Manager

Last week I had the opportunity to take a behind the scenes tour of the Baltimore Ravens training facility. We saw everything from the locker room to the weight room, from the the classrooms to the indoor practice facility. It was incredible. One of the highlights was getting to hear General Manager Ozzie Newsome share a bit about leadership.

One thing that stood out to me was his sense of accountability to the owner. He said that he was getting ready to have his annual meeting with the owner - something he called "a trip to the principal's office." Even someone as high up in an organization as Mr. Newsome still has to be accountable.

And that got me thinking. This week at STORYCHURCH we began a new series called "Treasure." My message this week was about how the biblical view of money and possessions is that we are MANAGERS not OWNERS. Everything under the heavens belongs to God. My car is actually God's car. My lumpy couch is actually God's lumpy couch. My role? I'm the manager. In fact, I like to think of myself as the "General Manager of the Copeland franchise." It's my job to spend the money, to take care of those who rely on me, to make sure my family is staying focused on what we are trying to accomplish as a family. But at the end of the day I'm just a manager. God is the owner. And I'm accountable to Him for what I do with what He's given me.

Jesus teaches us about this in Matthew 25:14-30. Three servants get entrusted with their Master's wealth. The Master goes away for a bit and eventually returns to settle accounts with his servants. He wants to know what they did with what He had given them. Two of the servants put those resources to work and actually earned more. One of them did nothing with it and actually buried it in the ground. The first two get rewarded with even greater things, while that third servant has everything taken from him because he proved that he wasn't a very good manager.

I don't know about you, but I want to be someone the Master can entrust with even greater things.

Read More

Radical Generosity - Part 3

The third and final reality I see in Luke 16 is this:

Money promises what only God can deliver.

Luke 16:13 says "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."

I know that no one sets out to literally worship money, but the fact is that if you organize your whole life around acquiring it and pursuing it - you are serving it! The truth is that it owns you, not the other way around.

Somewhere along the line we begin believing that if we just have enough of it, we'll be not only happy, but we'll have peace, contentment, fulfillment, joy, stability, security, and hope. All things that we should be finding in our relationship with God. This is why some of the happiest, most satisfied people you've ever met don't have much money. It's because they have found their true worth in something other than their bank account.

Read More

Radical Generosity - Part 2

There's a lesson I learned several years ago that was game changing for how I think about my finances. That is this: I'm a manager, not an owner. Everything I have belongs to God. Everything. My money, my house, my car, and all of my stuff. It's all His.

Luke 16:12 says "If you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?"

Psalm 24:1 says "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it."

Imagine what it would be like if you and I lived as if this were true. We would spend money differently. We would treat stuff differently.

And if we are serious about having a radical impact on those around us, then suddenly radical generosity becomes much easier. After all, it's not ours. It belongs to God. So giving it away, using it to bless someone else, sharing out of my excess with those that have none - all of this begins to make perfect sense.

Live as though you were the manager of what you have, rather than the owner. My guess is that your grip on "your" money and "your" stuff will start to loosen, and those around you will begin to feel blessed. And I wouldn't be surprised if God lets you manage even more.

Read More

Radical Generosity

Radical generosity leads to radical impact. I believe that more than almost anything. Generosity opens the doors to allow us to impact, influence, and ultimately shape our culture and the people around us. I was studying Luke 16:10-13 recently and came across three realities that I think shape us in how we think about our finances. Over the next couple of days I'll unpack them here.

Luke 16:10 says "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?"

Reality #1 - Money is a test for what matters most.

A lot of times we hear people say things like "If I had their money, I'd be a lot more generous." It's easy to look at how much an athlete gets paid, for example, and insist that if it were us we would give away our whole salary and live off of endorsements, etc. Can I just say it? That's bull. No we wouldn't. I know we like to think that, and maybe it gives us an excuse for why we aren't generous now, but the fact is that we wouldn't change. Jesus says basically the same thing above. He says that however you are now is exactly the same person you would be if you added a bunch of zeros to your account. More money doesn't make a stingy person generous. All it does is magnify what the person already is.

And beyond that, Jesus says here that money is simply a test for what really matters. If we can't be trusted with something as insignificant as money, why would he trust us with what really matters - "true riches." You see, Jesus is talking about a lot more than cash here. In fact he contrasts "worldly wealth" with "true riches." For Jesus, the opportunity to have influence and to impact those around us comes as a result of how we steward the physical stuff he gives us. So if you and I want to have radical impact on those around us, how we use our money and what we do with it matters.

Radical impact comes from Radical Generosity.

Read More