Statement on Christian Generosity
More Than
Tithing
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” – James 1:17
Most Christians think giving is just about tithing: donating 10% to the things of God, and moving on with your life. Without beating around the bush, that’s a sad view of generosity.
What if it’s actually exciting? What if generosity does something to us? What if giving tells a story? At Harvest Downtown, we see generosity as one of the primary ways we access God’s very heart.
In short, Christians give because we are becoming like our gracious Father, pointing to the generosity of our Savior, by the power of God's gift, the Holy Spirit. What that means is generosity makes us characters in the grand story that God is telling.
When we look through the Scriptures, we see that Christians give because generosity is…
WORSHIP
“We obligate ourselves to bring the firstfruits of our ground and the firstfruits of all fruit of every tree, year by year, to the house of the Lord.”
Nehemiah 10:35 ESV
Giving correctly prioritizes God in our hearts above everything else. Throughout the Scriptures, we are called to give our “firstfruits” or the very best we have to God. Why?
When we give God the first of our incomes, the very best we have to offer, we train ourselves to make God our first love: that’s worship! When we sacrificially give to the church community, we are trusting that God will provide and that builds our faith. Giving back to God reminds us that it all comes from Him. By placing God first in our finances, we place Him first in our hearts.
STEWARDSHIP
“His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’”
Matthew 25:23
Everything we have belongs to God. In our lives on this earth, we are stewards of everything that God has given us, including our finances. With all that we steward, we have the opportunity to love God by using His gifts for His glory.
And, we will be rewarded for stewarding His resources well, in large part because we have greater intimacy with our Master through the process of giving. We get to do it together.
FORMATION
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”
2 Corinthians 8:9
Giving makes us more like Jesus. Our Lord is the most generous person that has ever lived, giving up the incalculable riches of Heaven to take on a human form, suffer like we do, and ultimately give His own life for us.
Generosity is a tool of the Holy Spirit to deepen our appreciation for the way Jesus has given us Himself. From the headwaters of this gratitude springs generosity. When we give, we imitate the Giver of All Good Things and become more like Him.
WITNESS
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
John 3:16
As Christians, our whole message is about the generosity of God: “For God so loved that he gave…” The Gospel is good news of God’s gift, so we give. We demonstrate the grace of God to the world by giving.
When we give, we’re creating an experience for people to learn what grace means. This way, we don’t just understand the Gospel intellectually; we feel it.
MISSION
“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.”
Philippians 1:3-5
We don’t support the church, we are the church. Jesus has given us a mission to pursue and a world to help restore. As a community, we pool our resources so that we can go after this mission together.
What we give or don’t give affects what we can do as a community to reach the spiritually lost. Generosity is sending our resources on mission.
COMPASSION
“And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”
Matthew 25:40
We give to remember the poor, the weak, the hurting, all those that are experiencing the pains of living in a fallen world. Like our God, we want our hearts to reach out with empathy to those who are in need.
Giving trains our souls for compassion, reminding us of the heart of our Savior for “the least of these”.
JOY
“Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
Acts 20:35
It is more blessed to give than to receive. That statement isn’t just true in an eternal sense, where we know we’ll be rewarded in Heaven for how we give on Earth. That blessing is real in experience.
We give because we get joy by doing so. More than that, we feel a joy that is deeper and better than any joy we could get from receiving a gift, because God is in the giving. Somehow, we access God’s presence in a greater way through giving, and that brings us joy.
SUPPORT
“The Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision… For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”
1 Corinthians 9:13-18 (select)
We share all good things with our teachers. The best situation for a local church, according to the New Testament, is for the congregation to support their pastors through giving. This is a mark of a healthy church. When pastors have their physical needs supplied by the church, they are freed to focus on the spiritual needs of the congregation.
The pastors at Harvest Downtown, like Paul, would not give up our Gospel ministry for anything. All of us, at one time or another, have worked to supplement our incomes so that we could teach the Word even in times of lack for the church. We answer to God for that assignment: woe to us if we don’t preach the gospel!
However, when the community is able to support the pastors, the pastors are best able to support the community. Healthy churches look like a dance of generosity between all parts of the body of Christ.
Generosity is not just a transaction and it’s bigger than tithing: it is a spiritual practice which deepens our fellowship with God, each other, and our communities.
If our Father is the God who “makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good (Matthew 5:45)”, then generosity helps us realize the fullness of what it means to be His children.
Ways to Give
In Person
cash or check