Stewardship Philosophy
The following biblical principles shape Western’s desire to honor God as we invite His people to be rich towards Him through generous, thoughtful and joyful stewardship.
- God ultimately owns everything and entrusts His people with various resources that they are responsible to steward faithfully for His purposes and glory. This entrustment includes, but is not limited to, time, talent and treasure.
- Our giving is primarily motivated by our gratitude for God’s gift of His Son and should emulate this willingness to offer sacrificially what we have for the blessing of others. Just as God’s love prompts our love, so His generous giving should prompt ours in return. Such giving always seeks to promote the greater good of those who benefit from it.
- Western’s role is to provide stewardship education and encouragement to others while also inviting them to consider prayerfully the opportunity to invest in its training ministry. This includes providing biblically-sound resources to others aimed at enhancing their stewardship in general while also sharing reasons why Western might be a strategic ministry for a portion of their stewardship investments, especially where both a steward’s values and recognition of Western’s kingdom impact align in a compelling manner.
- Invitations to invest in God’s kingdom work should be transformational, not transactional. The intent should be to further God’s work of progressive sanctification in each of His people and an ongoing desire to further the best interests of all current or potential investors. That sanctifying work is not furthered if invitations to invest appeal primarily to one’s ego (or other baser motives) or reflect manipulation, deception, etc. Any “best practices” drawn from the broader field of fundraising must first pass a biblical compatibility test before they are utilized.
- Believers should give priority to the support of their home congregation. The New Testament assumes that genuine believers will be part of a local congregation and faithfully supporting it financially (among other ways). Parachurch ministries must be careful not to compete with this primary responsibility but instead make their case to be included in an individual’s discretionary/supplemental giving.
- Ministries that serve God faithfully can be confident that He in turn will faithfully supply their needs. Our faithfulness includes the personal and organizational modeling of the stewardship to which we call others, as well as honoring God in all methods employed when inviting others to invest. This confidence in God’s provision also frees ministries not to adopt in attitude or action a competitive stance towards other ministries, but instead to practice an “abundance mentality” that aims at shared kingdom impact and rejoices when others rejoice. Thus we will be pleased when our efforts fuel greater stewardship in others, even if Western doesn’t directly benefit from that.
KEY BIBLICAL PASSAGES: Ex. 25:2; I Chron. 29:14; Ps. 24:1; Matt. 6:19–34; Lk. 6:38; 12:16–21; 19:11–27; Acts 20:35; Rom. 15:22–28; 1 Cor 16:1–4; 2 Cor. 8–9; 1 Tim. 6:17–21; Jas. 2:1–7