Archive for October, 2014
Pastors and Their Personal Stewardship of Giving
Have you ever had to confront a pastor or a member of your ministry staff team about not exercising their personal stewardship of giving? I have, and it is one of the most difficult conversations you will ever have with one of your so-called spiritual leaders.
Perhaps you assumed they would give since they are called of God. Or maybe they even testified to you they were very committed to personal biblical stewardship. Then you were informed later by a financial leader in your church that biblical stewardship was not being practiced by this spiritual leader. This was very disheartening as a leader and you were placed in a situation to confront them. That awkward conversation usually means things will never be the same again.
Today, I want to give you some tips to consider in your church relating to your pastors and ministry staff leaders and giving:
1. Clearly establish your expectations.
When you interview any pastor or ministry staff leader, always clearly establish your expectations. For example, we make it very clear: “We expect you to honor God with at least the first tenth of your entire salary and income by giving it to the Lord through our church. Do you do this now and will you do so when you join our team?” Usually, you can clearly tell their practice. If they practice personal financial stewardship, they typically joyfully articulate their personal commitment to fulfilling biblical stewardship. If they question you or choose to debate or justify past practices, even though they promise a fresh commitment to stewardship when they join your team, you have a choice to make. What should you do?
Personally, I choose to walk away from any potential pastor or ministry staff team leader that does not practice personal financial stewardship. If they cannot trust God in this area of their life, he or she is not worthy of your trust with a ministry responsibility in your church. This is completely unacceptable by any pastor or ministry team leader. Therefore, you must communicate clearly that you will not allow any pastor or ministry team leader on your staff that walks in disobedience to God in this area of life and ministry.
2. Clearly communicate that you will monitor the personal stewardship of your staff team or any pastoral leader.
I do realize this may sound very strong to some of you, even resulting in some disagreeing with this practice; however, we must hold our pastors and ministry staff leaders accountable in their biblical stewardship. If someone is not giving to God biblically, they have no business in leading any ministry and must certainly forfeit their role as a minister.
Personally, I do not want any pastor or ministry staff team leader on my team who is dishonoring God. We cannot afford to trust anyone who is not trusting God. This is personal deception and completely unacceptable.
Usually once or twice a year, our financial leaders check on all giving practices of our pastors and ministry staff team leaders. If they are not fulfilling this practice, we confront them immediately, expecting immediate repentance and restoration. If they refuse or say they cannot, then soon this staff relationship will cease with our fellowship. We are gracious, but also firm and clear.
3. Expect any pastor or ministry team leader to lead your church in financial commitment and giving.
When a pastor or ministry team leader is walking with Christ passionately and growing in their faith, they will want to lead the way in the church, including their commitment to financial support. Of course, this is in relationship to their income, not in comparison with someone who makes more than them or less than them.
When we go into any financial program beyond Ministry Budget giving, we expect our pastors and ministry team leaders to lead the way in over and above giving. We cannot expect our laypeople to go to levels of giving that we as ministers are not willing to go to ourselves.
Each year when we adopt a new ministry budget in our church, Jeana and I evaluate our financial giving and move it upward. All these years in ministry, we have done this and after all this time, our financial support to our ministry is way beyond what would be the expectation of any of our team members. Personally, we would have it no other way.
Lead the way!
Therefore, pastor and ministry staff leader, lead the way in your church! No one, and I mean no one, should be more passionate about personal biblical stewardship than you. God always blesses His pastors and ministry team leaders when they practice biblical stewardship. By the way, you cannot out give God.
As you shovel it out to Him, He shovels it back to you. Always remember these words: His shovel is always bigger than yours!
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
Ready to Stand Against Injustice
There is something about the activity of the Holy Spirit in the child of God that causes us to hate injustice. We know when things are not as they should be, when there is an affront to the righteousness of God. We know the poor should be neither ignored nor exploited, that human trafficking should be stopped, that abortion should not happen, and that orphans should not be stuck away in dirty, overcrowded buildings.
Injustice requires action
Injustice is an indicator that the kingdom of God is not fully come. Injustice indicates that His commands are not always obeyed. Injustice requires action from the people of God.
Scripture speaks numerous times as to God’s desire for justice:
“You must not follow a crowd in wrongdoing. Do not testify in a lawsuit and go along with a crowd to pervert justice.”1
“You should not deny justice to a poor person among you in his lawsuit.”2
“You must not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear sighted and corrupts the words of the righteous.”3
The writer of the 31st Proverb spoke of a way to address injustice: “Speak up for those who have no voice, for the justice of all who are dispossessed. Speak up, judge righteously, and defend the cause of the oppressed and needy.”4
Silence is not acceptable
Silence in the face of injustice, for those who follow Christ, is sinful. To put it another way, turning a blind eye to injustice allows it to continue. In our sin we allow others to continue in sin, and victims to continue suffering for it. Chip Ingram applies this to abortion, saying,
“Untold numbers of people deal with the guilt of knowing they participated in or supported an abortion. All these repercussions are sobering, and the gravity of the situation is magnified when we consider God’s response: ‘I will not justify the guilty’ [Ex. 23:7]. Those who contribute to the death of an innocent person become guilty themselves because of their unjust actions. God takes sin and injustice seriously.”5
Three actions Christians can take toward injustice
- Remain biblically informed. Search the scriptures for verses related to God’s standard of justice. Find out how God wants us to treat the poor, the vulnerable, the weak, the orphan, the widow, and the immigrant. There really is no excuse for the people of God to be ignorant of God’s mind on matters of injustice.
- Become socially informed. There is no shortage of news reports and websites dedicated to information about orphan care, human trafficking, how to fight abortion, how to help the poor, protecting children and other important issues. At the very least, we should know how to become involved, who to write or call, and how to make information available.
- Become prayerfully involved. Not everyone will sit in the Oval Office or speak with an ambassador, but that should never stop anyone from making phone calls or sending emails. Sometimes it only takes one rational voice with a strong argument to win the day.
Justice requires us to pray and act
We simply cannot sit by and wish or hope that things will get better. We cannot even pray without action. Justice requires that we pray and allow God to use us however He sees fit.
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
General Editor, Bible Studies for Life
President, Southern Baptist Convention
1 Exodus 23:2
2 Exodus 23:3
3 Exodus 23:8
4 Proverbs 31:8, 9 (all verses HCSB)
5 Bible Studies for Life, Ready, Chip Ingram
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.