I recently read an article in the Wall Street Journal entitled âWhy is it so cool to be so gloomy?â The article describes a variety of reasons for this phenomenon, but they could be summed up by saying most people are competitive, self centered individuals who predominantly care about not dying! And when we see the world through this lens, bad news naturally motivates more than good news. Bad news feels more important than good news. Whereas good news is sometimes helpful, bad news is always relevant.
And the church does not escape this mindset. When trying to rally church giving to make budget, our default setting is to accentuate the communityâs needs. Cast a vision of scarcity through a culture that makes generosity a competition where people, not God, are lauded for their giving. I confess, with countless examples of its effectiveness, I am often tempted to lead from this âbad newsâ posture.
The only problem is we worship the God of Good News. We gather around the God of abundance. We desire to follow the God of scandalous, joyful generosity. And what is the point of investing money in a church that preaches new life but frames giving as simply warding off disaster for our old one?
Friends, as real as our needs are now and/or will be in the future, we do not want to be that kind of church. Because if giving is only driven by bad news, we resign ourselves to lives of maintenance and not Christ driven transformation.
Therefore, our prayer is if/when you choose to invest in the Body of Christ here at Kairos, you do so not simply to meet needs or check boxes. Instead, we hope people give out of a belief that, with Jesus, our selfish, death avoiding, competitive life can encounter resurrection. We desire for everyone to see intentional generosity as a practice of faith, a belief in the Kingdom, a claim that the God of Good News reigns.
Few people could frame this better than Tim Renjilian from our Leadership Team. During worship on Dec 9th, Tim called our church to consider giving to Kairos by proclaiming the variety of ways the Good News of Jesus is being encountered in our community. It is well worth a listen – click here.
Click this link if you would like to give a financial gift to Kairos. If you would like to talk more about what this kind of generosity looks like, or need help thinking through what a first step might look like, or as a good steward, you simply desire to know more about the church finances, know I would be honored to have those conversations and would love if you reached out to me or anyone on staff to have them.
In the abundance of Godâs Good News,
Drew