Jason Stonehouse

So yesterday we began the new series, “It’s a God Thing” and while I don’t know how many from GCR actually read this blog, there were three questions that came after the message on Sunday, and I’d love to clarify a few things. Maybe there will be a way to get this into one of the upcoming messages, but just in case I can’t, plus some may not want to wait that long, I figured I’d write them here on the blog…

1. Why did you talk about giving $$ as the indicator of where God is in our hearts/ lives? Get real, is this a church-fundraising pitch?

Actually, no it’s not a fundraising pitch, if it was I probably would have talked about the church’s finances and how much we need to recoup losses, pay down debt etc etc. This really isn’t about a certain amount of money or goal — it’s about the spiritual maturity and ongoing patterns of the christians who are a part of Grace Church. We used giving $$ as an indicator because it’s one of the most frequent ones that God uses. It is possible for us to give our time or even our talents at a church and not let that affect our “bottom-line” which often doesn’t always get to the heart. God says, where our treasure is there our heart is also. Particularly in our current culture and economy, our giving is a great indicator of where our trust in God is. It’s real hard to say Jesus is our Lord and we trust Him but we’re not willing to trust Him with the one area of our lives that most affects the way we live.

2. When you talk about prioritizing God instead of just giving to Him out of our left-overs that seems like a real big step – how can I make a big jump like that since I’ve been living at this current standard for so long? It came across at times like it’s all or nothing!

The reality is that for each of us we’re going to need to wrestle with this one. My guess is for many the application of God’s Word will require an altering of lifestyles and will probably require some hard choices. But I do believe it’s one of the best ways to experience God and grow our faith. I rest in the fact that this isn’t my crazy idea, but God’s. However, all that said, I’d hate to see some people give up before they even begin. What I mean is ANY step in the right direction is a step in the right direction. Don’t give up because of the sheer magnitude of what you may realize you need to do. Why not take an intentional, strong step in the right direction, even though it may not be where you’ll hope to be at the end of the process.  Make sure whatever step you do take it’s strong enough to induce some true trust in God. You’d be amazed what everyone taking small steps could do to God’s work in a church. For example if everyone who comes somewhat regularly at Grace (900 households) each decided to increase their giving by just $150 for the year, there would be more than $100,000 freed up for God’s work!! Now just imagine if we all decided to actually prioritize God?? Yeah! That’s what I’m talking about.

3. What about debt? Sure it’s easy to give without changing the way we live, we just take on more debt — is that really what you want us to do??

Well, first off, this isn’t what I want you to do — this is an effort at helping us all grow spiritually. And yes, the assumption yesterday was that people would adjust their standard of living/ margin not just add giving to their lives. I do however think it’s possible to both prioritize God and begin eliminating debt at the same time. There are a few good books on this in our Corner bookstore (there’s also a catalyst coming in April that will be very helpful!!) But to answer the question: NO the intention of the sermon was not to encourage people to take on more debt. We, as a people, need to learn to live within our means – credit and debt can be the most difficult barriers to us living as believers. We should work hard to eliminate debt, while giving to God. And in most cases this will require a shift in our standard of living/ lifestyle. For example let’s say I wanted to start doing both: eliminate my debt and prioritize God. If I begin figuring out what I needed to cut out of my life so that I could live on 80% of my income then I’d be well on my way. My wife I had used this plan when we first got married. We started giving 10% to the church and using 10% to save/ eliminate debt. We worked hard to “live” on 80% of our income which was a very difficult decision (since when we were starting out we had nothing and a low salary!). But by making these intentional steps we were able to do both: prioritize/ trust God and work on eliminating debt/ saving (which by the way, ended up eventually helping us to buy our first house!)

I hope these are helpful for your journey. Feel free to write your questions here and I’ll answer what I can.