What God Is Doing

We're on week four of a five week series dealing with stewardship. It's a great series called the Zone and we got a lot of the stuff from Ed Young. Anyhow, I talked about tithing and how that's part of living in the Zone and have gotten some great feedback. I got one email from a guy that has an awesome story of God's faithfulness. I've asked him to share it this weekend and I'll post his email next week. What I said last week is so true...God will keep His promises when we keep His ways.

His isn't the only story either. I've got wind of a few others who have seen God's faithfulness in their faithfulness. It's an exciting time.

I didn't post about it, but last weekend I took a little bit of a risk and gave people a stewardship "pop quiz" of sorts. Since everything we have comes from God, I decided to let people discover what kind of manager they are. The parable of the talents in Matthew really talks about being ready and prepared for when Christ comes back - being able to enter the Kingdom, but there's a principle there dealing with managing what we've been given. So Lora and I decided to take $1000 of our own cash (we've been saving to go on that cruise we've never taken) and to see how people manage it. I filled 100 bank envelopes with $5, $10 or $15 and had everyone take an envelope (not knowing what was in it). Then I challenged them to invest wisely. They've got until March 4th to increase what they've been given. A number of people are pooling resources and have some cool ideas. Can't wait to see what they come up with.

One other thing I'm excited about offering is a three month tithing challenge money back guarantee. That's right. At the end of this series people will be able to sign up to take the challenge and if after three months of tithing God hasn't proved Himself faithful, they can ask for their money back, no questions asked. That might seem like a bigger risk, but God is faithful. We're already hearing some of the stories about it after only a couple of weeks.

To make it easier for people to give and to automate things (particularly if they're taking the three month challenge) we're about to launch online giving. I already give like this to Discovery through the Global Reach Foundation. They're the catalyst behind us moving here and starting Discovery and they provide our financial accountability and administrative oversight. You can be an early adopter by CLICKING HERE and giving or if you're a Discovery Church PARTner or regular attender, set up your tithe to occur automatically (every week, month, quarter or whenever you decide)