Stewardship

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I’m 10% Confused

Although I wasn’t raised in the church, one of the very first lessons I heard as a new Christian was about tithing. It was a given: God expects us to give 10% of our income directly back to Him. This rule was so pervasive in the culture of the church I attended that no one saw any need to support it with Scripture.

Since that time I’ve fellowshipped with a wide assortment of congregations. I’ve learned that there is more than one approach to this issue of giving. While most believers agree that we are to give 10%, how we give and where we give are subject to interpretation.

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Register and Vote!

Last Sunday Pete and I helped people register to vote. We always vote in elections, and we enjoyed encouraging others to register as well. Our church had several tables set up around the hallways and café area, and our small group volunteered to provide the manpower. We had a short training talk, and then headed out with our clipboards, forms, and big smiles.

Most of the people we talked to were already registered. Others had recently moved and needed to “re-up.” It took all of five minutes to fill out the form, sign their name, and become eligible to vote in the upcoming election.

What surprised us, however, were the approximately 5% of people who refused to register or vote. As I pondered their various reasons for not voting, I began to wonder. Should Christians vote? Is it important? Does God care one way or the other? I did some research online and found that, like many issues, this one is a bit controversial. Here’s my opinion. I’d be interested to hear what you think, as well.

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A New, Improved Post

Hey, have you seen the new Nikon D800? It has a 36.3megapixel FX-format CMOS sensor, full HD 1080p video at 30/25/24p with stereo sound, an ISO range of 100 to 6400 (expandable to 25,600), a four-frames-per-second burst rate and their Advanced Scene Recognition System with a 91,000-pixel RGB sensor!

Hey, do you have the new iPad? It’s got that new Retina display, a 4 megapixel camera, and 4G LTE, and it’s only $499!

Hey, have you heard? They just came out with the…

Yes, I’ve heard. And no, I haven’t read the reviews.

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A World of Hurt

For over a week we have been aware of a huge fire burning west of Ft. Collins, about two hours north of us. Fourteen square miles and almost 200 homes have been destroyed. Anyone living in the area has been evacuated, unable to check on their property or retrieve belongings. I’ve tossed up a few prayers, especially when I read news updates, but it hasn’t exactly dominated my thoughts.

Saturday afternoon I happened to glance out the window and saw a huge plume of smoke rising from behind a ridge here in Colorado Springs. We were witnessing the first few hours of the Waldo Canyon fire. As I write this, thousands of people have been displaced although thankfully no one has been hurt and no structures have burned. Still, the fire has consumed 2,000 acres and is totally out of control. I can think of nothing else.

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Direction

“You can’t steer a ship that isn’t moving.” One of our pastors mentioned it again last Sunday, “God can’t direct you if you aren’t already moving.” We’ve all heard this admonition so many times. We assume it’s true. Isn’t it in the Bible somewhere?

Our culture has a thing about keeping busy. If we aren’t doing something every minute of every day, we worry that we’re wasting our lives. We aren’t being significant. We aren’t making a difference. And of course, everybody wants their lives to count for something that matters.

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Compost!

“Sweetie, you threw away your apple core again! And [gasp!] there’s a banana peel in the trash!” My long-suffering husband had once again run afoul of the compost fanatic in our household—me.

As my family can attest, I’m pretty rabid about recycling. Plus, I love to garden. Add those together and it’s no surprise that we have a compost pile. In fact, until recently I had a worm bin in the pantry. It was so convenient to dump my kitchen trimmings in with the wrigglers and let them convert wilted lettuce and carrot peelings into worm castings. (Pete did not like having worms in the kitchen but he was incredibly patient with my enthusiasm.)

Not only am I keeping plant waste out of the landfill, recent research from Colorado State University’s soil lab concluded that homemade compost is the best soil amendment. They tested 40 commercially bagged products on the market, and homemade compost surpassed all of them. Plus, it’s free!

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Happy Earth Day, God

Maybe it’s because Earth Day is this weekend. Maybe it’s just that I’ve added some new friends on Facebook (one of whom posted this card). But lately, I’ve noticed a trend—Christians are under attack for their lack of involvement in the environmental movement. For the most part, I think we deserve it.

I know there are Christian environmental organizations (Google “creation care” sometime), and they’re working hard and making a difference. I wonder, though—why aren’t there more? Why don’t we hear about them? Why doesn’t anyone care?

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Amazing God, Amazing Friends

God is so amazing!

I hope you know how incredible He is. Let me tell you what He just did for us.

On March 23 I mentioned that we had no money to pay the end-of-month bills. That’s because we haven’t received a paycheck since the end of January. This happens pretty regularly, especially lately. In this economy, supporting a ministry is low on most people’s priority list—after essentials like food, shelter, and taxes. We used to have an emergency fund, but after six years of erratic income, that’s gone. That’s all right—God is faithful. He’s also creative.

So, the end of the month was coming, and I had enough money to pay the credit card bill (food, fuel, some utilities, medical bills, and the like) or the mortgage—but not both. After years of practice, I don’t often stress over situations like this. I get excited. God’s going to come through, and it’s going to be awesome!

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Good Deeds: Orphans

It’s getting harder and harder to do a good deed anymore. This month and over the next two months, we’ll look at some case studies of good deeds gone wrong, and what we should do differently next time.

Africa is home to 15 million orphans and “children at risk.” Most Americans are very aware of this crisis, largely caused by the spread of AIDS. We also are familiar with James 1:27—“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress….”

Clearly, the church needs to step up and come alongside these children, but how? The traditional answer has been to build thousands of orphanages. But is that the right answer?

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Missionary Support: A Suggestion

How would you like to walk up to one of your friends and ask, “Hey, can I have $50 or $100 a month for the next umpteen years?”

How long do you think they’d stay your friend? Yet, this is what we expect missionaries and many other full-time ministry workers to do. It’s called “support raising.” Pretty awkward, yes?

We’ve managed to sugar coat it somewhat. We tell people it’s their chance to get involved in what God is doing. We promise significance. And if there’s any way we can connect them to what we do, we show photos of starving children or cherubic orphans.

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