Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5

Trust in God is what gets you through. Leaders change. Children change. Life changes at breakneck speed and yet God remains the same. We trust Him when it is easy and straightforward, and we trust Him when it is difficult and strange. We trust Him most ardently when there is nothing else and only Him. Trust in God is what gets us through.

Two new thriving faith communities are about to be released--each developing its own unique blend of culture and calling. Two new communities are evidence that God is continually revealing His plan to share the gospel of Jesus Christ in new and innovative ways. Church means so much to so many and when we find a church we love, we support it with our witness, our time, our gifts and our service. We might even say we do all this sacrificially.

Stewardship is our responsibility. It keeps us accountable and committed to manage our resources in a God-honoring way with faithful living and prioritizing our faith in the way we live out our daily lives. Financial commitment is part of our responsibility. It is sometimes hard to believe that God is interested in how we spend our money and where we spend our time. 

Many faithful people tell the familiar story: “I was in my late 30’s before the concept of giving to the church and tithing (giving 10% of my income) began to make sense.” Up to then, most people give occasionally or without consideration to what their contribution was all about.

We ask you now to be intentional about your financial commitment to our church as outreach and missions are core to these emerging new faith communities: 

For Wheatland Salem Church, Faith Promise has been a completely different approach to supporting global mission work. We financially support the front-line work of hundreds of people throughout the world through faith-sharing, church planting and leadership development. The gospel of Jesus Christ has never been more relevant and salvation is more important than ever. Faith Promise giving requires us to pray, ask God for what He will provide through us and contribute what He says when He provides.

For the emerging Oswego community, this next season of life will be one in which we create and establish a new distinct way of accomplishing, funding, and carrying out our outreach and missional work. Prayer and discernment are key as we trust God's invitation to fresh and exciting ways of being the church in our surrounding community and world. Ask God where he is inviting you to offer your time, talent, skills, and resources to make that possible.

Commit to pray. Take it one step further and fast for a time. Be diligent when asking God what He wants for you as you step out in faith and take ownership of what it means to be part of the new faith community. We will receive commitment cards November 15, but you may fill out your commitment card and return it at any time.

We are so excited about what God has next for all of us!

Who would you Trust with the most important decisions of your life?

There are four general areas in which we look for someone to care for what is important to us. We look for someone to care for our people, things, history and future. Consider the qualities in a person, organization or church that you believe to be the most important. Why do you believe what you believe?

God entrusted the stewardship of all the above and more to us. Consider what might convince Jesus that He could trust you with what is important to Him. Stewardship is a matter of trust.

Consider the following: Jesus teaches his disciples: are you a disciple of Jesus Christ?

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? Luke 16:10-12 NIV

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TRUST

Trust is a bank term. There is no emotional connection. A trust is something that protects an asset that is important to us. For example, people can create land trusts and financial trusts. Trust has deep meaning with God and trust has deep emotional impact for us. Trust is developed over time in a relationship. A disciple of Jesus Christ trusts Him for salvation, for leadership and guidance and ultimately to be influenced as to how we spend our money. It’s true! God is interested in building trust with us. He learns a lot about us as He examines our spending, saving and investing habits. We must begin first with small things. But, His good and perfect will is to trust us with big things as well.

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Consider the Parable of the Valuable Coins: (Matthew 25:14-30 NIV) God entrusted His valuable resources to His disciples: are you a disciple of Jesus Christ? 

““Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them.” Matthew 25:14 NIV

Notice that God entrusted different levels of wealth to different individuals in this parable. Not everyone is given the same amount of money. Sometimes it is a hard lesson to learn. God values trustworthiness and character when it comes to managing His resources. Two of the servant leaders took God’s resources and made more. But, one of the servants buried God’s resource and responded unkindly.

Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ Matthew 25:24-25

It is a natural thing to consider our material possessions (our own lives) and our time as things that belong to us. The first biblical truth about stewardship is a direct contrast to that belief. God is the owner of all things and he looks to us to manage His resources and inheritance well.  In God’s domain, managing His resources well is about character. 

How would you rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10, one being lowest and ten being the highest, as being trustworthy with God’s resources?

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The Stewardship Mandate

In the very first chapter of the Bible, immediately following the Creation of the human race, the Bible affirms that human beings were created to manage God’s resources on Earth. Here is the Stewardship Mandate:

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Genesis 1:28 NIV

We are accountable to God for how we manage His resources. God entrusts more resources with us as we reveal our faithfulness to Him. God begins with small amounts because we all need to be trained. God doesn’t physically show up as an accountant, but He will require an accounting of how we managed the wise and effective use of His resources. This simple awareness of the accountability we all face can inspire us to rethink the use of our resources in our daily lives.

What areas in your stewardship are you proud to show God how wise and effective you managed His resources? What area needs improvement? Make changes now.

Below you will discover Stewardship resources that are designed to help you meet your financial goals.

Managing Finances God’s Way