Leadership Thought: It's Not About the Money but the Ministry-Tribute to Bill Roberts.

Dear Friends

It is nice to be missed. I had several e-mails wondering why no "Leadership Thoughts" the last few days. Jean and I had planned to take a week off during Memorial Day weekend to head up to our  cottage on Lake Ontario, a few miles from Watertown, N.Y. where we both grew up. When we arrived, we had to wait for our internet service to be installed, and just as that  happened, we received news of the passing of a dear friend in the church, whose obituary I have included below.

As you know before I left, I had shared some thoughts about stewardship, and specifically as it relates to our giving. I had planned to finish up my final thoughts on how I believe a Christian should decide what to give, but I will save that for tomorrow.

I will add, however, that my reason for presenting some thoughts on stewardship was not motivated as one of my friends commented, I hope facetiously. He wrote, “Tom, your church much be hurting for you to be speaking about money the way you have.”

I laughed as I thought about his comment. No, my friend, that was not the case. However, for those who might be interested I asked our church treasurer to send me some statistics on our church's  giving, for I know that the pandemic has impacted most churches financially. I am happy to report that our people have stepped up their giving. To this day I have intentionally avoided knowing what any of our members give. However,  I am interested in the average weekly amount of each of our givers, and I was pleased to discover that for the month of May the average weekly gift was $ 261.00 which added up to a total of almost   $60,000 for the month of May. As a result, we are not far off from achieving our annual budget for the year. I am proud of how so many of our members have stepped up their giving to help make up for some of those who have been economically impacted by this virus. More about this tomorrow.owever,

But today I wanted to share why I am so proud of our church. Following the graveside burial service which  Pastor Nick and Pastor Jared  and I led,  we were met by a police escort that took led us back to the church and to the home of Dottie Roberts whose husband we had just buried. Along the  mile between the church and the Robert’s home, the sidewalk was lined with throngs of people, young and old, who wanted to share in the service but who were unable to do so because of  burial restrictions which required only family members to attend. They waved and hoisted signs of love and appreciation for Bill, and what an incredible encouragement that was to the grieving family

It has been said that “the only thing that walks back with the mourners from the grave site and refuses to be buried in the character of a man.” Bill Roberts left the footprints of his character everywhere he stepped. Because of this, I wanted my Leadership Thought today to simply be a tribute to a man that I and so many others came to know and love.

How will our obituary read? What will people write and say about us at our funeral.” Hopefully it won’t be about our money, but our ministry!   In the end, life is not about what we have gained but what we have given, not  what we have saved but what we have sacrificed, not what we have won but what we have done. My friend Bill Roberts learned this lesson well.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom                    

                                      Please read part of Bill’s obituary below. 

William J. Roberts, a lifelong resident of New Monmouth, passed away on May 21, 2020 at the age of 88. He was born on his family’s farm to the late Thomas S. and Helen (Conover) Roberts. Bill graduated from Leonardo High School in 1949 and earned his Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Agricultural Engineering at Rutgers University. Having completed ROTC, he served his country from September 1953 to July 1955 serving in the Far East Command in Japan as a First Lieutenant. He then taught at Cook College, Rutgers University, where he achieved Professor II status, served as a Department Chairman for 23 years, and worked as a Professional Engineer and extension specialist in bioresource engineering. Bill retired from Rutgers in 1999 after a distinguished 41- year career. His work and passion have left an indelible imprint across the globe in the form of the air-inflated, double-layer polyethylene greenhouse, an innovation that revolutionized the greenhouse industry. When asked about this project, Bill would modestly say, “everyone has a good idea once in a while.” The site of the original greenhouse at Rutgers was designated a national agricultural (ASABE) historic landmark in 2004. As a Professor Emeritus at Rutgers, he received the Distinguished Service in Agriculture Award from the New Jersey Farm Bureau, the Agribusiness Heritage Award and the Gold Medallion Award from the New Jersey Agricultural Society. He was named a Fellow for his national professional association, the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. These are only a few of the awards for his outstanding contributions to New Jersey and global agriculture.

Throughout his life, Bill was an active member of New Monmouth Baptist Church and proud to be the great-great-grandson of its founding pastor. His devotion to his Lord and Savior was evident to all who knew him. For over 65 years, he served the church in various roles. Along with his wife, Dottie, he was a youth leader for twenty years and led a Wednesday night Bible study for over forty years until his death. Over the years, they also led mission trips to Appalachia and Ecuador and were active members of the church choir. He taught a Sunday School class beginning while in Japan and continuing until the present as well. He was a deacon for over fifty years, exemplifying servant leadership and mentoring younger church leaders who now serve throughout the world. He will also be remembered specifically for his hugs, jokes, and stories. Bill also served as the faculty advisor for Campus Crusade at Rutgers and on multiple mission boards, including Farms International and Chapin Living Waters. His love, faithfulness, and hospitality impacted countless lives as he strove to follow Christ. The resurrection of Christ was the foundation of all Bill did and the source of hope for his future.

Leadership Thought: Stewardship Thinking, the Tithe and Beyond.

Dear Friend,

Yesterday we discussed the  ‘why’ of giving. We said everything we have belongs to the Lord and we are simply His money managers. Simply put, “God owns it all.”

The Psalmist reminds us that “The earth is the Lords and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it (Psalms 24:1).

Well if God owns it all, what does He expect from us. How much should we be expected to  give Him?

For many years I taught that we should tithe or give  a tenth of our income to the Lord. There are plenty of Old Testament passages that support the giving of the tithe. Leviticus 22:30 tells us she should give “a tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees. (Everything) belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.”

There are plenty of other Old Testament verses that support the giving of the tithe.  In fact,  the Old Testament Jew gave not only the tithe, but even beyond the tithe. Some scholars suggest with other special offerings and land taxes a Jew might have given as much as 23 percent of his income to the Lord.

Most of us know the rebuke the Lord gave to the Jews regarding their giving in Malachi 3:8-10. God asks  “Will a man rob God. But you ask, how do we rob you? In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse-the whole nation of you because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that they may be food for my house.”

That message doesn’t preach to well in many of today’s churches.

The tithe was not only the giving pattern for the Old Testament Jew but even before Moses gave the law the tithe was observed. It dates back 400 years before the law where we see Abraham giving a tithe to the priest Melchizadek, who some believe was a pre incarnate appearance of Christ.

And the tithe seems to be observed in the time of Jesus. In Matthew 23:23 we read castigating the religious leaders, saying  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, (without) leaving the others undone.”

Tithing, as a model for giving, seems to date back to the early church as well.

Well if the Old Testament taught the tithe and Jesus refers to it, and the early church seemed to have practiced it, doesn’t it make sense that should be our giving guide? ? For many years that is what I believed and taught until my thinking changed, and we will talk about that tomorrow

But let me give you a “spoiler alert” should you decide to read ahead. I believe the tithe is just the beginning of what we should give. As Randy Alcorn states in his thought-provoking book The Treasure Principle , “Tithing should be the starting place for our giving, not the finish line. Tithing can be the training wheels to launch us into the mind set skills and habits of grace giving.” The Treasure Principle, Randy Alcorn, p 61. More about this tomorrow as we examine “grace giving.”

Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom

Leadership Thought: Who Says I Don't Own My Money?

Dear Friends,

Glad you are still with us after I shared some thoughts about giving in yesterday’s Leadership Thought. I want to continue discussing this subject for the next two days.

Someone said Satan loves to have the church argue about the use of  money for if he can get the church leaders spending more time talking about whether there is enough money to fix the roof, than fixing the ministry that’s under the roof, he has got you.

When it comes to giving, the bottom-line verse for me is 1 Cor 4:2 which states “that it is required of stewards to be faithful.” A steward is someone who manages someone else’s money. He is an asset manager.  He only does what the owner wants. He doesn’t own the store; he just works there. The steward manages the money that belongs to the owner. It is his responsibility to find out what the owner wants done with his assets, and then carry out his will.

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, and one of the world’s greatest evangelist  understood this concept of ownership. When someone told Wesley that his home burned down, he said, “No, it was not his home, but the Lord’s house that burned down. This means one less responsibility for me.” His reaction was not denial but a bold affirmation that God is the owner of all things and we are simply to manage His assets.
The bible tells us that one day we will all stand before God, and we shall give an account for the way we have managed His assets (Romans 14:10). One man I read about carries in his wallet a card, and on one side is the statement “God owns every treasure. I am his investment manager." On the other side of the card is written, “God wants me to use earthly treasures to store up heavenly treasures and underneath are two bible references. They are Christ’s words in Matthew 6:1-4 and Paul’s words to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:6. I hope you will look them up. 

Simply put, to understand stewardships is to recognize that God owns it all, and that what happens to mine (my resources) is the result of what has happened to me. Apparently not much has happened, if we consider that this past year’s church member’s average gift to the church was is $ 2.57 out of each $ 100 earned.

It is easy to sing the words of the old gospel hymns “I Surrender All” or “Take my silver and my gold, not a might would I withhold.” However, it is another thing to share the music’s message with our lives.

Tomorrow we will continue to examine this subject as we look at how and what we should give.

Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom

Leadership Thought: Up Close and Personal-Your Giving.

Dear Friends,

"How’s your giving?"  Now that’s a pretty personal question, pastor. Yes, it is,  but it’s an also a pretty good indication of your spiritual health. Perhaps it would have been wiser of me to have first asked you  "How is your spiritual health," and then looked at your giving as one of the measures of that health. Either way, talking about giving is a touchy subject. It has gotten a lot of pastors in a whole lot of trouble.

But as one who many years ago taught on stewardship on Mothers’ Day,  I can take the heat. If sermons are good, they are generally memorable, and this sermon was just that-memorable. People still are talking about it, albeit not always for the best of reasons from my perspective.

For the next couple of days, I would like to explore with you what the bible has to say about giving. Let me warn you. What I share may be hazardous to your pocketbook but trust me it could make a marked difference in your spiritual health, so hang on and bear with me.  

Perhaps you have heard someone say, “I go to a spiritual church where our pastor never has to talk about money. Well,  if this is the case than Jesus must have been pretty unspiritual, for he was never embarrassed to discuss the use of our possessions. In fact, 16 of his 38 parables address the use of our possessions. One in every 10 verses in the New Testament have to do with one’s use of money or  possessions. Jesus talks more about money than he does heaven and hell and faith combined.
As we will see, Jesus talked a lot about money matters, because He knew that “money matters.” Jesus knew that when a man gets rich, either God gets a partner, or a man loses his soul. Just read the portrait of the rich man who came to Jesus in Mark 10. He was close to faith, but in the end, it was his money that kept him from the kingdom.

In 2 Corinthians 8:7, Paul tells us that we are to excel in the grace of giving. The idea of excelling assumes that like playing the piano, we can get better, and that with spiritual growth comes growth in spiritual giving 

"The world asks, "How much does he give?" Christ asks, "Why does he give"? We will talk more about that tomorrow.

Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom

Leadership Thought: How Not to Pray for Answered Prayer.

Dear Friend

In my Mother’s Day message, I discussed the power of a praying mother, and how Hannah’s prayer life not only impacted the life of her son ,Samuel, but the destiny of the nation Israel. You can read this remarkable story in 1 Samuel 1.

After  Hannah returns to her hometown, we read in v. 19  the “Lord remembered her.” Now God didn’t forget Hannah; he simply remembers the prayer she offered at Shiloh, the nation’s worship center where she said to God,  “If you will give me a son, I will lend him back to you for life.”

No. the Lord didn’t forget her prayer, because the Lord never forgets our prayers, unlike some of us who pray.

I will sometimes pray about something, and I will pray and pray with great intensity. But after a period, the intensity  of my prayer will diminish until it  becomes  but a distant memory. And then one day it happens. The prayer is  answered, and I act surprised. The Lord says, “Tom, why are you so surprised? Isn’t this what you had been asking me for?"  “Oh, Lord,” I apologize. “I am so sorry, but I forgot that prayer.

Sometimes we think unanswered prayer is the same thing as the Lord saying  “No” to our prayers, and we give up our prayer too soon. The answer “Wait’ is just as much an answer to our prayers as is His ‘Yes.’ Sometimes God wants us to wait for He has something bigger and better in store for us than even the thing for which we were praying. Hannah was wishing for a son, but God was waiting for a prophet. His timing is always perfect.

At my age you would think I would me more than a novice at prayer, but I am not. I am still learning and still growing and still often embarrassed by my feeble efforts.

I will pray for some burden I am carrying, and I will say “Jesus, here is my burden, and I’m giving it to you to carry. “And then as soon I have finished praying, I reach out and take my burden back. And He lets me do it because He knows that if He answered my prayer right there and then that would be the last He would see me. I would wave goodbye and be on my way and that would be the end of our relationship. But God, knowing I need to learn more about persisting prayer, allows me to keep my burden until I have learned the lesson He seeks to teach me.

John Walvoord, former present of Dallas Seminary, told of a mother who prayed for her son’s salvation for 60 years. A week before she died, she received the news she’d been waiting for. She opened his letter to read, “Momma, I gave my heart to Jesus.”

Don’t quit praying. Your answer may be just around the corner.

Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom

Leadership Thought: What are You Doing with Your Stimulus Check and Do You Really Need That Cup of Coffee? 

Dear Friend,

What are you doing with your stimulus check? Aren’t you being a little personal, Tom? Well maybe, but I wanted to remind you of a bible verse in Luke 12:48 that says to whom much is given, much will be required. Now I understand that this verse has far reaching implications. It doesn’t refer to just  our money, but it does  include our money. We are the stewards of God’s gifts, whether it be our time, talents, and yes, our treasures, for even our money belongs to Him and we are just his money managers.

Most all of us have received a government gift. Rather than taking from us, the government is giving to us. It’s  called a stimulus. For many who are struggling with paying for food, rent, gas and the likes it is a major Godsend. Yes, a “God sent” gift  that has been delivered by the hands of  Uncle Sam.

For some of us who are blessed, and don’t have to worry about  our next meal, the resource comes as a gift that falls into our luxury laps. We needed a new washer, or stove, or television upgrade. But wait a minute! Do you need those things or just want them?

As stewards of God, we must make wise decisions regarding how we use his “God Sent” gifts. If you are lucky enough to be among the “ to whom  much is given crowd,” let me suggest to you how you might use your  “God Sent” gift.

Why not share it with others. Just the other day I received an e-mail from Solutions Pregnancy Center whose major source of funding-a fund raising banquet has been wiped out because of the Pandemic. They are struggling. And likewise, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes is facing a similar situation without being able to hold their normal fundraiser. And then there is an organization close to my heart that I helped start several years ago- now called Love thy Neighbor (formerly Love in the Name of Christ) and then there is Aslan, a local ministry reaching out to the disadvantaged in our area. There are many more such worthwhile organizations, but I mention these because they are  local and personal ministries that Jean and I have supported throughout our ministry, and we plan to continue to do so through our “God sent” “stimulus check.

We want to see the lives of little ones spared from the plague of abortion, sport’s minded men and women  reached for Christ through the FCA. We want to see those area disadvantaged children continued to be served through Aslan, and we want to see Love thy Neighbor have the resources to assist those who are unemployed and in danger of losing their homes.

You probably have your own favorite organizations in mind that you support, and I suspect each one of them has been financially impacted by this pandemic. Why not  use part, or all of your “God sent” stimulus to come along side of your favorite ministry(ies) and become bearers of help and encouragement.

Yes, to whom much is given, much will be required. 

Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom

PS Non-Coffee Drinkers, like me, are not off the hook!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leadership Thought: A Birthday Greeting Two Months Late but just on Time.

Dear Friends,

Yesterday I opened an envelope and inside was a beautiful card from one of the members of our church. It came with an extra touch. The back of envelope was decorated with two flower stickers, and it was sealed with an American Flag. I hurriedly tore open the envelope and inside  was a beautiful card that read “Happy Birthday for a Special Pastor." 

Now it didn’t matter to me that it was dated May 11, a little over two months from my March birthday. I chuckled because by her own admission she is a bit of a procrastinator, but who cares  about birthday postmarks when the card is filled with  kind and wonderful expressions of love. At my age I’ll take whatever I can get.

The writer always brings joy to my heart. I first met her ten years ago during my first interim ministry here at New Monmouth  when I showed up at her bedside a few minutes before her cancer surgery. It was a short meeting as I recall, but in the brief time we had we seemed to bond. I prayed with her, probably gave her a kiss (no social distancing issues then), and yet those few minutes commenced the beginning of a lasting friendship.

Inside the card my  friend had written a lengthy expression of her love, and in her closing comments she wrote “ The fact that you didn’t know me and showed up at the foot of my bed was PRICELESS (she spelled it out in capitals) to me. You’ll always be special in my heart of hearts. May God keep you safe in the palm of his hand.”

A few minutes of my time spent in a hospital pre surgery room with a woman I didn’t know turned into one of my most treasured friendships.

It didn’t take much of my  time to stop by Monmouth Medical Center. I probably was with my friend for no more than ten or fifteen minutes, and yet in that short time  a lasting friendship was fashioned. I have no remembrance of what I might have said in our short visit, but to this day she reminds me of how encouraged she was by the words I spoke.

There are few gifts that you can give to someone which are more valuable than the  gift of encouragement. It doesn't cost anything except a willingness to put the interests of another ahead of your own.  It doesn't take much time to offer the gift, for it can be presented in the form of only a few short words.  It was Mother Theresa who wrote  "Kind words are so short and easy to speak, and yet their echoes are endless."

I am so grateful for the "endless echoes" of my friend’s appreciation. These echoes are a continual reminder of why encouragement has been called oxygen to the soul, and why we can’t live very long without it.

Is there someone you could encourage today? All you need is a few minutes of your time to pick up the phone, write the note, send the email, pick out the card, or ...…………. ………………..

I encourage you to be an encourager.  Be prayerful  and ask God to show you how you might make a difference in someone’s life the way my friend made a difference in mine. 

Paul writes that we are to "Encourage one another and build  each other up" (1 Thess. 5:10) and Solomon reminds us that "Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones (Prov. 16:24).

Don’t be a “tombstone encourager." Do it today while your friend is still around.

Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom