The Final Edition
This is The Final Edition of my weekly stewardship newsletter. I’ve dreaded typing that sentence for weeks. I have a couple of pages of random thoughts on what I wanted to say, how to say it, etc. I’ve typed that opening sentence and retyped it so many times in my mind. On a walk on a cold November day, my thoughts solidified. Here they are…
Make Jesus your joy (not your job!). I remember telling my staff that once, after a particularly thorny church issue was weighing heavily upon us. Too often, we base our joy on budgets, buildings, and baptisms. Monday’s mood is often based on Sunday’s results. If our joy is based on last Sunday’s results, it won’t be long until you question if the ministry is for you or if you will ever make a difference. A year out of seminary, sitting in a town of 250, I wondered if God had forgotten about me. I sensed God give me the following statement.
Success is being where God wants you, when He wants you there, doing what He wants you to do.
Everything else is less than success. So, God, who knows everything and has my best in mind, must have wanted me to pastor a church in that rural town. I accepted that I was successful since I would never have dreamed of sending me to Covington TX, to pastor. I stopped worrying. A few months later, God sent me to another place of service, and it all made sense. Make Jesus your joy!
Invest in your family, starting with your wife. The other day, my wife told me that someone had asked about her husband at a recent appointment. She said, “I said you’re the best and that I couldn’t have asked for a finer man and husband.” At that moment, I realized no trophy or accomplishment in the world meant more to me than having my wife say that. Forty-eight years later, I’m more passionately in love with that woman than ever. But I want to be honest with you. I had to put my marriage ahead of my ministry to arrive at this point in my life. Does your wife know she is more important than your ministry? After your relationship with Jesus, your relationship with your wife, and then your family, is your highest calling. Do your kids feel they are more important than your ministry? Your actions will show them more than your words. Invest in your family!
Invest in yourself. Churches will suck the life out of you. They don’t mean to, but it happens. Before you know it, you have lost the joy of ministry. Your job is now just a job, and the burden that once burned in your heart now feels like a burden about to break your back. We have all seen the headlines about burned-out ministers. Do everyone a favor and invest in yourself. First, start by…
Keeping fit! At 5’7”, 250 lbs., in my early 30s, I was a heart attack waiting to happen. I was a poor witness to everyone. I was building insecurity in my young wife that I would leave her a widow with two young children. I changed how I ate and worked regularly on my fitness. You don’t have to run marathons, but you must find something that keeps you fit and trim. Playing 18 holes of golf, riding in a cart, won’t accomplish this. Get off your fat rear end and get fit. It’s one of the best investments you can make in yourself!
Keep learning! Ninety-nine percent of what I have written on stewardship I learned outside of college and seminary. For years, John Maxwell was my coach from afar, and I listened to scores of cassette tapes of his practical teaching. The better I read, the better I write. If you want to improve, keep learning.
That’s my final advice. That advice might seem to not be stewardship-related. You would be wrong in assuming that. Those three points are about the stewardship that counts the most: the stewardship of your life. Are you where God wants you to be, when He wants you there, doing what He wants you to do?
I’m NOT retiring! I still consult with pastors and am available to help with capital campaigns. My writing career continues. I continue to serve what I believe is the finest online giving provider in the industry: https://www.onlinegiving.org/. Stephen Ballard, the owner, invests in me so that I can invest in churches. I will continue my writing for them. You can find my work at https://www.onlinegiving.org/blog. One interesting fact is that OG is implementing AI across its platform. You can see how AI works by reading my final post and then looking at how AI reformatted my text.
The Stewardship Journal site will be my primary domain in 2025 at https://stewardshipjournal.com/ – I plan on fleshing this site out, transferring the bulk of my writing from https://acts17generosity.com/ to the Journal’s site. My goal is to write until Jesus comes for me!
Get stewardship help from the Christian Stewardship Network! Let me recommend you join the Christian Stewardship Network: https://www.christianstewardshipnetwork.com/. They have great materials, conferences, and webinars that will give you great practical advice. Educate yourself!
So, what will I do now? If I had a dollar for every time I asked myself that question, I could buy lunch for us all! Part of the answer came to me in a curious way. I watched a short clip on X of RFK Jr the other day. In it, he says, “Since 2005, I spent 30 minutes every day before I get out of bed, praying. I asked God for 19 years to put me in a position where I could end the chronic disease epidemic and bring health back to our children, and in August, God sent me Donald Trump.” Amazingly, Trump won. If confirmed, Kennedy will be the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. My guess is RFK didn’t have that on his Bingo card when he started praying 19 years ago.
How does this apply to me? For the last few weeks, I’ve been having a pity party about how I failed to see the changes I have been advocating and writing about for over twenty years. I never wrote a bestseller; no one wanted to book me to speak at conferences, and I couldn’t get my denomination, the SBC, to take action, etc. It looked to me as if I had failed.
I was on a walk a few days ago thinking about this and all the wealth of material I have written and recorded. Will it all go to waste? Will it be erased and forgotten after I’m gone? Then I thought about RFK. He gave up his dream of becoming president when he realized it was impossible. Yet, he found a way. So, I’m trusting that the one who gave me all those great ideas, Jesus, has someone in mind that he has to be my Trump. For now, I am at rest, knowing that I am where God wants me, when He wants me there, doing what He has asked of me.
If my writing is never picked up and used by any other institution or organization, I am honored and blessed that it has ministered to you, my faithful reader. If I can ever help you, please let me know. Serving you has been one of the great honors of my ministry. Thank you.
I leave you with this…
Ephesians 3:20,21 20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Blessings,
Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach
mark@acts17generosity.com
OnlineGiving.org, the leading online giving processor in America, sponsors my writing. You can find out more about their services at https://www.onlinegiving.org/.