"I am the Church!" |
Nov 19, 2009 |
I was recently reading Growing Givers' Hearts by Thomas Jeavins and Rebekah Burch Basinger (a great read!) and was struck by something they said. They rightly affirm that "the opportunity for participation is key to growing givers' hearts," and then they went on to say that when you allow this you actually help the donor come to the realization that "I am the church!" I probably would have glossed over this last statement except that I recently had this very epiphany on my trip to Seoul when I volunteered for Seoul USA at the International Christian Association conference (which I've talked a bit about in my past few posts).
As I recently mentioned, going on this trip allowed me to go deeper in the cause of the persecuted church. Throughout the week I met with and heard stories from fellow Christians from around the world who have either been persecuted or are working directly in countries with extreme persecution (such as North Korea, Yemen, Sri Lanka, etc.) I felt a deep connection with them as we united in the name of Jesus, and I was really seeing how "I am the church! They are the church! We are the church!" It gave a whole new meaning to 1 Cor 12:12-13 - "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink."
This was a great example of how active participation in a cause is integral in the transformation of our mind and spirit. And, I also think this is a good example of one of the principles we teach in Transformational Giving (TG) that says "Giving is learned, not latent in champions."
Giving here doesn't just apply to giving money or our stuff, but also giving of our heart, mind and soul for the cause of Christ. We of course, don't do any of this naturally! But through experiences like this, I think God reveals a bit more of what we have to give to others - our love for the people, our prayers for their plight, our tangible assets that can be put to good use and so forth.
Learning is an ongoing process for all of us, and it requires introducing new things once we comprehend the things at hand. If we allow things to become so routine, we stunt our learning.
Here's a question for you: do you expect your champions to grow and give well by only reading newsletters or giving money? Both of these things are important, but not sufficient to bring someone to full maturity in the cause. If these are the two primary opportunities you present to your champions, let me challenge you to go wider and deeper. Think of how you can encourage ACTIVE participation. Think how you can open a door for DIRECT experience in the cause. Let us commit to continually find new ways to stretch our fellow Christians and allow the Holy Spirit to transform their mind and spirit.
