Make it Transformational: A Blog for Champion Discipleship

Jonathan Martin, pastor of Global Outreach Ministry at Good Shepherd Community Church in Oregon, wrote a remarkable book called Giving Wisely. Tucked away on page 176 is the radical story of a young woman who worked in Alaska for twelve months in harsh conditions to raise money to support a missionary who was called to serve in a Russian orphanage. You may contend there’s nothing radical about that story. What if I told you that she was the missionary who received the support? Then it might sound a little more radical. Martin states, “One of the most generous ways we can give of our money is to empower ourselves to do that which God has created and gifted us to do. 
We’ve defined Transformational Giving as collaboration between you and God in which He infuses your corporate and personal assets with His grace as you offer them in the way He asks to the people and purposes that he directs. We are accustomed to hearing others suggest that God might be directing us to give to particular people or causes. Support this missionary family, send relief to Haiti, or sponsor a child in Africa. All those methods of giving are good and perhaps even necessary for our growth. But might they be insufficient? Might God be asking you to also “give” to yourself? 
Dear champion, consider this a support letter of a different sort. I’m writing to ask you to pray about giving to your personal growth and discipleship fund. Set aside some money as an offering to the Lord. Ask Him to show you the next step for using that fund for your own growth relative to a cause. Consider it a deposit of faith in God’s plans for you. I anticipate that after you make your first deposit to this unique fund, God will open your eyes and ears to opportunities to directly impact any number of causes. I would expect God to fill you with a sense of anticipation about what He might direct you to do or where He might direct you to go.

Before you protest that I’m proposing robbing the Church; let me be clear. I’m suggesting that you give more than a tithe when you establish your personal growth and discipleship fund. This isn’t an excuse for discontinuing or redirecting your regular giving. This is about adding a new type of giving to your generosity diet. For more thoughts on regularly increasing your giving, read Eric Foley’s post here.

If you’re a ministry leader, consider challenging your champions to give this way. Encourage them to take responsibility for their own growth. Consider ways you might collaborate with your champions in using their personal growth and discipleship funds. Could you provide the education or equipping they need to use their fund wisely and in the way God asks?

Even as I was writing this post and thinking about my own fund, I received an email from one of my favorite organizations. They wrote about an opportunity to travel abroad to train new leaders. Instead of thinking of someone else who would be good for that opportunity, the idea of my own fund ready and waiting caused me to read the information differently. Now, I’m praying about taking a potentially transformational trip.