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Other Recent Blog Entries: God always
has the last word! A Time to
Remember A Call
for Christian Stewardship during Scary Times |
April 2011This Is Our Katrina
This is our Katrina. That is the only way I know how to describe the massive storm damage across our state. Lives have been lost. The numbers continue to mount. Thousands of homes have been destroyed. Some cities, like Hackleburg and Phil Campbell, are essentially in rubble. Parts of Tuscaloosa look like they have been carpet bombed. Pleasant Grove/Concord areas near Birmingham are in desperate condition as well. Power outages across north Alabama have been in the multiple hundreds of thousands. This means food and fuel are in short supply. People in various communities in our state are looking for loved ones who have yet to be found. Churches, like Alberta Baptist in Tuscaloosa, Eastside in Cullman, FBC Phil Campbell, Mountain View in Phil Campbell and FBC Hackleburg are in ruin. So many others are in critically damaged condition too. Believe me, this is not an exhaustive list! I have personally done my best to travel the state and see firsthand the impact of this tornado outbreak. Alabama Baptists have deployed hundreds of disaster relief teams across the affected areas. Our state missionaries are also on the ground helping to coordinate the communication needs and serve as disaster relief workers. Other state conventions have been and are moving assets and personnel into Alabama. What can you do for Sweet Home Alabama? Please pray for your fellow Alabamians. Prayer is always powerful and needful. Second, please give sacrificially to Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief Fund. All monies received will go toward helping people impacted by the storms. This is an overwhelming situation, but we don't have to be overwhelmed. We serve the God of Psalm 46, who is "our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble." The people of Alabama are resilient and resourceful. We will get through this horrific situation. As Alabama Baptists, we will do what we can, where we can, to meet people's needs in the name of Christ. "The Lord of Hosts is with us, The God of Jacob is our refuge." Psalm 46:7,11
BY STATE MISSIONARY BOBBY DuBOIS Guest Blogger ● Associate Executive Director  Here
are some basic principles we Southern Baptists would do well to affirm:1. We need each other. 2. We can do more together than we can do alone. 3. No person or church has enough resources to do, individually, what God has called us, collectively, to do. CP (Cooperative Program), PC (Partnership and Cooperation) and Me! April 10 is Cooperative Program Day in Southern Baptist life. It should be a day of celebration as we affirm how God has used this tool to provide the resources needed to fund a host of state, national and global ministries. In our celebration we should also consider how we will work together in funding future ministry needs. Two words come to mind when I think about the Cooperative Program – partnership and cooperation. Jesus put it this way: "...the fields are white unto harvest but the laborers are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into the harvest" (John 9:36-38). A Significant Opportunity – Jesus reminds us that it is harvest time. He is good at opening doors that would otherwise remain closed. We have doors of ministry and mission opportunity that are currently open. These are doors that Christ Himself has set before us. We cannot afford to miss the harvest that is now ready to be gathered. Souls hang in the balance! Through cooperation and partnership, we can reach these people while there is still time! A Sobering Reality – We have the potential of a great harvest, but we don’t have enough workers. Moments of opportunity may be missed, and the consequences are frightening. At the end of 2010, Alabama Baptist churches reported 1,131,160 members. That is roughly one Alabama Baptist for every four Alabamians, yet over 60 percent of our state remains unchurched. We have enough workers to reach Alabama; we don’t have enough committed workers who see their role in reaching lost family members, neighbors and fellow residents with the Gospel. Alabama is not the end of our assignment. There is a world beyond us that desperately needs the Gospel. Through cooperation and partnership we can mobilize the work force needed to answer God’s call to service. A Strategic Component – Jesus listed prayer as our greatest resource. God has resources we cannot even begin to comprehend. Prayer changes things – even the hearts of believers who have lost their passion for reaching a lost world. Don’t lose sight of the fact that He provides the workers and He guides the work. Through cooperation and partnership we can band together through prayer in an effort to rally the resources needed to reach the world for Christ. A Specific Request – Pray for laborers. Ask for more resources. Pray that good stewards of God’s resources will step forward. Intercede on behalf of those without Christ, and ask for more workers who are willing to give their testimony, time, talent and treasure in this exciting work to which God has called us. Through cooperation and partnership, we can ask God to provide the resources we need in order to be on Mission with His Great Commission. April 10, 2011 is Cooperative Program Day in Southern Baptist life. The Cooperative Program is an 86-year-old tool for encouraging cooperation and partnership in Southern Baptist and Alabama Baptist life. We need each other. We can do more together than separately. No one church can accomplish the task without help. A lost world is waiting. Bobby DuBois is a state missionary and associate executive director for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions. He may be reached at 1-800-264-1225, ext. 219, bdubois@alsbom.org.
Many years ago – okay, it was 1984 – there was an immensely popular commercial for fast food burgers, which posed the memorable question, "Where's the beef?". It was one of those quotable lines which became a part of the vernacular. When people where asking questions about substance concerning a matter, "Where's the beef?" was often employed as a primer for discussion. During the same year, Walter Mondale used the question in a presidential primary debate against Gary Hart. (Though Mondale eventually defeated Hart and others to gain his party's nomination, he lost the election to Ronald Reagan who quipped in a debate that he wouldn't exploit Mondale's "youth and inexperience" for political purposes.) Years later, I spoke with a friend who was writing a book on stewardship. I simply said to him, "Why not entitle it ‘Taking the Stew Out of Stewardship’?" To my surprise, he did just that. I can't remember how well the book was received, but I really liked the title. The book was good in content too. I still have it in my archival library of print books. Lately, I have revisited my suggestion for the title of that book. It sounded so catchy and promising to me then. Now, I have the feeling the elderly lady in the "Where's the beef?" commercial had it right in 1984. I am now asking myself, "Where's the ‘stew’ in stewardship?" By "the stew," I mean "the beef.” Where is the teaching of stewardship of Christian living among us today? We need "to stew about it and we need some stew in it as a Biblical doctrine." Recent statistics are distressing at best. Currently, evangelical Christians contribute to all charitable causes (not just churches) an average of 2.6 percent of their income. That percentage may actually be an optimistic one. It has been tracking downward for decades. I must confess: When I was a young pastor, I dreaded preaching on stewardship. Try as I may, my attempts to broaden the understanding of my people's beliefs about stewardship, I found my attempts to often ring hollow. In retrospect, I believe my passion for the subject was a few quarts low. I felt sensitive about the matter. After all, I was being salaried by their tithes and offerings. Thankfully, later in my ministry, I found my voice on the Biblical teaching of tithing and the overall doctrine of Christian stewardship. Rather than taking out "the stew," I was putting it in the mix as I sought to lead my people to grow in Christ holistically. In today's dialogue about the church, there is a growing hunger to make a difference in our lost and dying world. That is an encouraging sign indeed. The passion for reaching people should never wane. Some have advocated the adoption of challenging lifestyle changes, freeing us from the materialism which plagues our way of life. That is laudable and praiseworthy too. It has been a recurring theme since the 1960s and much needed too. My concern is for the long journey of Christian obedience. I believe we need to add to this current emphasis on passion, a Biblical perspective on teaching stewardship – and, yes, I mean tithing – and going beyond the tithe as well. You can sell all your possessions, home, business, etc., and make an big impact now and, if that is what the Lord leads you to do, then I would not seek to dissuade you. However, consider setting the example for your family and others in your sphere of influence, by committing yourself to be a tither (10 percent contributor to your church). In time, that will make a long term multi-generational impact for Christ in our needy world. This actually accelerates the passion for reaching people to higher levels. I realize that we probably have, at least partially, lost a generation or two of people who do not sense this passion for the long-term perspective of Christian stewardship. Yet, I feel optimistic that we can turn these downward giving trends around in the near future. We can have a balanced Biblical view of Christian stewardship. This approach does not just have a big immediate impact, but a long-term, exemplary one. This impact can keep on having an impact from generation to generation. I like the sound of that affirmation. If I were advising a writer today concerning a book title on the subject of stewardship, I would recommend, "Where is the ‘Stew’ in Stewardship?" I wish I were a good enough writer to do it myself, but – no false humility on this front – I am not that kind of communicator. You may be the one who can put into words the challenge I am seeking to describe. If I have helped you, like my friend a generation ago, then you have “made my day” (to paraphrase that famous philosopher, Clint Eastwood, way out of context). Let's "stew" some about stewardship! Preach it fearlessly, not with the timidity I described. Let's be IMPACT Christians for the long haul. May we see Christian stewardship as a lifestyle worth living, worth teaching and worth being a major part of our legacy as believers. You may not make a big splash immediately, but you can help be a game changer for the future. Stewing for the Savior, Rick Lance II Peter 3:18 |
