Standing Amazed

“A real eye-opener! A paradigm shift! Has given me a whole new perspective on how I should live my Christian life!"

These were typical statements written on the evaluation forms at the end of the two workshops I’ve gave this past week in both Jos and Abuja, Nigeria. To be honest, I’m more than slightly amazed by such strong reaction. What started out to be some basic instruction on biblical fundraising principles has certainly ended up becoming much more for virtually all of the seventy-plus participants in the two seminars.

My training event was divided into two days with one main subject each day. First, I attempted to lay a solid foundation on a theology of stewardship. Then, I showed how best practices of fundraising for ministries could be built on that foundation. Using what I’ve been learning myself during the past year from Tim Keller’s messages and the writings of my friend, Scott Rodin, I attempted to show how differently a steward mindset is from one that believes we get to control what we possess. Everyone appreciated the practical examples of fundraising methods, but it was really Day One that impacted folks the most. As I’ve reflected on it, I see at least three possible reasons.

1.       Prosperity Gospel--Nigerian churches are rampant with this false teaching. Many pastors are using it as a means of draining what little financial resources their parishioners have in order to pad their own pockets. Nigeria has the richest Christian churches in all of Africa, if not the entire Global South. Limousines and private biz jets are openly flaunted by Nigerian mega-church pastors as evidence of God’s blessing.  In contrast, my seminar friends immediately saw how a theology of stewardship directly counters a “name it—claim it” thinking. If everything we own belongs to God in the first place, managing it as a steward looks very different than greedily chasing after more material stuff.

2.       Gate-Keepers—African culture in general and in Nigeria specifically, anyone in leadership is venerated, especially pastors who are viewed as being the mouthpiece of God. As a result, pastors tend to become little monarchs who tightly control their ecclesiastic kingdoms. One fall-out of this is that few churches will open their doors to have a mission organization share about its ministry let alone consider financial support for anyone outside of the church. That’s why there was immediate interest in the transformational model I presented in the workshop of approaching churches as partners in the Great Commission as opposed to “begging” for a charitable donation.

3.       Harvesters vs. Sowers—Thanks to Scott Rodin’s insightful little book, The Sower, I explained the difference between a Harvester fundraising mindset that seeks to reap as much support income as quickly as possible with a Sower’s mindset of investing into people’s life-long journey of becoming a godly steward and letting God’s Spirit do the motivating for giving. This truly was a paradigm shift for most workshop participants and many pledged they would immediately change the way they interact with supporters.

Everyone at the workshops agreed that the people they wished could be challenged by this seminar were Nigerian pastors. So, several of them are already brainstorming on how we might be able to put together a more nationwide event a year from now that would specifically target the gatekeeper church leaders of this country. It will be exciting to see what happens.

There are a few times in my ministry career when I felt like I was simply doing something regular and normal, only to be blown away by how God unexpectedly used it as a channel of His blessing for others. Presenting these two workshops this past week in Nigeria has definitely been one of those times.