This month I want to take time to address the Stewardship System. The goal of the Stewardship System is simply to assist people in becoming growing followers of Jesus Christ. As a church, our plan is to help individuals grow in their faith and invite others to meet Jesus and grow in their faith.

Biblically, we can argue that until people are giving to the church, they are not going to be in a relationship with Jesus. Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:21), 21  Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. Wherever you put your money is where you will put your heart. Jesus knew that our hearts are attached heavily to our possessions and so he addressed money and possessions more than he addressed the subjects of heaven and hell!

Here is a fast “Readers Digest” study on tithing … Some say that tithing is part of the Old Testament “Law” and that we are under the “New Covenant” with Jesus, so we don't have to tithe (tithing = giving the first 10% of our income back to God through the local church) anymore. Let me come back to the New Covenant thing in a bit, but first let's address “The Law”. The Law was given to Moses as the people prepared to enter the Promised Land, but we find that long before that; Abram gave 10% of all the goods he recovered in battle (Gen. 14) to Melchizedek. Abram understood early on that one was to give back to God in thanks for blessings from God.

In the Law, according to The Book of Leviticus, Chapter 27, 30  “One tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain from the fields or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord and must be set apart to him as holy. 31  If you want to buy back the Lord 's tenth of the grain or fruit, you must pay its value, plus 20 percent. 32  Count off every tenth animal from your herds and flocks and set them apart for the Lord as holy That's a tenth of everything they owned, grew, raised and/or produced that went back to the Lord.

Now, if I'm going to give something to the Lord, where do I take it? We are told in Deuteronomy where to take it. Deuteronomy 12:11-12a = 11  you must bring everything I command you—your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, your sacred offerings, and your offerings to fulfill a vow—to the designated place of worship, the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to be honored. 12  “You must celebrate there in the presence of the Lord your God with your sons and daughters and all your servants. I love that … Where do you take the tithe? “—to the designated place of worship, the place the LORD your God chooses for his name to be honored.” Where is it that the LORD your God chooses for his name to be honored? Where is it that we get to celebrate in the presence of the LORD our God with our sons and daughters? Jesus said, “I will build my church…” (Matthew 16). It's in the Church! It's the Church that gets to carry out the Great Commission of Jesus … we are commissioned as Church to “go and make disciples of all the nations … Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you (Matthew 28).”

Jesus did not ignore the tithe either. He got very frustrated with the religious leaders of the day when they demanded of the people to tithe to the Temple and the synagogues, but I'm not sure they were being obedient to God. Remember the story where the Pharisees and Herodians are trying to trap Jesus by asking him if they should pay taxes to Rome? Jesus answered, “Well, then,” he said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.” What belongs to God according to the religious leaders who were following the Law? The tithe!

By the way, with the obedience of the tithe, similar to other aspects of our faith, come great blessings. In the Book of Malachi we are reminded that God promises to bless us greatly for the tithe and not so greatly if we choose not to tithe. In Malachi 3, God proclaims that there will be blessing if we bring the tithe … If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven's Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!

When we show faith, God gets a chance to be faithful and bless us the way God promises. BUT, please understand that God is not a gumball machine (put money in and get a gumball out). Our attitude is an attitude of giving back just a portion of all that God blesses us with … from there we accept however God chooses to bless us. As we talk

about the tithe, we feel like it is our job as Church to offer ways for individuals and

Stewardship System at BMZ … offering ways to show faith as we follow Jesus.

In May, we are going to have opportunities to sign up for Automated Giving at BMZ. It's a chance to make it as easy as possible for us to give in a way that is pleasing to God. Please know that I'm not asking you all to do something that Sarah and I are not doing. We are. We are all in when it comes to what God is doing and wants to do at BMZ! Automated Giving is a tool that we are using to encourage discipleship.

All of the systems that we are attempting to learn and use are tools used to partner with the Holy Spirit to bring people to a faith in Jesus. That's it. We are just trying to find ways to introduce people to Jesus and start them on the road to discipleship.

“BMZ: a place where the un-churched, de-churched, and over-churched can become deeply committed Christians (that is our Mission) ”. What does a deeply committed Christian look like? A deeply committed Christian is a person that Knows God, Loves People and Serves the World (that is our Strategy) consistently. Why? We want to “Change the World for Good One Child at a Time!” Every person you meet and don't meet is a potential child of God and God wants that person to get to know Him through His Son, Jesus the Christ. AND, the “Church” is the tool that Jesus has chosen to use to impact planet earth for His Kingdom (See Matthew 16:13ff).

I believe that God dreams of a Church that is filled with developing followers of Jesus the Christ. I believe that God desires for His Church to GROW! How do we know that? How do we know that God is not pleased if we choose to just to be a club of people who are alike and like spending time with each other at the expense of those who do not know Jesus? Because our Bibles tell us that it is not okay! Here are Jesus' orders: “And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) Will we follow Jesus as the Church?

Over the next few months I will continue sharing in this article more about the systems of the church and what we are doing to improve ours at BMZ.

Next month (June 2012), we are going to come back to our Stewardship System and talk specifically about how we will work with people on the road to discipleship and work to grow the team it will take to run it well!

See You in Worship,

Stan Pegram