God Owns it all - Rich Haynie (OC International)

Part 1 from the article "The Road Lass Travelled in Fundraising"

One group looks at fundraising in a very pragmatic, horizontal way. "People control the resources we need to fund our program. Therefore, we need to find those people so we can access those funds." Simple. Direct. To the point. These are the pragmatic doers who make things happen, whether God might want them to or not. Theirs is the road that "guarantees" programs and techniques, promising "X" returns for "Y" efforts. But the principle underlying the approach is the giveaway that this road is a dead end. People are the source of the funds. People are the secret to obtaining the funds.

The principle underlying the other road is so very different. This is the acknowledgment that God owns it all. It is the recognition that we don't own any of what we call "our" resources. It is all His.

In the context of fundraising, I Chronicles 29 depicts the fundamental concept. David expresses this principle. beginning in verse 10: "Thine, O Lord, is everything that is in the heavens and the earth... Both riches and honor come from Thee, and it lies in Thy hand to make it great.” Further on he prays, "O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided to build Thee a house for Thy holy name, it is from Thy hand, and all is Thine."

Certainly David understood that God is the source. If God owns it all, spending God's money is a spiritual decision. Whether we spend one penny on a piece of bubble gum or $30,000 on a sports car, we are trustees, if you will, of God's money. Therefore we should be well aware of how He wants that money spent. This fact can be difficult for many people. Most of us would feel capable, with very little guidance, of making a one-cent spending decision. But we should remember John 15:5, which reminds us that "...apart from Me, you can do nothing."