Finances & Giving | Generosity (The Pathway to Freedom): Strapped - Part 4

Springcreek Church - Garland, TX Podcast

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GENEROSITY (THE PATHWAY TO FREEDOM)
Strapped – Part 4
Springcreek Church | Senior Pastor Keith Stewart
August 13, 2023
https://www.springcreekchurch.org/#realspringcreekchurch #strapped #generosity #pathway #freedom #thepathwaytofreedom
Entwined in the very definition of generosity is the well-being of others. When we are generous, we are moving outward – away from selfishness – and toward the interests of others. This is why generosity is the opposite of greed. Greed is self-centered while generosity is other-centered. That’s what makes generosity the true pathway to freedom. It’s the virtue that sets us free from the prison of thinking only of ourselves and our own interests.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. As a group, take some time to discuss why you think teachers and pastors are two of the lowest paid degreed professions. Do you agree or disagree with the low pay associated with both professions? Why or why not?
2. As Pastor Keith explained, tithing (giving 10% of your income) is a practice that proceeds the law of Moses (more than 400 years separate the first occurrence of tithing in Scripture from it being codified in the law). But what’s most compelling is the fact that both before the law and after the law, the primary focus of tithing was caring for God’s workers. In addition, there was an annual tithe called the “festival tithe” that helped to fund the seven yearly national feasts. There was also a separate tithe collected every 3 years called the ”poor tithe” which was designated to care for the poor. But the issue that is repeatedly addressed in the Old Testament was the failure of the people of God to properly care for the Levites who led them in worship and connection to God. How does this impact your view of tithing in the Old Testament? What did you learn that you didn’t previously know? Knowing that tithing began hundreds of years before the law, how does that fact shift your thinking?
3. In the New Testament, both Jesus and Paul addressed the similarities between care for the Levites in the Old Testament with care for God’s workers in the New Testament. Why do you think God keeps pastors and Christian workers in a position of forced dependency on the generosity of others? How does this affect your own views and practice when it comes to giving? In what ways, besides appropriate pay, can we express our valuing of our spiritual leaders?
4. Take some time to discuss the following realities as it relates to pastors…
71% report fatigue and burnout on a daily or weekly basis.
80% of pastors report feelings of wanting to leave the ministry at any given time.
1700 pastors leave the ministry every month in the U.S.
8 out of 10 pastors will leave the profession for good after 10 years of service.
Half of ministers won’t last 5 years.
Only 1 in 10 ministers will actually retire as a minister.
What can the church do to combat these toxic elements in the ministry? If you have personally seen or experienced these realities in pastors you have known, what was that like? What did the pastor eventually do? How do we better support our pastors?
5. Read and discuss the following verses…
Each man or woman should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. For God is able to make ALL grace abound to you, so that in ALL things, at ALL times, having ALL that you need, you will abound in every good work. 2 Corinthians 9.7-8