In many church leadership and committee meetings, the discussion of church resources is a primary agenda item.
From budget planning to staffing concerns to overall direction of ministry dollars, a church’s resources is not a commodity, but an essential foundation for the expansion of the Kingdom.
Are you stewarding your church's resources? Does your budget reflect what your mission and values?
In Matthew 25, Jesus tells a story about a man who entrusts his servants with substantial resources. In the Parable of the Talents, the man later returns and asks for an account from each of his servants in verse 21.
“His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”
The take away from this exchange is three-fold:
The Master entrusted his servants. He did not give them specific direction on what do with the talents or that they should be invested at all. Simply, the servants knew the Master well enough to take action.
Purposeful action was needed. Each servant developed their own strategy and took initiative to do what they saw fit. As we know, one of the servants decided it would be best to hold on to the resources as to protect them. So often, we hoard the resources entrusted to us and a play-it-safe approach.
They entered into the joy of the lord. The strategy of church resources can be viewed as a necessary function on a fiscal calendar. The truth is that there should be joy in the administration of the resources with which we have been entrusted. I encourage those church leaders who are currently struggling to ask God to reveal his joy in their decision-making process.
Talanton is the Greek work used for talents in this story. Our mission is to return the talents to our master, so that we hear the words “well done”. It is a call to action for us to have disciplined, strategic decisions when supporting churches.
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