We are entering the ‘Tis the Season’ season. The time of year when kindness, gratitude, family, and generosity seem to fill our very being. People seem to be more focused on these attributes. They seem to be in a spirit of giving.
For me and Wellspring Church, generosity goes far beyond a season. It is in the core of who we are. Why? We serve a generous God. I want to be a man who honors God through obedience with my finances. I want to lead a church where people trust God in all aspects of life.
Trust and money go hand in hand. It’s real simple, you would be hesitant to give money to someone or something that appears to be untrustworthy. Wells Fargo was just in the news for having over 2 million fake accounts that led to over 5,300 people losing their jobs. They lacked integrity. Would you trust them with the entirety of your net worth?
So at Wellspring, we want to be trustworthy. As the pastor, am I on the bank account and have access to church funds? Nope! Do I alone make financial decisions? Nope! We have a board of six individuals who meet monthly to look over the finances and insure that we are using the funds wisely. Do we have tremendous debt? Nope! Are we hoarding funds? Nope! Are we investing into people and our community? YES!
We are blessed by the generosity of God’s people who walk in obedience. We in turn desire to be generous. It is one of our core values.
Why? Because we believe and trust what God says-
One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered. Prov. 11:24-25
I want to embody the type of living I hope to see in the people I lead. My family is committed to giving 12% of our income to the church. We trust God and we see how God is using Wellspring Church to bless the community. Do we have a list of home improvements that we would love to accomplish? Certainly, what homeowner doesn’t?! Could I create a list of worthwhile investments? Yup! Would financial gurus look at our church investment and say it’s better spent elsewhere? Sure, but they don’t understand Prov. 11:24-25. If I didn’t believe that verse, I would choose to hoard my funds and spend them on earthly worthwhile investments. However, I do believe it. I do trust my God. So I consider nothing more worthwhile than investing into God’s kingdom. It's life goal #6; I want to donate over $10 million to the church in my lifetime. Oh, and life goal #9 is to live on 10% of our income and ‘tithe’ 90%. We want to be generous.
He calls us to do so. Choosing not to give back to God with our wealth is sinful. As mentioned earlier, I want to be a man of integrity and lead a congregation full of integrity. In order to be a man of integrity, I must honor God and be obedient in all I do. In fact, choosing to ignore what God would have me do would give me great anxiety.
Generous people build a generous church. We give and lives are changed.
Written by Jason Coache, Lead Pastor of Wellspring Church
