Good Management Skills

  Psalm 24:1; Proverbs 19:17; and Luke 6:38

As chair of the Finance Committee at Central I thought I’d try to be topical and prepare a Lenten devotion relating to managing church resources.  After performing extensive research (I Googled “managing church resources”), I settled on three verses that relate to good management.

Many of us think of “giving up” something during Lent…whether it be some food item that we otherwise really like such as candy or burgers or some otherwise enjoyable activity that we would miss such as television or video games.  So, what are we going to do with the money we saved from giving up the food or the time we saved from giving up the activity, i.e. how will we manage that money and time?

First, consider what you’ve given up.  The verse in Psalms reminds us that the earth is the Lord’s along with everything and every life in it.  The money and time you’ve created belongs to God anyway so let’s try to manage it as God would want.  Our church along with countless charitable organizations can use our financial gifts to provide much needed services in the community.  The opportunities to spend volunteer hours in service to others is almost limitless, all we have to do is pick one and lend a hand.

Second, what is the return on the time and money we’ve spent?  Proverbs 19:17 and Luke 6:38 tell us that whatever we’ve given or loaned, God will repay and not only repay, but repay in full measure, shaken down and overflowing.  Whatever you give…..you get back and then some!  Now, I’m not suggesting that someone is going to write you a check or volunteer some time to help you out at home (although it could happen), but what definitely will happen is you will experience the warmth, the gratitude of those you’ve helped, your own satisfaction and hopefully, the joy from the good that your gifts will accomplish.  This is far greater than whatever good you felt from that cheeseburger or that trashy show on TV.  And to paraphrase some lines from the movie Scrooged, once you experience that feeling, you’ll get greedy for it and want it more and more.  The giving you do will be returned many times over.  Now THAT’S good management of resources and time…even Google says so.

Written by Jim Morgan