Jesus tells us where our treasures go, our hearts will follow. (Matt. 6:21)
Whereas discontentment is counting what you don’t have, generosity reverse-engineers our hearts to count what we do have. When we see everything as a gift from God, we begin to become people marked by gratitude and generosity, freeing us from the lie that the good life is found in more.
As a church family, we want to press into generosity as an overflow of our gratitude but like anything in the Christian life, it requires discipline.
Look at the list below and consider how you might grow in thankful generosity to God’s kingdom and God’s people.*
1 - Create a “spontaneous generosity” line item in your monthly budget
Set aside some money once a month with the sole purpose of giving it away - whether that means using it to pay for someone’s meal, throw a party to build with others, give someone a gift, help meet a need, etc. If you don’t spend all of the money that month, roll it over into the next month to allow more opportunities to be spontaneously generous. (If you need help budgeting your finances, check out our resources at FollowingJesusTogether.com/generosity)
2 - Support a Serve The City partnership organization in our city
As a Jesus-centered family on mission, we want to make efforts to love and care for our city. One way we do this is through our Serve the City partnerships where we come alongside a number of organizations already helping the most vulnerable and marginalized people groups in our city and ask how we can help. For a list of our partnerships, go to midtowncolumbia.com/servethecity
3 - Support a church planter or missionary
Jesus’ plan to fully bring his kingdom here on earth is through disciples being made and churches getting planted. As a church, we want to corporately and individually support church planting efforts to make Jesus’ vision a reality. To give to a church planter, go to PlantGrassroots.com
4 - Increase your % to your local church
For our church, we want 10% to be the starting point of our generosity. And because Jesus is after our hearts when we give, we want to constantly assess our finances to see if we can free up more money so we can be more invested in Jesus’ kingdom. To increase your giving to a Midtown church, click which church you are a part of - Downtown, Two Notch, Lexington.
*First, if you’re not giving 10% regularly to your local church, let this be the starting point of your generosity. If you need help budgeting to make giving 10% a reality or want to know why we start at 10% go to FollowingJesusTogether.com/generosity