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The practice of generosity is not God's way of raising money—it's his way of raising people. Living generously is intimidating, but it builds our faith and supercharges our spiritual growth like nothing else can.
Nothing makes your sphincter tighten faster than a church talking about money. We get it. Take a deep breath. Relax. There are no membership dues to belong to Crossroads or to plug into our community.
That being said, Jesus does talk about money. Like, a lot.
Roughly 15% of Jesus' teachings in the New Testament are about money, and 11 out of 39 parables (the stories Jesus told to teach lessons) had finances as a major theme. It's like God's trying to tell us something.
Jesus said that "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:21)
What's He saying? Where you throw your wallet is what you value. Really love sports? You'll shell out for tickets. Want to make your significant other feel special? You'll splurge on a date or vacation. And don't even mention kids, or grandkids.
But it also works the other way too. We can grow our affection by giving generously to causes, organizations, and people that Jesus values. It's easy to spend on ourselves, but generosity helps us realign our hearts and minds to the bigger picture.
It means choosing to let God define what's most important and learning to trust Him by letting go of the thing we tend to hold tightest—our money.
Generosity can look a lot of ways.
One of the primary avenues is tithing, a culture we've worked hard to build at Crossroads. Tithing is just a church-word for giving 10% of your financial gains back to God through the local church. It is a practice that has been followed by believers and those faithful to God for thousands of years – even pre-dating Jesus's ministry on earth. Many of us do this as an act of worship, signaling that we understand our money comes from God first—and ultimately belongs to him anyway.
Tithing is not meant to be an obligation, but an invitation from God to be generous in the same way he has been generous to us.
The Crossroads Blue Team is our special ops force of self-proclaimed tithers, whose generosity fuels this place and its work. After tithing, many keep pushing themselves to live generously by sponsoring children in Nicaragua and Guatemala, donating food to the Thanksgiving Food Drive, purchasing gifts at Christmastime for the children of incarcerated parents, or sponsoring students to go to camp.
Generosity is an attitude of the heart and a discipline we never stop growing in. It always has the power to stretch us—financially as well as spiritually. Giving tells God that we trust him, and trust is at the heart of every deep relationship.
Generosity is a muscle. As every gym rat knows, the muscles you work out are the muscles that will grow strong. Stretching ourselves in generosity enables us to be on the frontline of the work God is doing through Crossroads to expand his kingdom—but the greatest gift is the way it re-aligns us with him.
Whether you are tithing or not, there are always ways we can live more generously. Find a few below:
Try Tithing:
Read what Crossroads believes about giving and why we do it.
Check out Crossroads' financial philosophy, including how they use financial gifts.
Want to try tithing?Jump into the 90-Day Tithe Test, a generosity challenge with a money-back guarantee. Seriously.
Already tithing? Incredible. Here are some further ideas to stretch your generosity muscles:
Join The Blue Team for news and updates about the work at Crossroads
Explore additional ways to give through the 10x Push.
Sponsor a child in need through Compassion International
