The Dreaded “S” Word …

Isn’t “Stewardship” just a religious term for “Giving Money to Support the Church?”

If people aren’t saying it … many are thinking it.

That’s not even close.

The word has been so distorted its lost its meaning.

Stewardship is the action and attitude of living as a steward.  A steward is one who has been given the responsibility to oversee, manage and use wisely the property and possessions of another.  A steward is chosen based on displayed trustworthiness and integrity.  A steward is charged with the task of making decisions as the master would … based on a relationship with the master and knowing his mind and heart.

The Bible speaks often of the role of a steward.

• A steward was watched and tested by his master … always assessing the wisdom of the steward’s decisions
• A wise steward was commended by the master
• A foolish steward paid the price for his foolishness
• A steward’s foolishness was not always immediately punished … but a day of accountability always arrived
• A faithful steward was given more to oversee and was honored
• An unfaithful steward was removed from his position and dishonored
• A steward was singularly accountable to the master and no one else

God’s Word clearly declares that God owns everything we possess.  The Master calls us to be His stewards … to use His resources the way He would want them used.  To do that we must:

• Know Him
• Care what He wants
• Put His desires ahead of ours
• Ask Him regularly what He wants us to do with “His stuff”

Question … do we act more like stewards for the King … or owners who claim rights to stuff we were never given?

Stewardship matters … and it has little to do with “giving more to the church.”

Rethinking Christmas

As we head into November we realize Christmas is just around the corner.  Before the intensity of Christmas shopping is upon us … I would like to issue a collective challenge … Let’s de-materialize Christmas this year.

It is my observation that most people are uncomfortable with what Christmas has become … too much stuff, too much debt and too much of that sense that we are spoiling our kids and dishonoring the One for whom Christmas is all about.  Why not make this year different?

There is time to be creative.  Think about making Christmas special while spending less.  Ideas are everywhere.  But, it takes some planning and communication in advance.  Now is the time to get started.

One year when my extended family was in town for Christmas we decided that everyone had to get a gift for each family member and it must cost less than $5.  Looking back it was one of the most fun-filled Christmases.  Creativity and anticipation were everywhere.  (I think I still have those $5 polka dotted boxer shorts somewhere …)

I will use future blogs to pass on specific ideas … but for now … just consider what Christmas would be like if we could strip the commercialism and materialism out of the season and keep our hearts focused on what we could do on December 25 that would make that baby in the manger smile …

Forever Grateful

Many people have been curious about why I would leave a thriving and extremely rewarding position at Willow Creek to head to the desert.

Great question.

Until five months ago I fully expected to be at Willow until the end of my ministry days.  The support for the financial ministry I led was strong, I was blessed with a wonderful team of dedicated volunteers and our influence in the lives of those who sought our help was growing.

Leading the Willow finance ministry was my dream job.

But God was not primarily interested in whether I was satisfied in my role at Willow.  He made it clear to me that He was more interested in putting me in the place where the gifts and passions He had given me were being fully utilized in touching and helping as many people as possible.  God made it clear to me after 3 months of prayer and listening that Central Christian Church in Mesa/Gilbert, AZ was a place where He wanted to do some great things and He wanted me to be a part of that.  It became clear that the financial ministry at Willow would continue to be strong and effective with or without me … but the opportunity to be a part of building something that would touch more lives at Central was the next chapter God had for me.

Simple as that.

I will be forever grateful to Willow for that last seven years.  It is wonderful to leave a place that is healthy … at a time when it is thriving … in the hands of capable people.

I have my seatbelt fastened for the new adventure …

Back in the Saddle

After a break from blogging, I am back.  The move from Chicago to Phoenix kept me preoccupied and away from blogging for a while.

As of October 1 I am officially a staff member at Central Christian Church in Mesa and Gilbert, Arizona.  I will be leading the Financial Stewardship Ministry at Central and I could not be more excited about the opportunity.  Central is a wonderful, thriving church that serves the East Valley of Phoenix.  It is a church currently in two locations.  The Mesa location is celebrating 50 years this October and the Gilbert location was started about 4 years ago.  Both campuses are about equal size with total attendance of between 7,000 and 8,000 each weekend.  They are a church that takes stewardship seriously and I am thrilled to be here.

Living in Phoenix is not a bad gig either!  This weekend the temperature is supposed to reach the 100 degree mark, although normal temps for this time of year average closer to 85.  Beats the 45 degrees and overcast currently in Chicago.

The transition will take a while.  Debbie will be wrapping up her responsibilities at her school in Chicago until January.  (She wanted to experience one more Chicago winter.)  She flew here last weekend and we put an offer in on a house that we both are very excited about.  Currently waiting back on a response to our offer.  Good time to be buying in Arizona.  House is selling for less than half of what it sold for in 2005.  We will be closing on our house in Chicago on November 9.  It was on the market for 10 days!  Needless to say, we are grateful for the quick sale.

Even though January is a long way off, Debbie and I will be together a number of times between now and then.  I am flying to Chicago next weekend to teach a seminar, then back on November 6 for packing up and closing, then Debbie will be in Arizona for the week of Thanksgiving.  We will be together a couple of times in December and then January is right around the corner.

We are hoping that friends and relatives will come visit us.  The house we hope to get is larger than we need so we can have plenty of house guests!  Bring your bathing suits … great pool in the back yard.

Best email to reach us on:  dbriggsis@gmail.com

Palm trees and cactus suit me just fine!

Simplicity

My friend Matt Bell writes about something that impressed him after reading Richard Foster’s book, Freedom of Simplicity.  Foster identifies 10 suggestions for living a simpler life and avoiding the grip of materialism:

• Buy things for their usefulness rather than their status
• Reject anything that is producing an addiction in you
• Develop a habit of giving things away
• Refuse to be propagandized by the custodians of modern gadgetry
• Learn to enjoy things without owning them
• Develop a deeper appreciation for the creation
• Look with a healthy skepticism at all “buy now, pay later” schemes
• Obey Jesus’ instructions about plain, honest speech
• Reject anything that breeds the oppression of others
• Shun anything that distracts you from seeking first the kingdom of God

Let’s all undertake the challenge of taking these more seriously in our own lives!

Reflections from a Lottery Winner

This piece from a recent news story does not need any additional commentary …

(Excerpts from AOL News story – Aug. 31, 2009)

A young woman who won over $3 million in the lottery when she was just 16 says she blew it all on wild shopping sprees, breast implants and cocaine.

Callie Rogers, from Cumbria in northwest England, was a shop assistant when she hit the jackpot in 2003. Now 22 and the mother of two young children, she says she has about $32,000 left.  Most of the cash disappeared on spending sprees, but she estimates she dropped $400,000 on cocaine.

“I honestly wish I’d never won the lottery money — and knowing what I know now I should have just given it all back to them,” she told in an interview published in Sunday’s News of the World.  Rogers spent more than $730,000 on designer clothes, partying and having her breasts augmented, according to the Daily Mail.

And she estimates she spent $400,000 on cocaine — most of which went to a boyfriend.  “I was spending a fortune on cocaine, a nasty evil drug which tears your life apart,” she told News of the World. “I might as well have thrown it down the toilet.   In the past six years I’ve sunk into a black hole — a black hole that at one point I thought I could never crawl out of.”

She said she became so depressed that she attempted suicide three times.  Rogers now lives with her mother and said she has taken three cleaning jobs to make ends meet.  “Until you win such a large amount of money at such a young age, you don’t realize the pressures that come with it,” she told the Mail.

“Winning the lottery has ruined my life. I wish I had never won.”

Attitude Makes a Difference

I talked on the phone yesterday with a single mom who has really had a hard time financially.  Her husband left her a few years ago and she lost her job 8 months ago and life has dealt her a tough blow.

Unlike most of the people I counsel in similar situations, this wonderful gal, I will call her Anna, has a contagiously positive attitude.  She just keeps her eyes on the Lord, does the very best she can to find odd jobs and meets life head on.  Her circumstance has not diminished her faith in God nor has it darkened the gleam in her eye.

She says although money has been really tight, she has been able to meet her bills and provide for her two kids.  She knows God will use this experience in her life and in the lives of those she meets in the future going through tough financial times.

I was reminded again through Anna that a negative attitude during difficult times only makes the journey harder.

Way to go Anna … you are an inspiration to me!

Lessons Learned

I lead the Financial Stewardship Ministry at our Church.  As such, I often meet with people who need individual counseling.

Yesterday I met with a couple who finally called because they had gotten to the end of their financial rope.

Both husband and wife were working and making a fairly good salary but the payments on $85,000 spread out over 6 credit cards was more than they could continue to juggle.  They came to me hoping that I would pull a financial rabbit out of my hat. 

They left disappointed. 

Sure, I could offer them some help in establishing a budget and make some specific recommendations for cutting costs … but the hole they had dug themselves was so deep, I had no way to help them bridge much of the gap.

But this did cause me to capture some learnings from my working with this couple …

1)      Live every day with financial margin.

2)      When you have a major financial setback, do everything in your power not to charge living expenses to a credit card.

3)      Be willing to make the “tough” decisions as quickly as possible to dramatically reduce your lifestyle in the face of a financial setback.

4)      Don’t wait so long to seek help.

This couple, in spite of bleeding red ink monthly, was still driving a leased car and sending their 6 year old to an expensive Christian school.

Their inability to make those tough decisions and to continue to fund their financial gap on credit cards, combined with their reluctance to seek help sooner, put them in a hole so deep that there were very few options I could offer them.

I hurt for these couples and just wish there was more I could do …

The Worst Generation

There is no escaping the fact that I am part of “The Worst Generation” as Chicago Tribune columnist Dennis Byrne wrote on July 21.  As part of the Boomer Generation, I feel the need to apologize for what we have done to future generations … as described in the following excepts from Byrne’s editorial.

On behalf of all those born in the Boomer Generation … Sorry …

The Boomers are the worst generation.
Certainly, they would never call themselves that because Boomers are so loaded with smugness that it’s oozing out their ears.
But surely someone who writes a book about them in another 40 or 50 years will brand them as perhaps the most selfish generation in American history. That author would accurately nail them for their greedy, miserable selves because he and hundreds of millions of others will be living in the cesspool of debt that they leave behind.
Every time you take a breath, the President is pushing through another costly program, rescue, bailout, giveaway — whatever you want to call it — that we can’t afford to pay for ourselves. So, in a magical example of time travel, he — we, I should say — will deliver the bill to the future, with nary a thought of how the future will pay for it. No need here for a tedious recounting of the huge, impossible debt that we’re passing off; it has been outlined enough, but the figures seem to scare few. Our gift to future generations is the shaft. Future interest payments will gobble up so many of our resources that we won’t be able to afford new cars, homes and the rest of the consumer cravings that fuel our economy. Our economy will be in shambles.
Truth is, we’ve become so frightened of bad things happening to us that we’ll do anything, no matter how reckless, to avoid just the perception of risk. Our fear of discomfort or sacrifice is contemptible beyond description.
The Greatest Generation gave their lives so that we might enjoy our liberties and prosperity. We show our appreciation by imprisoning future Americans in a dungeon of debt from which they may never recover. Nowhere in the Obama blueprint is there even the slightest suggestion of how future generations will survive this mess. Not that they care, but, more important, there simply may not be a way to lift the burden. Mark this generation down as the most cowardly and irresponsible in America’s history. Mark it down as the Shameless Generation. 

Raw Financial Silliness

Vice President Joe Biden told people attending an AARP town hall meeting that unless the proposed health care plan becomes law the nation will go bankrupt and that the only way to avoid that fate is for the government to spend more money.
 
Biden said, “And folks look … the status quo is simply not acceptable and it’s completely unsustainable. Even if we wanted to keep it the way we have it now. It can’t do it financially.  We’re going to go bankrupt as a nation.”
 
Someone in the audience asked Biden, “You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?”  Biden said. “The answer is yes, that’s what I’m telling you.”

What am I missing here?  Did he really say we have to spend money to keep from going bankrupt?  We may not survive that kind of financial silliness from those who are supposed to be minding our country’s financial store …