Stewardship is a "God Thing"

I recently finished reading Andy Stanley's book, Fields of Gold in preparation for the capital campaign that Trietsch is about to embark upon. I wanted to share some of my thoughts about the book here and see what your thoughts about financial stewardship might be.

Throughout the book, Andy uses the "harvest" metaphor to help people imagine the possibilities surrounding generous giving. I found this incredibly helpful in picturing how a small amount of seed (read: money) can turn into a huge harvest (read: blessing from God) when we are faithful to put that seed out into the ground and let God take care of it.

Andy dealt with the fears that many people have associated with giving and highlighted that many of those fears are irrational. How often are we swayed into irrationality because of our fears? How often are our fears themselves irrational?

The Four P's of Giving:

• Priority - give to God first when income shows up in your household; this avoids giving God the "leftovers" when you finish paying bills
• Percentage - pick one (10% is a good starting point) and keep that target in mind
• Progressive - adjust your giving higher throughout your lifetime as an exercise of faith
• Prompted - "random" giving in response to unique needs; these are not part of your regular planned giving

Fields of Gold largely deals in theory with points of application, but made tons of sense and jived with what other programs/authors have said and written.

The lack of "plan specificity" makes this book applicable across many situation (capital campaign, yearly stewardship, small group learning) and focuses on our response to God's involvement in our finances.