Financing the Future
By Colin Davies
Chastity, poverty and abstinence were seen as the hallmarks of holiness in the church of a bygone era! Colin Davies, a management consultant and part of the core team of Hope City Church, revaluates the true values behind such assertians and looks at the true hallmarks of a 21st century church.
As a father, I’m sure I wouldn’t be alone in saying that I want the very best for my kids. I want them to be successful in life. I want them to be the very best they can be. I want them to be a blessing not only to me and my wife, but to the people around them.
Our heavenly Father thinks the same way about us. His thinks about us all the time. Psalm 8 says that he is ‘mindful’ of us. Even though he is the same God that set the sun and the moon in place in all their majesty, his mind is full of thoughts about us. How amazing is that? Just stop for a moment and think about it. The God of the Universe is so in love with you that he just can’t get you out of his mind. Incredible!
Wait a minute though. These aren’t just any old thoughts. Jeremiah said it like it was and still is; He’s not thinking about how he can harm us, but how he can prosper us. His mind is filled with thoughts about your future and about he can prosper you.
‘Poverty’ is therefore nothing holy in God’s eyes. Why would any father want their children to be lacking anything in their lives? Jesus himself said if you ask him for bread he’s not the type of father who gives you a stone. He wants to bless you! He gives good things to his children. He’s made a way for you to get everything that you could possibly need to fulfil your destiny. He’s deposited your inheritance in the bank and he’s waiting for you to make a withdrawal. The problem that exists in our minds at times is that we think that our destiny is just about us. We think that as long as we have what we ‘need’ we’ll be okay. The bigger picture is that our destiny is tied into the destiny of His church.
"Your need is defined by the size of your vision"
If your next holiday is a weekend in a tent in Llandudno you might not need that much. If on the other hand you are planning to take all your family and friends on an all expenses paid round the world trip for eight weeks it’s going to take a significant investment. Your need is far greater.
Likewise, if your life’s vision is subsistence and survival then your needs will be quite small. If however your vision is dominion, influence and kingdom expansion, your needs suddenly take on a new dimension. I’ll leave you to decide which of these two scenarios bears most resemblance to God’s will for his church.
So how do we get there? How do we move from where we are to where God wants us to be? There must be something that elevates us to this new level of abundance and prosperity.
The answer is quite simple but not what you might expect. We fall into two categories: We are either gatherers of givers. Our default setting makes us gatherers. We hoard things just in case we might need them in the future. You just need to take a look inside most people’s garage or garden shed to see that. We gather in order to bring comfort and security into our lives.
In Christ, the opposite is true. The will of God for us is to be givers. Knowing God makes us realise that we don’t need to gather in order to feel secure or at peace. We are therefore free to give in the way we have freely received from God.
The key to experiencing God’s blessing is to give it away. If God can get it through you, he will get it to you. If you choose to invest into God’s dream, his church, he will open up the blessing of heaven over your life. As we seek first his kingdom, then we put our lives into the hands of one who is far more capable than we are.
Here at Hope City Church there are three areas where you can exercise your giving muscle to see God’s kingdom extended and to enjoy the full benefits of God's heart towards you.
Giving your tithe is the first recommended area. This is a biblical foundation that extends into New Testament living. You give the first tenth of our income into God’s house as an act of faith and obedience. You are then free to give him offerings in excess of this out of sheer love and devotion. This is a great starting point for any Christian.
You can also give sacrificially. This means that we are doing without something else in order to give to God. It might mean missing out on a Big Mac or selling something of value in order to give to God. Either way it is a sacrifice of worship to God. In giving you are making a declaration of dependence in a world where it’s all too easy to get drawn into all kinds of counterfeit’s for God’s love, acceptance and affirmation. Giving sacrificially is a great way to get a spiritual health-check. Every year we have our First Fruits offering which is an excellent opportunity for us to come together in a corporate show of strength as we collectively give thousands of pounds in support of the vision of reaching the world in need around us.
Last but not least you can give creatively as part of our Finance Creation programme. Our aim over the next 3 years is to create over £1 Million through our creativity so that we can build for our future. In Sheffield this means spear heading the building of a 2000 seater auditorium to house the thousands of people who are going to make this church their home as well as becoming a prime venue which will house some of Sheffield's finaest events! In our other city congregations this means creating Megacentres that reach out into our cities with real help and real love for people in need!
You can’t give what you haven’t got, but you can take a little of what you have and invest it for a return. The return can then become a blessing to you and to others as your capacity to give increases. Many people across Hope City Church are starting business ventures and becoming more and more entrepreneurial in order to finance the vision. From eBay to Property Investment, people are stepping out of the boat and learning to be creative with the resources they have. It’s amazing to see the transformation in people’s lives as they realise that God wants to bless them and has given them the power and ability to create finance not simply to spend it.
So the opportunities are right there before you. Recognise that your life is not our own. Realise that your inheritance in Christ is prosperity. Live your life as though you’re being looked after all the way. And give yourself wholeheartedly to the single most significant cause on the planet, that of bringing heaven to earth.
Colin Davies is the Director of C21 a Business Consultancy Company developed to help companies manage their staff and develop to become effextve in the market place. Colin is married to Dawn and they have two great twins aged 9 years, Bethany and Joshua.