Here’s a picture of one of my pastors I saw on Facebook this week. The post, covering last week’s annual meeting, announced new officers and the budget approval. One big deal about the budget was that Pastor Roo, Pastor Josh and Heidi (the church admin) were all going to be able to return to full time paid status! It was happy news to everyone. I felt like I got a front row seat to what God was doing because of a Sunday morning message I was invited to give back in November.

Celebration Covenant is not a powerful mega-church in our community. God has placed us in a corner of the city where the mission of Jesus is greatly needed. But it is not what you’d consider prime church real-estate. I’ve benefitted greatly from Celebration Covenant after a decade of serving in a much larger, more prominent church came to an end in 2016. Roo and Dawn from the very beginning of my experience with them have been nothing less than wonderful friends, terrific team-mates in ministry and caring pastors for me and my family. They’ve found a place for me again and again to serve- mostly teaching and training.

So when I was invited to give the Commitment Sunday message on stewardship last Fall, I jumped on it! It was a delight to talk about one of my favorite topics. It was a little surprising that someone other than a paid pastor got to challenge the congregation to engage with financial giving. Roo and Dawn are co-pastors of Celebration Covenant (husband and wife as well). They trade off with Sunday morning preaching and occasionally invite me in to help. I jumped at the chance to give the last message in the series. 

Below is the message I gave that Sunday. I offer it here believing for certain that no PBR reader in their right mind will want to listen to a ten-point sermon on giving! May the Lord be with you if you do. BUT, it was merely a punchy summary of what Roo and Dawn had already spent a couple of months teaching about leading up to that week. 

Why share all this here, Tim? We are your donors and prayer partners. I hope you are not trying to get preachy…. or punchy…. or whatever with us!

No. I share it because I feel like your support of my ministry made the perfect platform for me to encourage a whole church to get on board with their mission and their budget. Because I am so blessed by my ministry partners in InterVarsity, I was the perfect person to encourage a congregation to give generously and cheerfully to its mission, its tangible needs and to providing for its paid leadership. 

Thank you for being the kind of people this message was about. My hope is that you DO experience all ten of these things (and more) when you give to God. I am in constant need of perspective on how Cheryl and I steward God’s blessing in our lives. I bet that’s true of you too. Thanks so much for your faithfulness. Thanks so much for your generosity. Thank you for the impact you make on the mission of Jesus in the University and in the community you live in.

“Thank God for this gift, too wonderful for words!”  2 Cor 9:15 NLT

PS – I would LOVE your prayers for me during the month of February. As I’ve hinted at in past posts, I am now in the midst of a 6 week focus on developing my funding. More details about that in posts to come! I’m off to a great start. AND I have taken on a very large funding goal. The response so far has been really encouraging.