Generosity Game Plan

It is football season, and I confess that while I enjoy watching the games I know enough to know that I don't know enough.  For instance, I know almost nothing about the game plan.  I wondered what kind of process the coaches go through and found this very brief, incomplete but somewhat comprehensible summary.

Like anything else you start out with a goal - winning.  A head coach has a playbook with about 1,000 plays in it, plays he has developed and accumulated.  At the beginning of the season the coaching staff will go through a critical self-analysis of the previous season - what worked well, what didn't work, and what and how they need to change.  They will further refine and whittle down the number of plays they use based on their personnel and their strengths.  Then comes the teaching, the practicing, everybody on the same page, working together toward that common goal.  They will further refine and reduce the number of plays they use based on the player-leaders' preferences, strengths and insights.  And finally, they will choose plays for each game based on their opponent's strengths and weaknesses, and go through a similar process of adjustment throughout each game.


 I don't know about you, but I have similar plans and processes in place for parts of my life.  (I know, control freak.)  Especially for projects, getting things done around the house, getting the kids through college.  I think we all plan, and pretty carefully sometimes, for the things that are important to us, that we value, even if we don't consciously name them.  I am going to be painfully honest here and admit that I never really thought about being intentional about faith and church and giving.  It really is a lot more comfortable to just kind of let it happen, what will be will be, and besides, God is in charge of it all so it will be just fine, right?  I'm supposed to give up control to God.


Wow!  Look at how easy it is to talk myself into something.  OK, so I admit, as an individual I have a long way to go.  I think I would be willing to start down the path if I had encouragement, didn't feel like I would be judged, was in a community that values progress not perfection.  What do you think?  I've been digesting the last four weeks of study, trying to summarize for myself as much as for the blog.  I'll spout off here and let you comment and continue the discussion:

As a faith community we need to have a game plan.  Our goal?  Giving our best in order to change lives and make disciples.  Our play book includes scripture, but it also includes naming our faith values, being intentional about what beliefs and values shape our plans and actions.  We can whittle and refine what plays we use based on what we have done in the past, what worked, what no longer works, how to change.  Teaching and practicing includes discussion, missions, programs and the tithe, focusing on the giver's need to give and valuing progress. Once we get into the game we need to continuously look at the personnel available to us, our strengths, evaluating everything we do and then be prepared to tweak or eliminate those things that are not getting us to our goal.


Of course that is a lot quicker and easier than reality.  One of the most difficult things to get over is the great faith that is required for extravagant generosity.  With a football game plan you have immediate feedback.  You either won or you didn't.  Giving, tithing, ministries, and missions require us to plant the seeds of fruit that we may never see.  In our consumerist, goal-driven, results-based society where value, self-definition, and self-worth rest on material possessions and measurable things, extravagant generosity is often regarded as foolishness.  Can thoughtful, planned, designed, calculated intentional giving free us to delight in giving from what comes first, to live in a sense of gratitude?  It can't hurt.