Share 22: generosity lived out

share

the stewardship magazine 22 1

generosity lived out

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Tim Hughe

Eric Liddell’s legacy

Emily Vesey

Rick Warren

an alternative retirement plan

give.net gets festive

transforming generosity

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about us We are Stewardship, a Christian charity that effectively releases resources to support individuals, charities and organisations worldwide. Our mission is to enable you to live and give generously, advancing God’s Kingdom.

We believe that generosity is transformational, for the giver and for the receiver. Our work inspires and supports a generous resourcing community, with transformational results.

We are delighted to partner with you in your journey of generosity.

contact us PO Box 99, Loughton, Essex, IG10 3QJ 020 8502 5600 enquiries@stewardship.org.uk stewardship.org.uk You can contact the editor by emailing editor@stewardship.org.uk

editorial Recently I was asked ‘where does generosity live?’

It’s a big question, one that needs further clarification. If we’re bound by geography and finance then – sadly – the answer is ‘further away from us than we might like to admit’. Recent research suggests that Western Christians are giving just 2.5 per cent of their income. Anyone who has attended a church with mud floors and no electricity will suspect that in the developing world that figure is much higher.

But what if we broaden our definition of generosity beyond something that is absolute, away from the idea that it is something fixed, finite and only having a certain gait. Where else can we see it? If we open our eyes wide enough, how far off can we spot generosity as it hitches up its robes and runs down the road?

What baggage do we need to let go of in order to gain a clearer view? What changes need to happen to our notions of generosity in order to see it more clearly?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m in no doubt that we as the Western Church need to loosen our grip on our wallets, after all, it’s all His, isn’t it? In opening our eyes to see generosity in action, I hope that this issue of Share will leave you encouraged and inspired.

Michael O’Neill, CEO Stewardship

Editor: Craig Borlase Design: adeptdesign.co.uk

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news in brief

good samaritan

shed loads of giving

An anonymous philanthropist is transforming lives in the German town of Braunschweig.

Bundles of cash are left in unmarked envelopes, sometimes with spending instructions. Recipients so far include a hospice, a church, a soup kitchen and the family of a severely disabled boy.

A recluse who lived in a shed has left £60,000 to his local parish church in Hatherleigh, Devon. His legacy will be used to refurbish community buildings. “His generous gift means that we will be able to start the work much earlier than we thought,” explained the vicar, Rev Ruth Hansford.

the Olympics in alternative numbers We all know about the medal tallies and world records, but there is another story to be told by the Church’s involvement in the Games.

300 Games Pastors were working from 25 UK locations, including 10 mainline rail stations, two airports, one coach station and several key tourist sites.

The Games Pastors donated 13,000 hours of service to the public while the Games ran.

2,100 volunteers from 40 countries worked with the More Than Gold Mission Team, teaming up with 300 churches.

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More Than Gold’s Family Homestay Programme (of which you can read more on page 30) gave 2,059 nights of free hospitality offered by 178 hosts to 283 guests from 23 countries.

Community Festivals were run by hundreds of churches and reached an estimated

500,000 people.

features...

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now you see it, now you don’t…

JK Rowling’s charitable giving has impacted on her rating in the Rich List. In 2011 she was one of the world’s richest women. Now she is worth a mere £640 million and therefore no longer qualifies for the so-called Billionaires Club.

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Stewardship in action

10-12 generosity without a medal

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a lifestyle of generosity

shoe in The Operation Christmas Child shoebox appeal for 2012 is aiming to reach the milestone of delivering its 100,000,000th shoebox. For the past twenty-two years Samaritan’s Purse has sent 94 million gift-filled shoeboxes to needy children in over 100 countries. If all the children who received an Operation Christmas Child shoebox gift stood hand-in-hand, they would circle the globe twice. To find out what you can do, visit samaritans-purse.org.uk

22-23 the grey nomads

24-25

legal and financial roundup

26-27

consultancy helpline

28-29

give.net at Christmas

30-31 Samaritans Purse 20023034

open house

The magazine is printed on paper from farmed forests: for each tree felled, another is planted. The paper is ­­­­chlorine-free and environmentally friendly.

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Stewardship in action

who’s holding your ladder?

Being called into mission is a bit like climbing up on to a roof – if you’ve got someone holding the ladder at the bottom, you feel a lot more secure. From recent surveys that we at Stewardship have carried out, we know that Christian workers can often feel isolated, disheartened and out of their comfort zones when faced with the uphill challenges of raising their own financial support. So what difference does it make if you have a group of people ‘holding the ladder’?

the real goal isn’t about raising money. The real goal is to raise up people and create solid, long-term partnerships

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Lynn and Marti Green of YWAM with Lyndon Bowring, their Support Group facilitator and long term friend

Myles Wilson, author of Funding the Family Business, has been raising his own support for over 30 years and runs Stewardship’s training days. “I cannot emphasise enough that the real goal isn’t about raising money. The real goal is to raise up people and create solid, long-term partnerships. On our training days I often hear people say that they don’t have enough time to develop and maintain a support team. My advice is that once your support is up to target, you should spend ten per cent of your working time on maintaining that support.”

of YWAM – who has also raised support for four decades – echoes Myles’ thoughts: “At the beginning of our ministry we were often living hand to mouth and it felt quite stressful and lonely. Our great friends Lyndon and Celia Bowring suggested forming a smallish group to specifically support us in our ministry. For over 35 years we have been meeting two or three times a year. It is important to invest time and energy into these friendships; nurturing your support group is as important as your mission work. In turn they have enriched our lives and

provided stability and a refuge through difficult times. Most of us underestimate the value of wise counsel and I can’t stress enough that for anyone entering the mission field, setting up your support group should be a main priority.”

Lyndon Bowring, the group’s facilitator and coordinator, comments: “The Greens are based in the UK, so meeting up is relatively easy. I would suggest that if you are a mission worker overseas that you set up two groups: one in your sending country and another group of supportive friends where your work is. It

Lynn Green, international chair

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Taryn and Peter Prescott

is important to have different strengths and experiences in your group. Think about including a variety of ages, perhaps an accountant, business person or a lawyer, but above all it is commitment and enthusiasm that you are looking for. We meet a couple of times a year over a meal and consider a short report, moving on to updates on family, finances, health, any issues both home and abroad and even looking at the diary to see if it works for both Lynn and Marti.”

Stewardship is working hard to help Christian workers establish support groups, and the topic is a key focus on our training days for Christian workers.

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well from different churches in the Cambridge area.” Taryn adds: “We are newly married and it is quite challenging having to think about finances and housing. I try not to worry about these things and I think a support group will Recently married, Peter and help us immensely coping with this Taryn Prescott are committing sometimes uncertain life we have themselves to full-time Christian been called to.” ministry. In the short-term they will be working as an evangelist and worship leader. Longerterm they feel called by God to work in Northern India with frontier mission working and church planting. “After talking to Lynn we are in the process of setting up our own support group,” explains Peter. “We are asking some couples older than ourselves that know us These practical, biblically-based workshops provide resources, knowledge and tools for Christian workers out in the mission field both in the UK and abroad.

what a support group is...

and what it isn’t...

It is halfway between a trustee board and a group of friends

Not a board of directors with authority

Completely committed to you and the group Holds you accountable and asks searching questions Is independent and outside your ministry Adds insight, acts as a sounding board, helps to be objective

Not your administration team Not just your financial supporters Not a substitute for you making decisions Not work colleagues Doesn’t underwrite all your expenses

If you would like practical advice and support from Stewardship to help you establish a support group, join us on our next training day for Christian workers on 22nd November 2012. For more information please contact education@stewardship.org.uk Lynn Green YWAM - 20022458

Peter and Taryn Prescott 20125482

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what generosity looks like There’s a clear, unbreakable link between generosity and finance, even though – as the saying goes, the wallet is often the last part of a person’s life to be converted. But what other areas of life should generosity impact? How much wider does its net go? We hear from three individuals searching for answers.

But first, some scripture...

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“Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.”

Luke 17:33

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hese words from Jesus are complicated. They appear as part of a discussion on the kingdom of God, a passage which throws up deeper questions about endings, timings and the signs that may or may not accompany God’s intervention in the world. There is specific advice – an exit plan, if you will – for field-workers and house-dwellers, bed-sharers and grain-grinders. There are vultures and dead bodies and questions from a bemused audience.

Yet these words from Jesus are not complicated at all. They may not be comfortable, but they lack nothing when it comes to clarity. What seventeen words could better define the God-stamped view of money, possessions, potential and resources than these; whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.

Somehow generosity can become far more complicated than it really should be. It can be tempting to peer over the fence and – observing our neighbour’s possessions – ask whether we are generous ‘enough’.

Enough for what? Enough to assuage the guilt? Enough to buy some peace? Enough to forget about giving until the next appeal disturbs our materialistic isolation?

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Somewhere among these questions we lose sight of the simple yet profoundly beautiful truth that generosity is the key to a life lived fully. We see it in Genesis, at the end of the Gospels and all throughout history.

We were not created to hoard but to share God’s blessings. If we want to thrive and know the fullest life that God intended for us, then we must learn to loosen our grip on life and its collateral.

What follows are three character traits of a generous lifestyle. It is not an exhaustive list, nor are we holding these people as having somehow made it. But they have each taken deliberate steps towards a lifestyle marked by generosity. It is our hope that the stories which follow will leave readers inspired, challenged and curious to take your own next steps.

If we want to thrive and know the fullest life that God intended for us, then we must learn to loosen our grip on life and its collateral.

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‘you need to move to the Meriden.’ I told Him, ‘No way’ and put some music on. Then a friend phoned saying that God had just spoken to her about the two of us moving onto the same estate.

I hung up the phone!”

Emily didn’t hold out for long, and within months – thanks to the generosity of another friend who bought a flat for them to live in – they were living on the estate. Eleven years later, and there is plenty to be thankful for.

Emily Vesey

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“ love watching what God is doing in these people’s lives and yet I know that God is slowly killing my pride. I don’t have a career and it leaves me wondering what all this downward mobility really means. When God’s given you a brain, does not using it mean I am being a bad steward? But when I remember that Jesus left heaven and became a servant, surely I can lose some of my middle classness and serve others?”

For Emily Vesey the journey so far has been remarkable. Thanks to the support of others, the grace of God and plenty of obedience on her behalf, she is caught up in an adventure of a lifetime – living out a generous lifestyle in a much-maligned council estate.

Emily is one of a dozen or so members of a church in Watford who have chosen to live in one of the area’s least desirable postcodes. Its reputation as a haven of drugs, violence and the sort of horrors that make headlines was well earned. For Watford residents, the Meriden is a location to be avoided.

“In 2001 I was living in a nice part of town,” explains Emily. “And one day I felt God say 16

Like the time a few months ago when a neighbour told Emily that her daughter had had a gun pulled on her for a £20 debt. She asked if Emily and her friends could do a prayer walk, which they did and didn’t think much more about it. The following Monday the neighbour called back round, saying: “I knew that you prayed; there was no violence on the estate all weekend – not just no guys turning up with guns, but nothing else at all. So we decided that the next time there is violence we will get you to prayer walk and solve things that way.”

The team of others from the church who live on the Meriden includes a barrister (the profession that Emily had previously set her sight on), and the presence of friends with a shared vision helps to spur people on when times are difficult. Yet even those times cannot dilute the knowledge that God has been powerfully at work.

“I’ve seen God do more in me than through me,” says Emily. “I’m definitely more patient (though I’m still not that patient really). I came here thinking that we have so much to teach, so much to offer, but I now know that I have so much to learn. They have taught me how to be a good neighbour and they are much better at looking after me than I am at looking after them. Even though estate mentality is criticised, it has positives. They have been accepting of me, which is so humbling. They have been here for generations, and I feel grateful that they have included me. It is such a privilege.

to give money is one thing, but what about the whole of me?

Jesus gave it all, so what about my life?

Am I available?

“I’ve felt challenged that to give money is one thing, but what about the whole of me?

Jesus gave it all, so what about my life? Am I available? That’s why I moved here – to be around so that I could build real relationships with people – but at first it was all on my terms.

When they started dropping in at other times, I felt challenged about how generous I was really being.

“Last week I gave away my TV because my neighbour needed one. After she’d taken it she came back up really cross as there was a missing lead. I felt so annoyed with her! But it made me think: am I really just OK to be generous when I have chosen it, or only when people are appreciative? I want to be in a better place. I am nowhere near where I want to be, and I have so much to learn.

“But what I do know is that I can only be generous because of what God and others have given me. When I moved to the Meriden I felt like God said that my flat would be a haven for people and a place where people who are at

sixes and sevens would come and find healing. I wanted it to be a place where everyone would always be welcome, and amazingly ever since I moved in it has always been a very full flat with friends and neighbours! After a while I started to panic as I wasn’t sure that on a low salary (that didn’t even cover my living expenses) I could continue feeding and watering lots of others too!... But as I prayed about it I just said to God that I would trust Him to provide for whoever found themselves at my flat and I’d try to keep being generous.

“The amazing thing is that we’ve always had enough food for everyone that’s come over – whether they are invited or unexpected guests! And none of this would have happened without others being obedient to God with the things they have been given. I am so grateful to Him and humbled by His kindness, and the kindness of others who are also very generous.”

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I never stopped to think about what you lose – there’s so much more that you gain from team.

“There were lots of reasons why Worship Central started,” says Tim. “We wanted to do something based within a local church; we knew that worship can never really be about one person and I’ve always loved the team dynamic and have always wanted to see lots of people involved.”

Tim Hughes

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isit TimHughes.com and you arrive at a rather plain looking site related to ‘Historical Research and Genealogy’. It seems that this particular Tim Hughes is not the same one who has written some of the church’s best known songs – from Here I Am To Worship to Happy Day and Beautiful One. There’s a reason why Tim Hughes the worship leader and songwriter hasn’t nabbed his name’s domain, and it’s all to do with one simple word: teamwork. Ask him what it takes to train, resource and equip worshippers in local churches across the entire globe, and the notion of big campaigns built around even bigger personalities simply doesn’t feature in his answer.

Instead, he’ll probably point you to Worship Central – the movement Tim co-founded in 2006. A collective of songwriters, musicians, strategic thinkers and technical specialists, Worship Central is a thriving example of what happens when generosity is placed at the heart of church ministry strategy.

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It seems to be working. With sold out events throughout the UK and an album that reached number nine in the UK charts last year, Worship Central is increasingly well known – but not just for the numbers or the chart positions, as Tim explains: “These days people seem interested in knowing whether what goes on at worship events is backed up by the same things on a Sunday. People are asking, is this worship authentic, or is it staged? For that to happen it needs to be earthed in the local church, with roots going deep.”

The latest Worship Central project has been their course, a seven-session affair designed to inspire and equip local churches to develop their own worship teams. With input ranging from the practical to the theological, the Worship Central course has much in common with Alpha, another product of Tim’s home church, Holy Trinity Brompton.

Like Alpha, Worship Central’s course is given away free of charge, another indication of generosity’s place within the movement. “With the course we talked about giving it away and felt that if it means that more people can run

the course, then why not? Our heart is to resource and bless people, and while there are costs to that and there are things we would love to do but struggle to find finance for, we trust God to provide.”

They take the same approach with their conferences. “We have a passion to make what we do accessible to young people. Our conferences only ever just break even so that 15 and 16-yearolds can afford to come.

We’d hate for them not to be able to come and get trained, resourced and equipped.”

So far the course has been run by over 900 different groups in almost 70 countries, with between 80 and 100 registering each month. “We’re just getting going. A guy in South Africa got involved and has already put on tons of courses – even though we’ve never been there. That’s how team can work.”

But what of the losses? Surely if he’d gone down the TimHughes.com route there would have been some advantages – like getting his own way more of the time.

“I never stopped to think about what you lose – there’s so much more that you gain from team. You can share risks and that’s so liberating. On your own the delight you get from a new album or event is just not the same as when you share it with others.”

described being inspired by the Team GB athletes the night before he demolished Federer, and seeing other athletes cry when they felt as though they had let the others down was powerful. Deep down within us all there is the desire to belong. Of course there are disagreements and challenges to working with a team, but those disagreements and challenges in turn lead you to a far stronger position, to a stronger place with stronger convictions.”

But isn’t individualism everything these days?

Doesn’t teamwork somehow go against the grain? Not according to Tim. “It was interesting watching the Olympic athletes raise their game because of the power of team. I loved it when Andy Murray

Worship Central Via HTB - 20023915 19

Speaking at this summer’s HTB leadership conference, Rick described how, thirtyseven years ago he and his wife, Kay, started their marriage with a commitment to be more generous with every year that passed. They started giving away ten per cent of their income, then rising with each year. “On years that we got a raise and things were good we’d raise it three or four per cent, but on years that we were flat broke and the cupboards were bare we’d raise it a quarter.

Rick Warren

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ou’ve got to love God’s sense of irony.

What better opening line for one of the most popular books ever published than the words ‘It’s not about you’?

“When you write the most translated book in history – the bestselling book in English beside the Bible – you earn tens of millions of dollars. I became enormously wealthy and it scared me to death.”

For Rick Warren, the author of The Purpose Driven Life, the sense of fear which accompanied such phenomenal wealth marks him out. How many lottery winners could you imagine experiencing horror and trepidation as their numbers come up? And of those that did, how many would admit it in public?

But for Rick Warren the reaction made perfect sense, coming as it did after years of swimming against the financial tide.

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“We didn’t do it to show off. I didn’t tell anybody about it for thirty years, but we kept raising it and raising it and raising it and this last year we raised it another per cent. Now Kay and I give away 91% and live on 9%.”

The story of Rick and Kay Warren’s giving is far more intriguing than the details of their earnings. They have not moved house in over two decades and Rick drives the same Ford truck that he has owned since the dawn of the new millennium. Their life, it seems, is a clear illustration of Jesus’ explanation that wherever our treasure is, so lies our heart.

Still, people do want to quiz them about the money.

“People ask ‘why’ God chose me to write the book. I say ‘because God knew what I’d do with the money.’ They say that if God gave them tens of millions they’d give it away too. No, I say, you wouldn’t because you’re not doing it now. I had a 25-year track record in being generous in poverty...”

That history of disciplined generosity, of constantly reassessing financial priorities and a desire to simply give more and more away has led Rick Warren to a place of genuine insight and the platform from

which to share it. He sees generosity as being of pivotal importance to us today, and describes it as the antidote to materialism – which he defines as ‘the temptation to see and want’. But there’s a lightness and a sense of freedom about his teaching that catches many off guard: “For 37 years God and I have been playing this game. He says: OK Rick, you give to me and I’ll give to you and we’ll see who wins.

“I have lost that game for 37 years. You cannot out-give God. I dare you...”

People ask ‘why’ God chose me to write the book. I say ‘because God knew what I’d do with the money’

Perhaps there is a reason why generosity is about so much more than the tally of our monthly direct debits. This is a multi-faceted adventure, a myriad of endless paths where the direction matters even more than the destination. And like all epic journeys, there is one simple question that should never be far from our lips: what’s next? Perhaps we are being nudged towards a little more openness, a greater degree of collaboration or a more disciplined approach to these finances we find at our fingertips – or maybe the challenges are entirely different. Yet whatever the steps we have taken so far... what’s next?

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ask Steve‌ Professional advice for churches and charities Stephen Mathews heads up the Stewardship consultancy helpline team, a specialist service offering expert knowledge to churches and charities.

Question: Our church pays nothing towards the retirement of our pastor. Is there anything we should be doing?

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It’s expected that 40% of clergy in Britain will retire in the next ten years. Pension planning and provision within the church is a hot topic and these latest figures suggest that it is likely to become even more so in the near future.

Whether your pastor is thirty or sixty years old, right now is exactly the time that you should start preparing for their retirement. We are living longer, ageing as a population and the strain on the public purse is increasing. If, as a church, you are tempted to bury your head in the sand – don’t!

As a church you may want to consider: c Talking with your pastor about the future.

Don’t assume they have plans in place. c Encouraging your pastor to consider taking

advice about joining a private pension scheme into which the church and the pastor can make regular contributions. c Setting up a stakeholder pension for your

pastor and other employees. c Exploring other ways of providing future

income and financial security for your pastor (the more unconventional the route, the more complex it will become and the more advice you will need to take).

It’s fair to say that the majority of pastors don’t get paid a lot. Your pastor may have been tempted to delay saving for retirement, leaving the prospect of moving on from full-time work extremely daunting. Alternatively, they may put off retiring altogether, leaving the church with an entirely different pastoral issue.

As you discuss plans for your pastor’s retirement, remember to recognise that this is an important issue to tackle, keep it simple and plan as far in advance as possible. This will help your church avoid difficult conversations and potentially problematic living conditions for your pastor in the future.

If you have a question you would like addressed in a future issue of Share, please write to us at editor@stewardship.org.uk

Stephen Mathews Head of Accountancy and Consultancy Services

For a low annual subscription, the consultancy helpline offers advice on legal, financial, property, charity law, trustee responsibility, employment and insurance issues.

For more information about how your church or charity can gain access to this specialist team, contact consultancy@stewardship.org.uk or call 020 8502 5600 for details.

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generosity begins at home During the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, accommodation costs in London rocketed, often proving too expensive for people travelling from abroad. More Than Gold’s Family Homestay Programme helped take down the hurdles.

During previous Games the Christian community provided over half of all the accommodation required to host Olympic and Paralympic athlete family members. The trend continued for London 2012, with Homestay hosts like Tim and Claudia Smith offering hospitality and accommodation within easy reach of the Olympic Village.

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Having recently retired – and with their home in South Woodford – Tim and Claudia were ideal candidates for the programme. “We hosted two families,” explains Tim, a retired civil engineer.

“Our first guests were a Mongolian athlete’s family, and our second were Noro, Landi and Falia, the wife and daughters of a member of the Madagascan Olympic Committee.”

As hosts, Tim and Claudia provided bed and breakfast plus transport to and from an Olympic hub at the beginning and end of the stay. They also helped guests get the hang of the Tube and on occasion went a little further than their brief. “We didn’t stick to the letter of the law,” explains Tim. “We also had dinner together a few times – we wanted to give our guests a generous and hospitable experience.

“We had so much fun communicating,” adds Tim. “Our French isn’t brilliant, but Noro, Landi and Falia were so lovely that there was lots of laughter, even when we didn’t understand each other.”

It sounds like a cliché, but we wanted to be part of this once in a lifetime event. We were keen to help and were happy to offer what we could

Tim and Claudia with Noro, Landi and Falia

What made them apply for the Homestay programme in the first place? “It sounds like a cliché, but we wanted to be part of this once in a lifetime event. We were keen to help and were happy to offer what we could.”

How did they feel prior to their guests’ arrival? “We did feel a little apprehensive, but in fact the whole experience was a joy and a privilege. I suppose you could say that we have sacrificed our time, and to a certain extent our privacy, but it was such a pleasure.”

In addition to improving their conversational French, the Smiths also learned a fair amount about Madagascar.

“It was fascinating – the Rahovelsons attend a Lutheran church at home, which is quite a contrast to our own church. That was one of the great things about Homestay as far as we’re concerned – learning more about how other people live.”

For all concerned, it appears that the Homestay programme has been an outstanding success. Tim and Claudia also got involved in the Paralympics, as part of the Olympic Village management team – but that’s another story altogether!

More Than Gold 20110993 31

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transforming generosity

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