generosity

Mar 19

Generosity of TALENT

Here’s a great Generosity of TALENT story I received this week:

A friend recently asked if they could purchase a painting I did. Or if I was unwilling to part with it, could they commission me to do another piece for their home? I had mixed emotions. I am not a fast painter, and I’ve never been the kind of person that easily creates something and gives it away. I invest a lot of emotional energy in the things I create, especially my paintings.

I was blessed that someone had connected to my art. It caused me to think about my love for painting. It’s an expression that deeply uses my gift to turn Scripture or visions into imagery. It’s one of the places I feel closest to God. But I already invest a lot of my artistic talents in the church, and it is easy to think that I am already being generous with my talents.

I’ve always viewed painting as something that benefits me, but I’ve begun feeling that God wants to use it to bless others. I’ve been scared to venture into this area of sharing my talent. It requires more of me than any other area of using my talents. But I believe that if I don’t venture out into this area, I’ll miss out on a powerful way that God wants to use me. It seems like the scariest areas to step out are the very areas that God can use us most powerfully.

What are some talents that God is calling you to grow in and give away? Send me your stories to generosity@nsb.org.

Mar 12

Generosity of TIME Stories

Generosity 2011, Northshore Baptist Church No Comments »

Here are some of the generosity of TIME stories people sent this week as we learn and practice Generosity: Choosing a Life of Overflow.

Story #1. The Junior High 30-hour Famine. Check out this video.

The junior highers not only went 30 hours without eating (praying and learning what it’s like to be hungry ), they also raised over $10,000! They gathered over 1,500 non-perishables to take to a shelter and did community service projects around the area! They did an awesome job and exceeded their goal of $8,000. They initially pick the $8000 goal because 8000 children under age 5 die every day from hunger related causes. For $1 you can feed a child for a day. We raised enough to feed 27 children for a year!

Story #2. From Pastor Andy Wright (our Junior High Pastor):

A BIG SHOUT OUT for Dawnelle Patterson and Andrea Langkow, two women in our church who are taking 10 girls from their Jr. High Small Group to a cabin this weekend to love and connect with them. They both have very busy lives but have generously given so much to these girls! These weekends are often the spark that starts a major fire in young peoples’ lives!

Story #3. From a busy mom:

During my small group this week, one of the questions was along the lines of “what holds you back,” and I felt that not being an extrovert sometimes hinders me. I was stuck in the frame of mind that generosity of time means volunteering for everything that comes up. Right away one of the group members reminded me that just last week I left my family to stay overnight with friends’ kids so they could have a night away. There had/has been a lot going on with my friends, so I felt they needed that time and asked if I could do this a few weeks prior. I really didn’t consider that generosity of time. It just felt like a need that I could fill.

Story #4. From Sheila Jarvis (whose generosity of time story we celebrated in the study guide and during the weekend services):

Thank you so much for the way you presented my Celebration Story on Sunday. It was a real blessing.  Since talking to you, the Lord reminded me that I missed out on one very important part of my story… one which highlights the fact that people can be generous servers of God without even realizing it. Because I don’t drive any more, my husband Maurice happily drives me to Moorlands (where I volunteer every day) and then comes back later to take me home. If it wasn’t for his willingness to do this I would not be able to volunteer. In thinking about it I realized that there are many people I know who are faithfully, and often sacrificially, giving their time to minister to others.

Thanks for the stories and keep ‘em coming! Send them to generosity@nsb.org

Tagged with: busy • generosity • time

Mar 03

Generosity: Choosing a Life of Overflow

Generosity 2011, Northshore Baptist Church, Spiritual Disciplines 5 Comments »

Generosity begins with a generous God. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son…” God is the most generous of givers and as followers of Jesus, we are to become like the God we serve. And in the joy and act of giving, we are most like God when we give and serve like God. People who have experienced the transformation of Jesus through the Holy Spirit choose to live a life of overflow, freely giving their time, talent, touch, and treasure. But it’s something we have to learn…something we have to live…something we have to commit to.

In our Generosity series during the month of March, we are going to see what the Bible has to say about generosity. We’ll discover biblical pictures of what it looks like to be people who choose a life of overflow with our time, our talents, our treasure, and our touch. It’s about transformation, not transaction. And through this series, we’ll learn the heart of sacrifice…giving up something we love for something we love even more.

Generosity is such an important topic and principle for our lives, our church, and our mission to the world that we’ve developed a Generosity Study Guide for this series. We have also developed Children’s Ministry and Student Ministry curriculum, which will mirror the weekly messages in the worship services.

In the study guide, you’ll find an overview and review of Sunday’s message. You’ll also be given questions to discuss in your small group community. During our Sunday services we’ll celebrate stories of generosity, discovering what it looks like in the real world to live out each week’s generosity value. You’ll also find prayer points to pray through so that you might begin and continue to live generously. Lastly, there are also some ideas for families to discuss with children so that we can teach and model generosity for a lifetime.

As you live and experience generosity and choose to live a life of overflow, I’d love to hear your stories. You can send them to generosity@nsb.org.

If you’d like to listen to the four messages on Generosity, here’s the link.

I pray that God would teach and train us to be people who live generously like our Savior does. I pray that God’s generosity would shine through our lives, our families, and our church. And I pray that we’d be changed in the process to become a people and a life-transforming community that lives, looks, and loves more like Jesus.

Welcome to the journey of generosity!

Pastor Jonathan

Tagged with: generosity • God • Jesus • overflow • stories of generosity • Talent • time • Touch • Treasure

Dec 20

Christmas Compassion & Global Generosity

Christmas Behind the Seen 2010, Missional Living, Northshore Baptist Church No Comments »

The Christmas story calls us to be people of compassion and peace… people who understand the generosity of God as He sent us Jesus, His one and only Son. When we grasp this reality, God was made flesh to bring us peace, we are compelled to respond with acts of compassion, peace, and generosity in the world around us.

One tangible way to live out the compassion of Christmas is to be generous globally. This time of year, we spend so much time, energy and financial resources buying things that the people in our lives don’t really need. What if we chose to spend our financial resources on making donations to charitable organizations in someone’s name? A couple of weeks ago, our family received some “charitable gift” catalogs from World Vision, Agros International, and Living Water. For $25, I can buy someone a goat or a couple of chickens. For $25, I can feed a family for a month. For $25, I can contribute to digging a well in a village in some part of the world that doesn’t have access to clean water. There are so many options for using our financial resources to begin making a dent in global poverty issues. This Christmas, choose to be agents of God’s compassion, peace, and generosity in our global world.

Here are some resources for Christmas Compassion & Global Generosity:

What other organizations do you recommend during this Christmas season and beyond?

Tagged with: Agros • Christmas • Compassion • generosity • global world • God • Jesus • Living Water • peace • World Vision

Aug 23

Uhauls, Hearses, & Generosity

Bible, Ecclesiastes: Meaning of Life, Northshore Baptist Church, Spiritual Disciplines No Comments »

“A checkbook is a theological document, it will tell you who and what you worship.” BILLY GRAHAM

We’ve been discovering in the book of Ecclesiastes that everything ultimately matters. We are hard-wired by the Creator to long for and search for meaning, identity, and purpose. As we discovered Sunday, one way that we tend to attempt to find meaning is through the endless pursuit of money, wealth, and possessions. The ancient author Solomon tells us that the pursuit of money only produces a vast emptiness but the pursuit of God produces a vast joy (Ecclesiastes 5:10-20). The question put before us is this… Am I being a good and godly steward of what God has given me? During our brief time here on this earth this side of eternity, are you wisely stewarding that with which you have been entrusted?

How do you spend and invest your TIME? How you employ your TALENTS and gifts? How do you use and steward your TREASURE and finances? How do you TOUCH peoples lives as you willingly share your own with them. Pick one of these 4 “T’s” and find a way to grow in your sacrificial generosity. In the end, Jesus’ great joy comes as we make much of Him, as we treasure Him above all else, and as we steward His gifts for His Kingdom, His glory, and His name.