A few months ago myself and the other senior leaders asked this question: “Are we a generous church?”

We found there are various ways to discern the answer to this question.

When it comes to the time and energy people in our community give to serving then, yes, we are a generous and committed community. The vast majority of people in Redeemer serve in some way. Church is a beautiful expression of family and families work best and function healthy when everyone plays their part.

However, when we looked at the numbers around our money there was a different story. Numbers do not lie and we realised there was some significant work to be done.

Recently I preached on generosity (listen here if you missed it) and shared these two sobering discoveries:

The money coming in — The amount of people in our community that regularly contribute financially is very low. 34% of the whole Redeemer community give regularly. This does not sit well with us because we desire to be a generous people.
The money going out — Most of our money is spent on keeping our community functioning — salaries, budgets, building etc and less on giving our money away to tangible needs in our city. This does not sit well with us because we desire to be a generous people.

The 34% is the number of people that give regularly but it doesn’t reveal whether the nature of our giving is in any way generous or sacrificial. That is obviously a more personal thing to discern. Only we truly know our own hearts and how generous we really are.

What it means to be Generous

It’s difficult to face the facts because of what they tell us – that wee are not a very generous people and that we are not a very generous church. And it’s difficult to argue this any other way. If you are like me and you believe in the church, then that truth stings and so it should. It stings because I believe we are called to be a generous people and we want to be a generous people. Each Sunday we talk about our desire to be a generous people and this desire comes — not from a sense of duty — but as a response to the lavish, rampant grace and generosity of God towards us in Jesus.

The Apostle Paul outlines to the church in Corinth the simple dynamic of a heart responding to God’s grace:

“The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
— 2 Corinthians 8:1

The grace of God is astounding. Extraordinary. We walk in it every day. Nothing we have in this life is earned but it’s all sheer grace. And when we truly allow the reality of this grace to sink into us we surely cannot help but respond by giving our whole lives to this God and His Kingdom. We do not respond reluctantly or out of compulsion but from a well of devotion that springs up within our souls. We become cheerfully undone.

Generosity can be simply defined as ‘love in action’. Love for the God who first loved us. Love for the God who sustains the cosmos… and sustains our bank balances. Love for the God who gave himself for us in Christ. Love for His Kingdom as a vision of the world we are completely sold to. Love, demonstrated in concrete action. Love in response to “every generous act and every perfect gift [that comes] from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17).

When the love of God truly breaks into our lives any tethering to the kingdom of this world is severed for good.

Treasures in Heaven
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
— Matthew 6

Jesus own words in his Sermon on the Mount cut straight to the issue… you cannot serve both God and money. Where you store up treasure is where you will find your heart. What you behold, you become. Where you invest, you tether your heart. The journey of becoming fully devoted followers of Jesus is one of yielding everything including our money. The reason giving back to God first and giving to his work in the world is a principal of His Kingdom is because where we give our money determines both the formation and location of our hearts. This is clear, significant and weighty stuff from Jesus.

If responding to God’s grace is lacking and if devotion to Christ and His Kingdom is not evident in our lives then we have a disconnect and should ask questions. Grace is simply astounding… but grace is not permission to remain unchanged. The Spirit of God — when allowed to have His way — will begin to form and mature us into the likeness of Christ.

Whats the big deal with money?

The big idea about money in scripture is that there can be no significant spiritual growth until our money and our attitude toward money are placed into God’s hands.

Why? Well, I think it’s because money is simply too big a force. It can be incredibly powerful for good and ill. Handled well, it is very useful. But it certainly cannot go unchecked. It needs addressing. Remember, the scriptures teach us that it is the love of money that is the root of all evil.

10 "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
— 1 Timothy 6:10 (NIV)

With the help of the Holy Spirit, the job of those in spiritual leadership is to call a community to faithfulness and to becoming more like Jesus. Like I preached, spiritual leaders are like personal trainers that coach a human body into shape. They draw attention to weak muscles or imbalanced physique so that a body can produce health, strength and power. The church is a body. Redeemer is a body. And we have a few weak muscles that are severely impacting our walk and need attention. Like a personal trainer, spiritual leaders and pastors cannot ultimately do the workout on behalf of others. They can only call things as they see them and call attention to the areas that need to change.

When our relationship with money is yielded over to God the church becomes mature, healthy, vibrant, strong and spiritually powerful. Our lives become venues for the generosity of God to show up in the world. We are ready to minster to a world caught in the impoverish lie of materialism and consumerism.

“Advertising has taught us that if we see beauty we should buy it. Philosophy says that if we see beauty we should reevaluate our lives and find ways to repair the world.”
— Elaine Scarry

Things to consider

So why are things the way they are? Here are some thoughts:

Cultural/generational reasons: global cultural trends suggest that people today are more individualistic and less likely to be committed, give money or pay for things than previous generations. The question we need to ask is whether this spirit has taken root in our community.
Distrust in churches/leaders: This can be understandable as people wrestle with past experiences of greed, poor stewardship or worse in trusted leaders. Leaders must build trust and we all need to work to address any distrust that can reside in our hearts from previous experiences.
A lack of teaching or understanding: as spiritual leaders in the community we are tasked with calling people’s attention to maturity and discipleship particularly when it comes to the relationship with money/time/commitment. We are reflecting on ways we can do this better.
Deeper spiritual concerns: general spiritual apathy/lukewarmness/disobedience.

Things to celebrate

There is one more reason to add to the mix. In these days there is a number of us who are pressing into the more of God. We are not content and we want more. More of his presence. More of his Kingdom power breaking in. More salvations. More healing. More people set free to become their true selves in Christ. More spiritual strongholds broken. More relationships restored. More grace abounding. More love winning. More.

Recenetly we have:

Opened a Prayer Room in 101 with the desire to become a house of prayer and a people of His presence. The prayer room was filled constantly during Holy Week with people seeking God and praying for our church, for Ireland and for our world.
We have experienced increase in the presence of God in Gatherings.
We have restarted our monthly worship and prayer nights with a desire to make space to encounter the presence of God and welcome the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.
We have employed new staff in faith that our community would be served better, most particularly our families and kids.
We have restarted Family Matinee as a primary vehicle we believe God has given us to serve families in our city, particularly refugees and asylum seekers.
We have positioned our Farmbox ministry to grow in scale by partnering with our friends at Origin Community Farm, purchasing a poly-tunnel and growing our own fresh fruit and vegetables. There are more families that need help with fresh food and our hope is that we can steward well and see God increase our capacity to help these families. We recently raised £1600 that will fund the year ahead. Amazing.
We have seen our location-based Tables established this year to help us practice the way of Jesus together in community.
We have seen a couple of our interest-based Tables begin to explore their particular mission — New Belfast have launched an event called ‘Lesser Heard’ that practices the art of listening and facilities conversation around difficult topics like mental health and sectarianism.
Our Creative Table helped with our ‘Stations of the Cross’ art installation during Holy Week and have assisted Stephen Wilson with his ‘Same Difference’ exhibition — partnering with St Patricks on Donegall Street — that explores the themes of difference and diversity.
We continue to build key relationships with leaders, churches and peacemakers in our City including our on-going relationship with the family of churches in the Tobar Network.
The countless other ways our community practices the way of Jesus every week - prayers prayed, blessings spoken, encouragements spoken, sermons preached, meals shared, sick ministered to, people counselled and Jesus worshipped.

And any church leader will tell you when the church begins to move spiritual forces push back.

12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
— Ephesians 6:12 (ESV)

God is at work. Jesus is desiring to take his place as King. The Spirit is moving. We need to position ourselves for what he wants of us. As Senior Leaders we remain completely sold on the beautiful vision of the Kingdom of God and the project that he has give us as Redeemer Central to play our part in Belfast and be a place of welcome, presence, and healing to a broken city.

Things need to change with our finances and good thing is there is much room for growth. We can take back ground that has been stolen. We can shatter the lies that limit our generosity and position our lives to become venues for the generosity of God to show up.

The Justice Fund

Firstly, the Senior Leaders have take the decision to change our collective policy by setting up a new Justice Fund and committing to give 10% of our whole Redeemer annual budget to it. The Justice Fund will finance all our ‘garden’ projects that serve our city like Farmbox, Family Matinee and more. Previously these had been largely funded by grants but with prayer and consideration we feel that we need to own these projects fully as a community with the expectation that God might do incredible things when we give it over to Him.

We are also committing to give 10% of the Justice Fund directly to outside work that we want to support — no strings attached. We have began to take steps to give monthly to supporting St. Patricks Soup Kitchen on Donegall Street. We hope to expand this to other organisations in the City.

Of course we hope to be in a position to do so much more but feel this commitment is our starting position.

What next?

As Senior Leaders we are prayerfully considering how much we each give to Redeemer and what God might have us give. We want to lead by example and for this to be sacrificial and faith filled. In this season we are also committing to prayer and fasting every Monday and we would love you to join us:

Give | Prayerfully consider what you give to the work of God’s kingdom in and through Redeemer Central. You can easily setup/amend your giving here.
Gift Aid | If you are a UK Taxpayer please complete and return this Gift Aid Declaration to ensure we get back 25p from every £1 you give. It makes a massive difference for our finances each year.
Pray our monthly giving increases | Pray that more people make commit to regular monthly giving and we see that 34% at least double to become 68% or more.
Book into the Prayer Room | We are opening the Prayer Room at 101 on a regular on-going basis (Tue, Wed, Thur 10am-4pm, Sun 9-10am). You can book in here
Pray we become a generous church | Pray that we can be in a position as a church to truly bless our city, extravagantly, and give to those in need.