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Using Temporary Wealth for Lasting Gospel Fruit (Luke 16:1–13) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to Reform thinking it is good to be back behind the
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  microphone with you again. It's good to be here.
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  We are opening up another stack of research today, and as
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  always, the mission is pretty specific.
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  We're not just skimming headlines.
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  We really want to try and think God's thoughts after him.
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  We want to take a lens of the Westminster Confession, the lens
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  of Scripture, and, you know, apply it to the messy,
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  complicated reality of living in this century.
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  And we've got a topic today that it usually makes people check
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  their wallets or maybe look for the exit door.
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  That's true. We're talking about money, but
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  we're not talking about it in the way you might hear on a
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  financial news network. And we're definitely not talking
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  about it in the way you might hear from a prosperity preacher.
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  Right. We aren't promising that if you
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  send us a check, God will give you a private jet.
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  Not at all. Yeah, we're looking at the
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  intersection of wealth stewardship and the Great
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  Commission. We've got a stack of excerpts
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  here from a book titled Biblical Missions, Principles,
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  Priorities, and Practices, and we're specifically looking at
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  contributions from Eric Weathers, Dave Duel, and
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  Santiago Armel. And these three authors are
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  really tackling a question that I think every believer wrestles
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  with, even if they don't quite say it out loud.
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  What's that? How do we take the stuff of this
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  world, you know, money, assets, buildings, the things that are
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  passing away and leverage them for something that cannot pass
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  away? It really brings to mind that
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  old saying, you know you can't take it with you, but you can
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  send it on ahead. That's the core idea exactly.
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  We're looking at moving from this sort of defensive posture
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  where we just try not to sin with our money.
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  Don't be greedy. To an offensive posture where we
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  use our resources strategically to actually advance the Kingdom.
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  We get there, though. We have to deal with the text
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  that I think confuses more people than almost any other
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  parable in the New Testament. Oh, I know which one you mean.
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  We're. Going to spend a good chunk of
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  our time today in Luke chapter 16, the parable of the shrewd
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  manager. It is a text that seems to turn
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  Christian ethics completely upside down if you just read it
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  quickly. I remember reading it as a new
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  believer and thinking, wait a minute, did Jesus just like high
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  5A white collar criminal? Because on the face of it,
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  you've got a guy who gets fired for incompetence.
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  Right or. Worse, and his solution is to go
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  out and commit massive fraud against his employer to secure
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  his own retirement and then the master praises him for.
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  It and then Jesus says go and do likewise.
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  It just stops you in your tracks.
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  It does. So we're going to unpack that.
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  We're going to look at the theology of this shrewd manager.
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  Then we're going to pivot to the apostle Paul and look at his
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  theology of communication, how he used letter writing as a
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  mission strategy. And finally, we are going to get
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  very practical, nitty gritty even on best practices for
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  raising support in the modern era.
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  So it's a movement from the theological foundation in the
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  Gospels to the Apostolic model in the epistles, and then all
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  the way down to the practical application for today.
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  That's the plan. So let's start with The Hook
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  Luke 16. Can you set the stage for us?
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  Who are the characters in this drama?
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  OK, so you have two primary figures.
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  First, you've got a rich man. The text doesn't give him a
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  name, but in the context of 1st century Judea, this is likely a
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  very wealthy. Landowner An absentee landlord
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  type. Probably he has a vast holdings,
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  agricultural estates, but he isn't out there plowing the
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  fields himself. He lives in the city, or maybe
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  on another one of his estates. So he needs someone to run the
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  show for him. Precisely.
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  And that brings us to the second character, the oikonomos.
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  Most translations will render this as steward or manager, but
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  we have to be careful not to think of this as some low level
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  functionary. This is not the guy sweeping the
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  floors. Yeah, in our modern world, a
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  manager might just be a shift supervisor at a coffee shop, but
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  in oikonomos had significantly more weight than that.
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  Oh, much more. He had power of attorney.
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  He could sign contracts. He could buy and sell in the
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  master's name. He held the checkbook
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  effectively as long as he held that office.
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  His word was the master's word. If he signed a receipt, it was
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  legally binding on the entire estate.
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  But the text tells us right away that there's a problem.
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  He is accused of squandering possessions.
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  Right. And the Greek word there, it
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  implies A scattering. He was wasting the master's
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  assets. Now scholars debate whether he
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  was, you know, embezzling, actually stealing for himself,
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  or if he was just incompetent. Maybe he was lazy.
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  Maybe he was making bad deals. But the result is the same.
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  The profit margins are down, the capital is eroding, and word
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  gets back to the boss. So the master calls him in and
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  the conversation is really short.
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  What is this I hear about you? Turn in the account of your
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  management, for you could no longer be a manager.
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  And that's the crisis point. He is fired.
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  But, and this is the crucial detail for the rest of the
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  story, he isn't thrown out of the building immediately.
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  He's told to turn in the books. So there's a gap in time.
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  He's been terminated, but the handover hasn't happened yet.
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  He still has the Ledger. He still has the seal of the
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  estate. And we get this little window
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  into his internal processing. It's almost like a soliloquy in
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  a Shakespeare play. He starts talking to himself.
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  What shall I do since my master has taken the management away
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  from me? And look at how he assesses his
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  options. It's really telling, he says.
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  I am not strong enough to dig. Which tells you he's a white
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  collar guy. He's got soft hands.
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  He knows that if he has to go out and be a day laborer in the
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  fields, he's not going to survive.
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  He physically cannot do the work at the working class.
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  Nope. And then he says I am ashamed to
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  beg. So he has pride.
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  He's a man of status. The idea of sitting by the city
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  gate with a cup, you know, asking for alms is a fate worse
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  than death for. Him.
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  So he's stuck. He can't work and he won't beg.
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  He is facing total ruin, homelessness, starvation,
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  complete loss of social standing.
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  This is a man who was backed into a corner and it's in that
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  moment of desperation that he formulates a plan, he says I
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  know what I will do so that when I am removed from the
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  management, people may receive me into their houses.
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  He needs a golden parachute and since the company isn't giving
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  him 1, he decides to manufacture one himself.
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  And the whole plan relies on this cultural concept that
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  sociologists call open-ended reciprocity.
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  That sounds pretty academic. Can you break that down for us?
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  Sure, it's the idea that if I do a significant favor for you, you
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  are now socially obligated to return that favor.
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  It's not a written contract, but it is a binding social debt.
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  If I save your financial life, you owe me.
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  You cannot just turn me away when I come knocking on your
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  door later. So he decides to use the
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  master's assets to buy friends for himself.
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  Correct. He calls in his master's
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  debtors. These are likely merchants or
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  other land owners who have taken goods from the estate on credit
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  and he goes through them 1 by 1. Let's look at the math here,
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  because the source material from Eric Weathers really highlights
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  the scale of this. I think we read 100 measures of
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  oil and we just kind of gloss over it.
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  We do. We think of a bottle of olive
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  oil in the kitchen, but the text says 100 battos.
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  A bat house is a specific liquid measure.
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  It's roughly 8 or 9 gallons. So 100 of those is nearly 900
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  gallons of olive oil. 900 gallons.
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  That's an industrial amount. It's not for personal use.
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  No, it's the yield of roughly 150 olive trees.
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  This isn't a household purchase, this is a wholesale transaction.
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  This represents a massive amount of potential revenue for the
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  estate. And the manager says to the
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  debtor, take your bill, sit down quickly and write 50.
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  He slashes the debt by 50%. He just gives this man 450
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  gallons of free oil. Now in modern terms, if you just
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  assume a high quality olive oil, that's 10s of thousands of
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  dollars, maybe even more. He just erased that from the
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  masters Ledger. And imagine you're that debtor.
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  You know this is shady. You know the bill was 100.
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  The manager is telling you to write 50.
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  You know he's pulling a fast one on the owner.
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  But are you going to say no? Absolutely not.
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  You just saved a fortune. But.
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  By writing that new number, you are now complicit.
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  You are part of the conspiracy. Good points.
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  You can't rat him out later without implicating yourself.
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  And more importantly, you are now deeply, deeply grateful to
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  this manager. He just saved your business.
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  Then the next guy comes in. He owes 100 cores of wheat.
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  A core is a dry measure. It's about 10 or 12 bushels, so
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  we're talking 1000 to 1200 bushels of wheat.
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  Weathers notes that this amount of wheat would take a
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  considerable amount of land to produce.
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  It's a huge debt. And the manager says take your
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  bill and write 80, so a 20% discount.
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  It sounds like less of a discount than the oil, you know,
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  20% versus 50. But it in terms of sheer value,
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  it's enormous. Weathers points out that those
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  20 measures of wheat were roughly equivalent to 8 to 10
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  years of wages for a common laborer.
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  Stop there for a second. Ten years of wages, yes.
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  In our context, if someone earns say $50,000 a year, that's a
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  half $1,000,000 gift. It is life changing money.
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  It is like someone walking into your bank and just deleting your
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  mortgage from the system. So this manager, in the span of
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  just a few hours, has distributed the equivalent of
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  hundreds of thousands of dollars of his master's wealth to these
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  debtors. And he's done it legally, in the
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  sense that he still holds the seal, he still has the authority
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  to alter the debts, but morally he's robbing the master blind to
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  pay for his own future housing. So he finishes his meetings, he
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  packs his bag, he turns in the books, and then we get the
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  reaction from the master. And this is the twist.
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  The master commended the dishonest manager because he had
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  acted shrewdly. This is where the needle
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  scratches across the record. Why would the master praise the
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  guy who just robbed him? Is he being sarcastic?
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  No, the text suggests genuine admiration.
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  You have to understand the culture a little bit.
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  The master realizes he's been bested.
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  He looks the Ledger and he sees what happened.
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  He knows he can't go back to the debtors and say actually, you
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  owe the full amount because the receipts are signed.
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  The deal is done. The manager completely boxed him
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  in. He did, and the master, even
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  though he lost a lot of money, has to admire the sheer audacity
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  and the cleverness of the move. He's basically saying, you know
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  what, you're a crook, but you are a smart crook.
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  You saw a crisis coming, your termination, and you took
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  decisive action to secure your future.
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  And that is the word we need to focus on shrewdness in the Greek
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  Frenemus. Right means practical wisdom,
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  foresight, the ability to look down the road, see a problem
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  coming, and act now to solve it. It's the opposite of being
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  passive. It's the opposite of burying
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  your head in the sand. So just to be crystal clear,
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  Jesus is not praising the dishonesty.
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  We have to be absolutely crystal clear on that.
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  Jesus calls him the unrighteous manager.
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  He is not holding him up as a model of ethics.
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  He's holding him up as a model of strategy.
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  It's an argument from the lesser to the greater.
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  Exactly. If a wicked man, a son of the
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  sage, will work this hard and be this creative to secure a
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  temporary home for a few years until he dies, how much more
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  should the sons of light believers be shrewd to secure an
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  eternal home? Jesus says the sons of this age
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  are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of
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  light. I mean, that feels like an
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  indictment. It is.
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  It's a huge indictment. Think about it.
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  Look at how the world operates. People will study the stock
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  market for hours a day, the leverage assets.
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  They'll take huge risks to build a startup.
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  They'll work 80 hour weeks to get a promotion.
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  They are incredibly creative and aggressive when it comes to
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  securing their temporary comfort and future.
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  And then you look at the church. And often we're passive.
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  We can be lazy with our resources.
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  We sit on money. We don't think strategically
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  about how to maximize its impact for the Kingdom.
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  We just, you know, tip God a little bit and hope for the
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  best. Jesus is saying, why don't you
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  have the same intensity for eternal things that the pagans
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  have for temporal things? He then gives the command, Make
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  friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that
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  when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
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  There is so much theology packed into that one sentence.
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  First, that phrase unrighteous wealth that troubles people.
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  Does he mean we should use stolen money?
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  No Unrighteous here or Mammon refers to the wealth of this
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  fallen world. It's unrighteous not because
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  it's inherently evil, but because it belongs to the
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  unrighteous age. It's temporary stuff.
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  It's the currency of a fallen planet.
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  And notice the phrase when it fails, not if it fails.
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  It's a guarantee. Money will fail.
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  You will die. At the moment of your death,
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  your net worth drops to zero. You cannot take a single penny
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  across the threshold of eternity.
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  The currency of Earth is not accepted in heaven.
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  So the strategy is exchange the currency that's going to expire
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  for something that lasts forever.
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  Convert it, use the money now while you have it to invest in
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  the only thing that is eternal. People, souls.
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  The friends Jesus talking about are the people who hear the
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  gospel because you gave. They're the people who receive a
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  Bible because you funded the translation.
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  Yes, and the picture is that when you die and you arrive in
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  the eternal dwellings, these people are there to welcome you.
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  It's a reception line. It is.
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  Imagine arriving in glory and having someone come up to you,
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  Someone from a tribe in Pakua, New Guinea or a village in North
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  Africa, and they say you don't know me, but you supported the
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  missionary who came to my village.
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  Because of your shrewdness, because of your giving, I am
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  here. That's the return on investment.
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  That's the greater that Jesus is pointing to.
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  No, we do need to address a common misinterpretation here.
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  Weathers brings this up in the source material.
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  He critiques the way some leadership gurus handle this
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  passage, specifically John Maxwell.
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  Maxwell is huge in the leadership world.
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  What's his take on Luke 16? Well, Maxwell looks at the
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  manager and he sees a networking genius.
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  He says, look, this guy prioritized relationships over
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  strict policy. He understood that his network
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  was his net worth. He praises the manager for
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  building bridges. Which sounds nice, I mean if
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  it's the whole LinkedIn mindset. It does, and on a surface level,
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  sure, the manager build relationships.
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  But Weathers argues, and I completely agree, that if you
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  stop there, you have gutted the parable.
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  You've turned it into a secular self help lesson.
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  Because Maxwell's application is all about succeeding in this
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  life. Right, Maxwell's asking, how do
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  I get a new job when I'm fired? Jesus is asking how do I survive
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  the final judgement? If you strip the eschatology the
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  end times out of the parable, you miss the entire point.
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  The friends aren't business contacts who can get you a
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  consulting gig. No, they're witnesses who
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  testify to your faith before the throne of God.
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  It brings us right back to the Westminster Confessions focus on
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  the chief end of man to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
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  This parable tells us that one of the ways we glorify God is by
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  aggressively using the resources he is entrusted to us to expand
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  his family. We are stewards.
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  That's the key identity here. The manager in the story didn't
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  own the oil, he didn't own the wheat.
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  He was just managing it for the master, right?
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  We don't own our four O 1 KS. We don't own our houses.
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  We manage them for God, and God is looking for a return on his
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  capital, a return measured in souls.
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  So that's the theological foundation.
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  We're to be shrewd stewards, converting temporary assets into
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  eternal gains. OK, so now let's move to the
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  second part of our discussion. How do we actually do this?
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  We don't live in an agrarian society where we can just write
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  off 500 gallons of olive oil. No, and we certainly don't want
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  to commit fraud. We want the shrewdness without
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  the sin. Dyer Weathers provides some
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  fascinating insights on modern application.
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  He talks about asset based giving and this is where we get
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  into the weeds of the tax code a little bit, but stick with us
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  because this is where the shrewdness really applies in the
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  US context. Most Christians when they give
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  they just write a check or use their debit card.
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  Which is giving from cash flow. It's giving from your post tax
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  income. You earn the money the
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  government took 20 or 30% and then you give from what's left
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  over. And that's fine.
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  It's generous. It is what is it shrewd?
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  Weather suggests we should be looking at our assets, our
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  stocks, real estate, business interests.
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  Let's just walk through the mechanics of a stock donation,
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  because this is the classic example.
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  Let's say you bought shares in a company years ago for $1000, and
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  today those shares are worth $10,000.
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  You have a $9000 gain. OK.
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  So if I sell that stock to get the cash to put in the offering
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  plate, the IRS steps in. Right.
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  They're going to charge you capital gains tax on that $9000
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  profit. Depending on your bracket and
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  where you live, that could be 15 percent, 20%, maybe even more.
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  So let's say the tax is what, 1500 dollars?
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  OK, so you sell the stock, you pay the tax, and you have $8500
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  left to give to the church. So the church gets 8500.
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  But if you use the shrewd method, if you transfer those
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  shares directly to the church or a mission organization,
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  something really interesting happens.
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  What's that? The church receives the stock,
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  which is worth the full $10,000, and because they're a nonprofit,
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  they can sell it instantly and pay 0 tax on it.
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  So the church gets the full 10,000.
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  And you, the donor, get a tax deduction for the full $10,000
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  market value. So the government gets nothing,
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  the church gets more, and I get a bigger tax break.
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  That is shrewdness. You have legally maximized the
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  resources available for the Kingdom.
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  You've prevented the decay of taxation from eating into the
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  master's capital. It's using the rules of the sons
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  of this age, the IRS code to benefit the Sons of Light.
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  Precisely. And Weathers mentions tools like
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  Donor Advised Funds or DFS organizations like the Barnabas
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  Foundation or the National Christian Foundation.
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  What are those? They're essentially charitable
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  savings accounts. You can dump appreciated assets
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  into them, get the tax deduction immediately, and then grant the
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  money out to missionaries and ministries over time.
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  So it allows for more strategic planning.
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  You don't have to scramble to write checks at the end of
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  December. You can fund the work steadily
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  throughout the year. And Weathers gives 2 case
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  studies that I think really bring this to life.
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  These are real people. Let's talk about the retired
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  couple. OK, this is a couple who had
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  done well for themselves. They reached retirement with
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  significant assets. Now the standard Christian
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  script might be to just write a big check to a mission board and
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  be done with it. Or just leave it to their kids.
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  Right. But they did something more
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  active. What do they do?
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  They decided to treat their retirement assets as a capital
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  base for a business for the Kingdom.
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  They started a real estate business.
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  They bought properties, managed them, and used the rental
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  income, the profit, to fund scholarships for pastors and for
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  Bible translation. Wow, so they created a
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  sustainable engine for giving? Instead of killing the goose to
• 18:48
  get the 1 golden egg, they kept the goose and gave all the eggs
• 18:51
  to the Great Commission hats. Long term thinking, that's
• 18:55
  legacy. And then there's the corporate
• 18:56
  management team. This one really, it blew my mind
• 18:59
  a little bit. This is a secular company in the
• 19:01
  sense that they're out in the marketplace, but the owners are
• 19:04
  believers and they have John 3.16 on their company website.
• 19:09
  They're not hiding their light under a bushel.
• 19:11
  But it goes beyond just putting a Bible verse on the homepage.
• 19:14
  It goes way beyond that. They view their own employees as
• 19:18
  a mission field. They encourage gospel sharing in
• 19:21
  the workplace. But here is the kicker.
• 19:24
  They offer scholarships to their employees who want to go to
• 19:28
  seminary. Think about that.
• 19:31
  Most companies will pay for you to get an MBA so you can come
• 19:34
  back and make them more money, right?
• 19:36
  This company pays for you to get a Master of Divinity so you can
• 19:39
  leave and serve the church. They are actively funding their
• 19:42
  own turnover for the sake of the gospel.
• 19:45
  It's incredible. And Weathers mentions a specific
• 19:47
  outcome from this program. Yes, one of their workers took
• 19:50
  this scholarship, went on to get a PhD in theology, and is now
• 19:53
  training the next generation of biblical expositors.
• 19:57
  So a for profit corporate entity acted as a feeder system for a
• 20:01
  seminary. That is applying Luke 16.
• 20:04
  That is using the unrighteous wealth of corporate profits to
• 20:07
  create a pipeline for truth. It just breaks down that whole
• 20:10
  secular sacred divide. You don't have to leave business
• 20:13
  to serve God. You can structure the business
• 20:15
  itself to serve God's mission. That's a real challenge to our
• 20:18
  listeners who are business owners.
• 20:19
  Are you just writing checks, or is your business structure
• 20:22
  itself designed to advance the Kingdom?
• 20:24
  So we have the resources, we have the shrewd mindset.
• 20:29
  Now we need to talk about the connection because money sitting
• 20:32
  in a bank account doesn't save anyone.
• 20:34
  It has to be sent and more importantly, it has to be
• 20:37
  connected to the message. This brings us to the third
• 20:40
  segment of our deep dive, the theology of communication.
• 20:43
  We're looking at an insert here from Dave Duel regarding the
• 20:46
  Apostle. Paul.
• 20:47
  Yeah. When we think of Paul, we think
• 20:48
  of the theologian, we think of the preacher.
• 20:51
  But Duel invites us to look at Paul the strategist,
• 20:53
  specifically Paul the letter writer.
• 20:56
  We take the epistles for granted, you know, Romans,
• 20:58
  Corinthians, Galatians. We just see them as chapters in
• 21:01
  our Bible, but originally they were a solution to a huge
• 21:05
  logistical problem. The problem of geography.
• 21:07
  Paul had a theology of presence. He desperately wanted to be with
• 21:11
  the churches he planted. He speaks often of his longing
• 21:14
  to see them. I remember in First
• 21:15
  Thessalonians he says he felt orphaned from them.
• 21:18
  Yes, and the Greek word there implies a violent, painful
• 21:22
  separation. He was in agony because he
• 21:25
  couldn't be there in person to shepherd them.
• 21:27
  But he couldn't be everywhere at once.
• 21:28
  He was one man, often in prison, walking on Roman roads.
• 21:32
  The letter became the substitute for presence.
• 21:35
  It was a technology he used to bridge that physical gap.
• 21:38
  And Dual argues that the letters weren't just information dumps,
• 21:42
  they were relational instruments.
• 21:44
  Right. They were designed to instruct,
• 21:46
  to rebuke, to encourage. And this is key for our topic to
• 21:50
  raise support. Look at Romans 15.
• 21:53
  Paul writes to the church in Rome.
• 21:55
  Why? Well, to explain the gospel.
• 21:57
  Yes, of course, but practically, he says.
• 22:00
  I hurt to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to be helped
• 22:03
  on my journey there by you. He's support raising.
• 22:05
  He's saying I need you to fund the mission to the next
• 22:07
  frontier. But here's the crucial insight
• 22:09
  from Duel The letter never traveled alone.
• 22:12
  You couldn't just drop a scroll in a 1st century mailbox.
• 22:15
  You sent a messenger. Men like Taikikus, Timothy,
• 22:18
  Epiphyriditis, Titus. And we need to correct our
• 22:20
  mental image of these men. They weren't just couriers.
• 22:24
  They weren't 1st century FedEx drivers who just dropped the
• 22:26
  package and left dual calls, them partners and fellow
• 22:30
  workers. They were proxies for Paul
• 22:31
  himself. Yes, when Titus arrived in
• 22:34
  Corinth with a letter from Paul, he didn't just hand it over.
• 22:37
  He likely stood before the congregation and read it aloud.
• 22:41
  And because he knew Paul's mind, he could explain it.
• 22:44
  He could answer their questions. He could defend Paul's
• 22:46
  authority. He was the living, breathing
• 22:49
  extension of the Apostle. That really changes how we view
• 22:52
  the role of the messenger in 2nd Corinthians 8.
• 22:55
  Paul calls Titus, my partner and fellow worker, for your benefit,
• 22:59
  and then he tells the church to show the proof of your love to
• 23:02
  these men. That phrase proof of your love
• 23:04
  is polite Apostolic color to forgive them the offering.
• 23:07
  The financial collection for the Saints in Jerusalem.
• 23:09
  Exactly. So.
• 23:10
  The messenger connected the theological vision, which was in
• 23:13
  the letter, with the practical resource, which was the money.
• 23:16
  The entire relationship was sustained through this
• 23:19
  communication loop. Now let's bridge this to today.
• 23:22
  We don't have apostles writing scripture anymore, but we do
• 23:26
  have missionaries. And the dynamic is identical.
• 23:29
  The missionary goes to the field.
• 23:31
  The sending church stays behind. There is a relational gap caused
• 23:35
  by geography. How do you close that gap?
• 23:38
  Through communication, newsletters, emails, Zoom calls,
• 23:42
  video updates. Exactly.
• 23:43
  And I know we can roll our eyes at missionary newsletters.
• 23:46
  We sometimes think of them as junk mail.
• 23:48
  But theologically they are the modern equivalent of the report.
• 23:52
  They are the lifeline. They're the substitute for
• 23:54
  presents. When a missionary sends a video
• 23:56
  update, they are doing what Paul did.
• 23:58
  They are saying here is the work, here is the fruit.
• 24:00
  I am still your partner, and for the supporter, the Son of Light,
• 24:04
  who is investing, that report is the evidence that the investment
• 24:08
  is yielding an eternal return. Which means the quality of that
• 24:12
  communication matters. A lot.
• 24:14
  It matters immensely if the communication is broken.
• 24:17
  The partnership Withers. If Paul had sent blank scrolls
• 24:20
  to Corinth, he wouldn't have received an offering for Spain.
• 24:23
  This leads us perfectly into our final segment.
• 24:25
  If communication is the lifeline, we need to know how to
• 24:28
  do it well. We have a section here on best
• 24:31
  practices for support raising by Santiago Ormel.
• 24:35
  And this is where the rubber really meets the road.
• 24:37
  Because let's be honest, many missionaries and many ministries
• 24:41
  are terrible at this. We've all received the bad ones.
• 24:43
  The three page single space letter that just reads like a
• 24:46
  diary entry. No pictures, no clear point.
• 24:50
  You finish reading it and you have no idea what they're
• 24:52
  actually doing. Armel is blunt.
• 24:54
  He says bad reports get ignored. Good reports incite action.
• 24:57
  He even points to Acts 8.1 scene.
• 25:00
  When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received
• 25:03
  the word of God, they sent Peter and John.
• 25:06
  The report of fruit triggered a deployment of resources.
• 25:09
  So reporting isn't just administrative busy work.
• 25:11
  It's biblical. It mobilizes the body of Christ.
• 25:15
  Armel breaks this down in Spiritual Foundations, Content
• 25:17
  Strategy, and the Mechanics. Let's start with the siritual,
• 25:20
  because if you get this part wrong, the rest is just
• 25:22
  marketing. The very first point is pray
• 25:24
  first. It sounds like a Sunday school
• 25:26
  answer, doesn't it? But it's so foundational.
• 25:29
  Or, Mel reminds us, God is the provider.
• 25:32
  The donor is not the provider. The donor is just the delivery
• 25:35
  mechanism. That is a critical distinction.
• 25:38
  If I think you are the provider, I'm going to be afraid of you.
• 25:41
  I'm going to try to manipulate you.
• 25:42
  I'll be crushed if you say no. But if I believe God is the
• 25:45
  provider, then I'm just inviting you to participate in what God
• 25:49
  is already doing. If you say no, that's fine.
• 25:53
  God has another way. If you say yes, you get the
• 25:55
  blessing of partnership. So prayer completely realigns
• 25:59
  the heart of the fundraiser. It shifts the dynamic from
• 26:01
  begging to inviting. Then he says don't focus on
• 26:04
  money, which feels a little paradoxical for a support
• 26:08
  raising guide. It does, but think about it, if
• 26:10
  you go on a first date and all you talk about is what you want
• 26:13
  the other person to buy you, there's not going to be a second
• 26:16
  date. That's a good point.
• 26:17
  Support raising is about relationship and vision.
• 26:20
  You have to state the need. You have to be clear, but the
• 26:23
  focus must be on the work. The focus is on Jesus.
• 26:26
  The focus is on the souls being saved.
• 26:29
  If you shared a compelling vision of what God is doing, the
• 26:32
  money will follow. If you just ask for money,
• 26:35
  people feel used. Our Mel rights state the need
• 26:39
  clearly, but don't manipulate. Manipulation might get you a
• 26:42
  check once Vision gets you a partner for life.
• 26:45
  Another spiritual point he makes is work hard.
• 26:49
  The Missionary of Integrity manages his time and gifts well.
• 26:52
  This goes right back to the content of the report.
• 26:54
  You can't write a good newsletter if you haven't done
• 26:56
  anything. If your update is vague, it
• 26:58
  might be because your ministry itself is vague.
• 27:00
  Right diligence in ministry gives you the raw material for
• 27:03
  the story. If you're out there sharing the
• 27:05
  gospel, discipling believers, and serving the poor in the name
• 27:08
  of Christ, you will have stories to tell.
• 27:10
  If you're sitting at home watching Netflix, you've got
• 27:12
  nothing to report. Let's move to the content
• 27:14
  strategy. What should actually be in these
• 27:16
  updates? A clear project.
• 27:19
  It must align with the Great Commission.
• 27:21
  Armel is very firm on this. Social aid is good, digging
• 27:25
  wells, running schools, but it must connect back to the gospel.
• 27:29
  We aren't just an NGO, we are the church.
• 27:33
  He suggests starting with a devotional thought.
• 27:36
  Feed the donor, don't just take from them.
• 27:38
  Share a scripture that is sustaining you on the field.
• 27:41
  Minister to the people who are supporting you.
• 27:43
  It reminds them that this is a spiritual enterprise, not just a
• 27:46
  financial transaction. And testimonies.
• 27:48
  He really emphasizes using the voices of the locals.
• 27:52
  This is the proof of concept. Don't just tell me I preached A
• 27:54
  sermon. Tell me about the man who heard
• 27:56
  it. Quote him.
• 27:58
  Show me his face. If it's secured to do so.
• 28:00
  Let the fruit speak for itself. Now on to the mechanics.
• 28:03
  This is the stuff that drives me crazy easy when it's done wrong.
• 28:06
  Visuals. Visuals are mandatory.
• 28:08
  We live in a visual age. If you send a wall of text,
• 28:11
  nobody is reading it. But what if I'm just not a good
• 28:13
  photographer? Armel says find someone who is
• 28:17
  or learn. It's part of the job.
• 28:19
  Now, your communicator. A blurry photo of the back of
• 28:23
  someone's head just doesn't cut it.
• 28:24
  You need images that capture the emotion and the reality of the
• 28:28
  field. And brevity, short paragraphs,
• 28:31
  headings. Respect the reader's time.
• 28:34
  Most people scan before they read.
• 28:36
  If you don't have catchy headings like 3 baptized in the
• 28:39
  river or new church planted, they might delete it before they
• 28:43
  even realize how good the news is.
• 28:44
  OK, here's a debate that comes up all the time, print versus
• 28:48
  digital. Armel takes a very strong stand
• 28:50
  here and I am with him 100%. He says you must do both, but he
• 28:55
  really fights for physical print.
• 28:57
  Why? I mean, e-mail is free, stamps
• 28:59
  cost money. Isn't e-mail shrewder?
• 29:01
  Not if it gets deleted in two seconds.
• 29:03
  Armel talks about the refrigerator factor.
• 29:05
  Explain that you cannot hang an e-mail on your refrigerator.
• 29:08
  But a physical prayer card, a printed newsletter with a photo
• 29:12
  of the missionary family that goes on the fridge.
• 29:15
  It sits on the desk. It occupies physical space in
• 29:17
  the donor's life. And every time they open the
• 29:19
  fridge to get milk, they see your face.
• 29:21
  And they pray it's a persistent reminder.
• 29:24
  An e-mail is on in a click. Physical mail has staying power.
• 29:28
  That's a great insight. It's worth the cost of the stamp
• 29:31
  to buy that real estate in their home.
• 29:33
  Finally, the financial ask itself make it easy to give if.
• 29:36
  It's hard to give. People won't.
• 29:38
  It is amazing how many ministries make you jump through
• 29:41
  hoops. Fill out this form.
• 29:43
  Mail it to this PO Box. Wait three weeks.
• 29:45
  No put a button in the e-mail. Have AQR code on the letter link
• 29:50
  directly to the giving page. Explain the tax deduction.
• 29:53
  Remove all the friction. Exactly.
• 29:55
  Don't make the donor work to give you money.
• 29:57
  That isn't being worldly, that's just being considerate.
• 30:00
  So let's try to synthesize all of this.
• 30:03
  We have covered a massive amount of ground.
• 30:05
  We started with the shrewd manager in Luke 16, we moved to
• 30:09
  tax advantage giving strategies, we looked at Paul's theology of
• 30:12
  presence and letter writing, and we ended with the mechanics of a
• 30:16
  good newsletter. It seems like a disparate list,
• 30:18
  but there is a single golden thread running through all of
• 30:22
  it. And what's that thread?
• 30:23
  Aggressive stewardship for eternity.
• 30:26
  Walk us through that connection. The parable in Luke 16 gives us
• 30:29
  the mindset. The mindset is I am a manager,
• 30:32
  the time is short, the crisis of death is coming, and I need to
• 30:36
  use these temporary resources to secure an eternal outcome.
• 30:39
  It just destroys passivity. OK.
• 30:41
  And Paul? Paul gives us the method.
• 30:43
  The method is relational partnership.
• 30:45
  It's not just throwing money at a problem.
• 30:47
  It's connecting the body of Christ across geography, through
• 30:51
  communication, and through messengers.
• 30:53
  And then our Mills best practices.
• 30:54
  Our mill gives us the mechanics. He tells us how to execute that
• 30:58
  method with excellence, because if we have the right mindset and
• 31:01
  the right method, but we're incompetent in our execution,
• 31:05
  the mission suffers. It's a call to be professional
• 31:08
  in the best sense of that word about the King's business.
• 31:10
  We so often treat church work as the one place for good
• 31:13
  intentions but sloppy execution. We think, well, God looks at the
• 31:17
  heart. So it doesn't matter if my
• 31:18
  newsletter is full of typos or if I waste money on taxes.
• 31:21
  But Luke 16 says no. Luke 16 implies that the
• 31:25
  children of light should be the smartest people in the room.
• 31:28
  We should be the ones who know how to leverage the tax code for
• 31:30
  the Kingdom. We should be the ones who know
• 31:32
  how to communicate effectively. We should be the ones using
• 31:35
  every tool at our disposal, not for our own comfort, but to fill
• 31:39
  the eternal dwellings. So as we wrap up, let's bring
• 31:43
  this home for the listener. Maybe they aren't a missionary
• 31:45
  raising support. Maybe they aren't as CEO with a
• 31:47
  scholarship fund. Maybe they're just a regular
• 31:50
  person with a mortgage and a retirement account.
• 31:52
  The question is the same for everyone.
• 31:55
  Look at your unrighteous wealth, look at your stuff and ask
• 31:59
  yourself, how is securing me an eternal welcome?
• 32:03
  It really changes how you look at your bank statement.
• 32:06
  It really does. Are you hoarding it for a future
• 32:08
  you cannot guarantee, or are you converting it into something
• 32:11
  that can never be taken away? I want to leave our listeners
• 32:14
  with a final provocative thought, something for you to
• 32:16
  chew on this week, Jesus said. If then you have not been
• 32:20
  faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust you the
• 32:24
  true riches? That is a haunting question.
• 32:27
  Consider this your bank statement might be a more
• 32:30
  accurate confession of faith than what you recite in church
• 32:32
  on Sunday. Ouch, that's a strong word.
• 32:35
  If an auditor looked at your spending, at your investment
• 32:38
  portfolio, would they conclude that you believe in the
• 32:41
  resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come?
• 32:44
  Or would they conclude that you believe this world is all there
• 32:47
  is? And when you die, will there be
• 32:51
  a line? Will there be anyone standing at
• 32:53
  the gates of glory saying I am here because you were shrewd?
• 32:57
  That's the only return on investment that truly matters.
• 33:00
  Amen to that. Thank you for doing this deep
• 33:02
  dive with us. It's been a weighty
• 33:03
  conversation, but a really necessary one.
• 33:05
  This has been reformed thinking. Killing.
• 33:07
  Be shrewd. We'll see you next time.