Is There a Hole in Our Holiness?

This past Sunday, Justin talked about how we’ll be taking a break over the next three Sundays from our series in the gospel of Mark to hear what God has to say to us about generosity. Why have the elders decided to do this? Be assured, there is no crisis and the financial health of our church is solid.

However, late last year we did experience an unexpected shortfall in general contributions which got our attention. We did some research into giving patterns and discovered that a significant number of our church members were not on record as having contributed to RGC (the results were provided to the elders without names).

As we considered this, two things became more clear to us. First, how we handle our money is an aspect of our discipleship, just like prayer or fellowship. Second, money is hard to talk about, isn’t it? It’s typically considered bad manners to ask someone how much they make, or how much they give away. But Jesus doesn’t shy away from money matters: instead he addresses them frequently and we want to take our cues from him.

So we’ve put together a short series on generosity under the banner of “Life Along the Way,” which is the helpful title Sojourn Church used for occasional discipleship messages like these. This series is designed to encourage us to become the [radically, faithfully, joyfully, sacrificially] generous church God has called and empowered us to be.

We hope this series will help make it easier to talk about money matters. Together we’ll address some vital questions such as:

  • What makes it hard for people to be generous?
  • Why is seeing ourselves as stewards vital to living generously?
  • Should I tithe to my church?

Here’s the plan for the messages:

We are grateful for the legacy of generosity evident in so many ways in our church, yet we also recognize the opportunity for growth in this area. Would you pray with us that we might be a people increasingly doing good, being rich in good works, generous, and ready to share (1 Timothy 6:19)?

If you have thoughts about what makes it hard to be generous, I’d love to hear from you! Please write me back at .

Grace,

Mark Mullery

PS: Speaking of discipleship, we are also planning to do two messages after Easter to address various questions that have arisen about baptism and the Lord’s Supper. More info coming in the days ahead!