Missional Preaching for Capital Stewardship
Jeff Rogers, Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church, Greenville, SC
As I began my preparations for preaching during the public phase of a capital campaign in the congregation I serve, I thought of the prophet in Isaiah 40:6 who is called on to “Preach!” but who responds with exasperation, “What shall I preach?”
- Preach the gospel. Even in an age of biblical illiteracy, people in our churches know that Jesus did not say, “Go into all the world and build buildings.” Missional preaching calls individuals and congregations to the biblical imperatives to be witnesses (Luke 24:48; Acts 1:8), to make disciples (Matthew 26:19) and to minister to the least of these (Matthew 25:40). The gospel is the goal, and a capital campaign is a means to gospel ends: expanding and enhancing a congregation’s efforts to share the Good News of Jesus Christ through worship, education, missions and ministry.
- Preach the mission. Every congregation has a distinctive mission and identity in its community and in the kingdom of God. Missional preaching emphasizes a congregation’s distinctive mission to ensure that the capital campaign serves and advances that mission rather than distracts from it. A capital campaign offers a unique opportunity to clarify a congregation’s identity and to renew its commitment to fulfilling its distinctive God-given mission.
- Preach the vision. The vision of an effective capital campaign is not the financial goal or even the construction or renovation it will afford. Missional preaching articulates a vision of God’s future for the church, including the lives of children, youth, adults, and seniors presently in the church and not yet in the church that will be touched. This vision illustrates the content and shape of enhanced mission and ministry inside and outside the walls of the church and the common life in Christ that will be built up. A capital campaign is an ideal opportunity to extend a congregation’s vision by 20 years, 50 years, or even 100 years.
- Preach the legacy. Lyle Schaller has suggested that the generosity of Americans to charitable organizations is the great success story of stewardship education in American churches: we have taught people to give. But the expertise and cunning of many other organizations and institutions sometimes entices our people to give extraordinary gifts in places other than the church. Missional preaching calls our people to the opportunity they have to make their greatest legacy the investment of themselves and their resources in the kingdom of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ through the church.
- Preach the stewardship. Capital stewardship over and above our regular tithes and offerings is an essential part of our trusteeship for the church and the gospel. By challenging us to do more than we think we are able to do, missional preaching for capital stewardship moves us closer to becoming the stewards in all things that God has created and called us to be.
In the end, I was relieved to discover that missional preaching is missional preaching, whatever the time or season or emphasis in the church: “proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance” (Acts 28:31).