Sunday, October 15, 2017

Stewarding Stewardship

Increasingly, I’m finding that the theme of being God’s Faithful Steward to be an incredibly powerful foundation for so many other ministry endeavors. Whether it’s helping a mission aviation program manager think about creative ways to steward the resource of flight service or a national church group to steward their own ability in translating God’s Word, framing everything in terms of being a steward that cultivates what God has given them is truly transformational.

Teaching how fundraising itself is also a ministry
On my most recent trip to South Africa, I was asked to give a number of workshops on how to do fundraising for personal or ministry sustainability. Invariably, people came hoping to learn some “secret formula” or “tricks of the trade” that would give them some quick fundraising success. As one African leader put it unashamedly at the beginning of our session, “I hope you’ll tell me where the money is!” What they were not prepared for was to hear that fundraising should be considered a ministry in its own right and that every potential donor is also on a personal journey of learning to steward their resources. One young woman participant said, “Wow—this means I no longer should view my friends and family as ATM machines from which to get money for my ministry, but as fellow stewards God must work through first before partnering with me to build His kingdom.”


Workshop with associates of OC Africa in Johannesburg,
South Africa
Beyond the area of fundraising, I’ve been so impressed how this stewardship message speaks powerfully to so many other areas of life my African friends grapple with. During the past three years of presenting workshops on this theme, I’ve seen the “lights come on” in the eyes of participants as they come to recognize new ways of thinking about marriage relationships, family dynamics, ministry priorities, leadership style, self-identity, and even consciousness about caring for the African environment. To see what I mean, check out this little video where I captured some of that impact after a workshop in Lagos, Nigeria: https://youtu.be/cCowf_xP2v4


Being a board member of The Steward’s Journey ( http://thestewardsjourney.com) and a colleague of Scott Rodin, its founder, has not only been a huge influence in my own journey of becoming God’s faithful steward, but also challenged me with what it means to actually steward stewardship. I’m thrilled with how this critical message, and its subsequent transformational worldview, is impacting, helping, and encouraging so many new friends I’m meeting across the continent of Africa.

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Bat in the Belfry



This week I’ve been participating at the first tri-annual IFES conference for students in southern Africa. The International Fellowship of Evangelical Students is the global umbrella agency for student ministries such as the wellknown InterVarsity ministry in the United States. In South Africa, it is called the SCO—Student Christian Organization, which officially hosted this event held at a camp and retreat facility about an hour east of Johannesburg.
There, I joined some 300 young people from ten African countries for four packed days of plenary and breakout workshop sessions all designed to inspire greater vision for and involvement in missions. 

I had been asked to give two workshops on the topics of personal support raising and how to become a faithful steward (each presented twice) along with one evening plenary session on how African young people could invest their time and talent to prepare for mission work.

Averaging about twenty attenders per session, I found the students amazingly interested in my workshops of personal support raising and stewardship. To me, this is so encouraging because it indicates a trend away from African ministry leaders just relying on funds from America but instead exploring creative alternatives for generating support from their own continent.

About a third of the way through my evening plenary presentation, a big bat flew into the auditorium and kept flying around and around obviously trapped and confused on how to get out again. At precisely the same time, the PowerPoint projector screen froze up and wouldn’t budge. There I was, standing on stage having lost the attention of my audience and totally stuck on any way to move forward.

For some reason, I really sensed at that moment we were facing some significant spiritual warfare opposition. So I halted the program, called everyone to stand and pray out loud and reclaim the meeting and meeting hall for Christ. For a minute or so, the room was filled with the sound of 300 students fervently praying. When I opened my eyes, I saw the bat aim for a small open door beside the platform and fly straight out and simultaneously, the projector screen was right back where I needed it. Now I REALLY had the attention of everyone and proceeded to complete my presentation without a hitch.


I can’t tell you the number of times students came up to me during the rest of the conference and remarked about this “bat” incident. I don’t know how much of the content of my talk they’ll ever remember, but it is evident that for many, they will not soon forget their first power encounter experience of spiritual warfare.