Open the Floodgates!
September 7, 2023
I have a friend with a military background who recently shared with me a well-accepted axiom of war. He said, “When planning for a battle, amateurs talk strategy, and professionals talk logistics.” This platitude makes sense when you consider the critical importance of fuel, food, ammunition, and reinforcements to winning any battle. You can have the best strategy to outmaneuver your opponent in a battle, but if your men are starving, your tanks run out of gas, and your cannons have no ammunition, all the strategy in the world will do you no good.
In WWII, the Germans made a bold strategic advance called the Battle of the Bulge, and had it been successful, it might have turned the war for the Nazis. However, it failed primarily due to the lack of fuel that stalled the armor divisions of the Germans. They had a great strategy, but the Allies destroyed their logistics.
I share this to make the point that if we are to engage in the spiritual battles being thrust on us by the moral chaos of our American culture, we must pay attention to logistics. I’m saying this as someone who makes a living helping ministries think strategically about their future. Yet, every strategic plan we create acknowledges that our goal depends on having the fuel to achieve it. In other words, the goals of our strategic plans rely on the funding, personnel, and volunteers to make them possible.
So here is my challenge. It is time for followers of Jesus to throw open the floodgates of generosity in a way never seen before in our nation’s history. If we take the spiritual warfare we face seriously, how can we respond with anything less? Across our country, tens of thousands of effective Christian ministries are fighting on the front lines in every arena of human need. All of them require funding if they are to remain effective. Most face the enemy head-on and pay a significant price for standing for the truth in a confused and accusing society. And I don’t know of an effective Christian nonprofit that couldn’t expand its ministry, touch more lives, and advance God’s Kingdom more powerfully if it had the consistent funding to do so.
In the face of this need, here is both a challenge and a word of hope. There is enough money right now in the pocketbooks and portfolios of God’s people to fund every Christian ministry He has brought into existence, pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing. God’s people control enough wealth to ensure that every Spirit-led goal of every responsible nonprofit can be reached and exceeded to the glory of God. There is no shortage of funds to take the battle to the enemy in an unprecedented way. There is, however, a shortage of faithful stewards.
God help us if we respond to this moment with timid generosity, fearful giving, or self-protectionism. The world is raging against the message of salvation through Jesus Christ, the sanctity of life, the role of the family, the dignity of marriage, the sacredness of sexuality, the pursuit of holiness, and the innocence of children. Daily, ministries are engaged in these issues on behalf of the body of Christ, for you and me. They face persecution, prosecution, and harassment. They endure threats, accusations, and attacks to continue to be a faithful presence in the darkness and evil of our day.
But they can’t do it alone. They need us. Every one of us. They need us to give as we have never given before. They need God’s people to pray for the courage to move God’s resources out of their bank accounts and into His work. They need us to stop thinking about, considering, calculating, and making plans to give. They need us to act, to open the floodgates of generosity! They need us to give bigger gifts than we have ever given. They need us to stop hoarding our resources, finding our security in the size of our savings, and instead begin pouring out what God has entrusted us with as faithful stewards.
What keeps you from giving 50% more or 100% more than you are currently giving? Fear? Lack of trust that God will supply no matter how much you give? We are running so many capital campaigns that require a small handful of people to make decisions to give generous gifts for the campaign to meet its goal. Yet too many hesitate, prevaricate, and rationalize away their opportunity to make a profound kingdom impact. Is there a ministry waiting for you, depending on you, praying for you to give abundantly?
My challenge to you is to pray today that God will give you a new vision of what lavish, abundant giving will look like for you. Ask Him to shock you with how much He may lead you to give. Prepare to be required to trust God like you never have before because He has called you to give like you never have before.
This is our moment. In your community, there are ministries that need you as a financial partner. Don’t make them beg. Pick up the phone and call your local pregnancy resource center, gospel rescue mission, Christian school, or other great organizations, and ask them how you can help. Do they need money? How much and for what? Imagine the joy you will bring to a ministry leader if you make that call. I guarantee you it will make their day.
Please take this challenge seriously. Send this blog to friends and colleagues. Share stories about how God led you, how much He challenged you to give, and the depth of your joy when you were obedient. Let’s start a movement, a generosity revolution that ensures that wherever the Gospel is being proclaimed and lived out through loving service in Jesus’s name, there will be more than enough funding to take it to the enemy.
This is our moment. Open the floodgates. Break the alabaster jar and pour out the costly perfume. The battles are raging; let us meet them with supply lines filled with resources for every ministry working on the front line. The generosity revolution starts today. It begins with you and me.
