown over the weekend from www.north2011.com

(This article was written for and first appeared on www.newfrontiersuk.org)

Be who God meant you to be…

Like around 2 billion other people, I spent Friday watching the Royal Wedding, of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. I was particularly struck by the opening line from the address by the Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres. The line was this:

“‘Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.’ So said St Catherine of Siena whose festival day it is today.”

This got me thinking – how do you become who God meant you to be? I am sure there are many answers to this, but the following were top of my list as I thought and prayed about it yesterday:

1. Love God and follow Him
2. Serve others
3. Develop close relationships and accountability
4. Identify, grow in, and use your gifts
5. Give generously

Love God and follow Him (Matthew 22:36-38)

This has to be fundemental to everything we are and all that we do. Jesus made it clear that loving God was our top priority.

Serve others (Matthew 22:39)

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus makes loving your neighbour as yourself number 2 on the list after Loving God, so we should take this seriously and look for ways to love and serve others.

Develop close relationships and accountability (Acts 2:42-47)

The Bishop referred to marriage in this context, but it doesn’t have to be marriage. In the New Testament, people were “saved and added” into the church community. Our culture is very individualistic, but Christian culture is far more community orientated. We make an individual response to Jesus and then we’re expected to follow Him in the context of community.

Identify, grow in, and use your gifts (1 Corinthians 12:7)

God has given every Christian at least one gift, often more. We have a responsibility to discover what this is and use it/them to the Glory of God.

Give generously (Luke 6:38)

Giving generously helps to ensure that we put God first, at the very centre of our lives. Generous giving is also a great antidote to the very materialistic culture we live in.

I am sure there are other things you might add to this list, but this is my initial offering. Live like this and be who God meant you to be. You could set the world on fire!

You can download a sermon based on this theme from the Jubilee Church website here.

What’s your plan?

What’s your hope for 2011? Are you hoping that it will be a year of you growing? One thing is certain – you’ll grow older! But wouldn’t you like it to be a year where you grow in character and grow in God too? For that to happen, you need a plan. So my question is this – what’s your plan?

I remember hearing Bill Hybels a few years ago talking about the need to plan to grow in leadership – to do things like read books, attend conferences, get a mentor and so on. The same is true of growing in the Christian life – you need a plan. So what’s your plan? Things like reading God’s word (see my previous post on reading through the Bible), praying, being part of a small group where you’re accountable to one another are all great helps. Let me encourage you – get before God to pray about it, get a plan and then ask God to help you implement it. Let’s make 2011 a year of growing in God and all He has for us.