Stewardship is Nurturing Spiritual Seedlings

While we in the stewardship world do not believe in using techniques to "move people along" to becoming generous toward God, it can be helpful to employ a semi-structured conversation that opens up the dialog to explore some critical background.

My friends, Scott Rodin and Gary Hoag in The Sower come to the rescue again when we have the pleasure of a face-to-face meeting.

"The Christian leader must focus on nurturing each person through personal interaction and correspondence, caring more about the spiritual preparation that the giving...Face-to-face visits scatter the seeds of truth...But how does a leader approach this important work?"

"When calling on someone, regardless of his or her connection to the ministry, approach with intentionality. say you are calling to set up a meeting to hear what God is doing in their life and to share what God is doing at the ministry. Use these five P's to remember the purpose of the visit."

1. Person - Learn about who they, not just what they do.


2. Passion - Find out what facet of God's work they are passionate about.


3. Permission - Seek permission to share about your ministry.


4. Participation - Share how stewards participate in the King's work.


5. Pray - Encourage them to pray about their response.

I had the opportunity this week to have this type of structured conversation. It doesn't feel as rigid as it may look. Remember that we care about the soul of our donor friends; we want them to experience the joy that comes when we release God's "stuff" right back into the Kingdom to do more life changing.

In that sense, this is ministry and discipleship.

Give it a try and tell me how it impacts you.