If you want to see something you've never seen before...

One of my favorite teachers is Ed Silvoso of Harvest Evangelism International.  Ed always says, "If you want to see something you've never seen before, you'll have to do something you've never done before."

This is blog number-1 in a short series on how to implement such a saying into the vision of a transformational-Missional church.  Let's start with everyone's favorite topic: fund raising that raises faith and makes ministry fun(d)!

A couple years ago the giving at my church plant, Rejoice! in Northfield, MN, was pretty good.  Most of the congregation were not only tithing 10%, but were also gracious in giving sacrificially when invited and enlightened to do so for the sake of blessing others.  Still, I wondered what might happen if I had one of our mature partners get up front during worship and share why they are giving to the ministry of Rejoice!.

...because if you want to see something you've never seen before....

It was to be their story, but I coached them to keep the message tight.  It was to be 3-minutes long, including a blessing prayer at the end to trigger the start of passing the buckets while we broke into worship song.

At first, many liked the idea--- so long as someone else was up front talking!  But after several weeks of partner-after-partner getting up front and sharing from the heart, just about everyone had gone from "I hope Pastor Dan doesn't ask me to do that," to just the opposite, "I wonder when Pastor Dan is going to invite us to share?"

Soon and very soon, the giving at Rejoice! took a jump up...and stayed up!  Why? Because the offering was no longer being initiated by the pastor, but being invited by the ministers of the church--the folks!  Shared stories of God's movement were moving people to share God.  This ministry idea not only trained people to share brief faith testimonies with prayer (over-coming three elements of fear-- public speaking, public testimony and public prayer), but it elevated our giving because worship became a place to testify to God's giving goodness!

Think on this: no fancy steward programs, book studies or a fancy message series were used.  Plain and simple, it was me equipping the saints for the work of ministry.  It was me doing my job to equip them to their job!  Try it, and see for yourselves!  After all, if you want to see something you've never seen before, you have to do something you've never done before!"