Rediscovering
Fundraising in Light of the Generous Heart of God
Wesley K. Willmer
In Finding God in Unexpected Places, Philip Yancey relates
that one month he saved and analyzed every fundraising appeal he received. He
found that, of the 62 items, the appeals from the Christian organizations
looked just like the appeals from everyone else, using all the same gimmicks.
Not a single one focused on Yancey's need as a Christian to honor and obey God
with his giving. Why is this true?
In reality,
most Christian money raising (including in the church) is modeled after secular
marketing transactional practices—doing whatever it takes to achieve the
financial bottom line. for example, solicitations often encourage supporters to
give for what they can get in return (tax deduction, premiums, naming opportunity,
etc.), instead of challenging them to come closer to the heart of God.
It was out
of this concern for the prevailing direction of fundraising in Christian
organizations that 23 scholars (including three seminary presidents) and
practitioners were assembled to develop the Biblical principles for stewardship
and fundraising.
Because
Scripture is clear that giving is part of a whole-life transformation reflected
in a believer's stewardship and sanctification, and that God will call us to
account for how we use our possessions, have you ever wondered why Christian
fundraising doesn't shape its asking practices to facilitate these values?
Could it be because those doing the asking would need to model these principles
in their own lives and, perhaps, change the activities of their organizations?
The Bible
mentions possessions in more verses than any other topic. This emphasis in
Scripture lays the foundation for a more God-honoring approach to raising
resources. Once you discover the true nature of God (that he owns everything
and has infinite resources), why he asks his followers to be stewards
(managers) of his resources, and that he wants his followers to be generous as
Christ is generous, then you realize the fundraising process is really about
facilitating the work of God to transform hearts to the image of Christ, so
believers are generous, as Christ is generous.
As a result,
they become eternally rich toward God (Luke 12:21). The biblical principles for
stewardship and fundraising (see sidebar) support these three themes: being
rich toward God, transformation and stewardship.
What does it mean to be rich toward
God?
Luke 12:21
is the story of the rich fool who stores up treasures for himself here on earth
and is not eternally rich toward God. As ministry leaders, we should be
pointing people in the opposite direction—beyond ownership and hoarding to
embracing stewardship and generous giving—thus becoming stewards who are rich
toward God.
As Scripture
indicates, possessions are a key tool God uses to reform our hearts. God calls
us to be eternally rich toward him, through the dedication of our time, talents
and treasure, in order that we might both glorify him and store up treasure in
heaven.
The way we
use our resources acts as a barometer for what we care about, so it should come
as no surprise that God cares where they go (Luke 12:34). He asks us to give,
not because he needs our help, but because the process of letting go of what
"belongs to us" and recognizing that God owns it all is an important
part of our maturation.
Paul
frequently uses the words transformation and conforming to describe how we're
able to draw closer to God's heart. The fundraising process, then, from God's
eternal kingdom perspective, should facilitate growing stewards to be rich toward
God.
The process of transformation
When we're
called to Christ, we begin a process of transformation that should last our
entire lives, about which God cares deeply. Michael Foss writes, in Living
the Six Marks of Discipleship, that "[Giving] is the call to reflect
the heart of God in our discipline of generosity. We have been created in the
image of God. That means, in part, that every human being has within herself or
himself a need to give."
As mature
Christians, our lives should reflect an ever-deepening understanding of the
love and generosity of God. In 1 Peter 4, we're instructed, "As each has
received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied
grace … "
The focus of
fundraising, then, is to facilitate God's work in the hearts of his believers.
The priority is to see a transformation of the heart first, which will then
result in generosity. In his book, Revolution, George Barna describes
transformation as "any significant and lasting transition in your life
wherein you switch from one substantial perspective or practice to something
wholly different that genuinely alters you at a very basic level."
Stewardship: our response to God's
generosity
Scripture
repeatedly calls us "stewards" of God's grace, of life, of
possessions. To steward something requires recognizing two facts. First, the
thing in question does not belong to us. Second, we are
responsible for how it's used. Most of today's fundraising appeals work from an
antithetical paradigm, and emphasize "philanthropy," being a friend
of humanity.
While
"friend of humanity" sounds harmless, implicit is an assumption that
we, not God, own our resources and have the authority to dispense them. At its
root, philanthropy strives to use money to make a prosperous society of the
strong and able, while stewardship envisions humans caring for one another as
fellow creatures and servants of the God who provides everything we need.
Realizing
all believers are to be stewards of God's resources, we can see that the role
of fundraisers is to shepherd stewards. Fundraising as ministry means
mentoring, discipling and facilitating believers to become eternally rich
toward God, and as a result they will be generous, reflecting the generous
heart of God.
Moving closer to the heart of God
If Christian
givers and askers rediscover fundraising in light of the generous heart of God,
the focus would shift from marketing transactions to heart transformation, and
it will have far-reaching implications for their personal and corporate lives.
Individuals will experience the joy that comes when we're not slaves to our
possessions, and organizations will be able to see that a dollar given
elsewhere isn't a dollar lost, but one contributing to the spiritual growth of
the giver.
Dallas
Willard writes, in Revolution of Character, that "Christlikeness of
the inner being is not, finally, a human attainment. It is a gift of grace …
but we can seek this grace through humility and the ancient disciplines of
spiritual formation." Discovering Christ, and his generosity in giving of
himself, sheds new light on the practice of fundraising. It invites us to
become rich toward God through a process of transformation that results in a revolution
in generosity—as we learn to view ourselves as stewards, rather than owners of
God's goods, and invite others to do the same.
Wesley K. Willmer is vice president
of University Advancement at Biola University. He has been author, co-author,
editor or editor-in-chief of 23 books and many professional journal
publications, including God and Your Stuff: The Vital
Link Between Your Possessions and Your Soul. Contact him at wes.willmer@biola.edu.
