1. Tippers

These are people who give the leftovers of their money. This level requires hardly any faith and is motivated primarily by guilt or duty. They are typically inconsistent, giving only when prompted by a pastor at a church, or by an appeal on TV. If they have money, they will give a portion, but the amount never stretches them out of their comfort zone and always makes “sense”. Almost 90% of people in most local churches are in this group.

2. Tithers

These are people who set aside the first 10% of their income to give to the local church. This is a huge step up from the first level, because some faith now enters the equation. These people believe that God can do more with the remaining 90% if they are willing give the first. Tithers typically give consistently and seldom have to be prompted or “motivated” to give. They give even when it seems risky or when not giving would ease another temporary financial burden.

3. Givers

These people have discovered the joy of giving and are now on the lookout for opportunities to bless other people. While still tithing, they give even more to ministries, single parents, missionaries, and struggling neighbors. These people are super budget conscious, intentionally living below their means and setting aside money now, to give later. They love to hear about dreams and ideas to build the Kingdom. They’re never offended at being asked to give because they see it as a privilege and as worship.

4. Extravagant Givers

These people are radical about their giving. This is an elite group that is willing to give everything. They carry the same faith as the widow seen by Jesus in the temple giving all she had to live on. They completely believe that God owns it all and they are just stewards. They are prayerful and wise about their giving, but will not hesitate to give large percentages if God speaks. This group prefers anonymity and will ask a lot of really good questions because they need details. They take their time getting to know ministry leaders and only give when they see high levels of accountability and integrity.

If Freedom is going to go to the next level, we must have people passionate in their giving. It is my responsibility, along with our financial committee, to be accountable and a good steward of what the church does with the finances. It is the responsibility of the people to make sure their faithfulness does not wavier in giving, so God's Kingdom can be increased and His Name glorified!

We live in a society that puts a high value on justice and everyone being equal. That’s fine for personal rights and liberties, but I do not think everyone should be treated the same in ministry. We are all unique people with different callings, different skills and different functions. All of us are valuable parts of the body, but all of us are not kneecaps, therefore we cannot be treated the same and still live up to our potential.

On our team here at Freedom Worship Center, we have men and women who fill different functions. Some are our worship leaders & our worship band who are at the church on Sunday morning at 9:30 AM in order to fulfill their roles. This is a matter of function, not status. Because others to arrive at different times and on different days is not because they are superior or more important, it is a matter of function.

I believe one of the reasons many churches have a hard time attracting highly creative people is that we force right brain people to live in a left brain world. Most churches are run by studious left brain people who have a hard time living alongside people who do their best work late at night or alone in a coffee shop.

All of us should have the same character convictions and the same steadfast love for Jesus and his church. Everyone should have clear expectations, be evaluated regularly and be expected to fulfill their assignments. These are non-negotiable. What is negotiable are schedules and primary responsibilities. What seems unfair to people with a strong sense of justice may actually be a source of life to another. All of us want to be productive and fruitful for God, but not all of us can do it the same way.

My goal as pastor is to find out what God is doing in each person, encourage them greatly, provide safe boundaries so they can flourish, encourage experimentation, learn from our failures and celebrate our wins. Some of those wins will happen in the predictable left brain world and some will happen in the seemingly chaotic world of the right brainer. Either way, we win.

Never again! This has got to stop! I will never pastor a church with anxiety! A decision that changed my life.

I will never forget going home and weeping over Sunday mornings where we went backwards in our church growth. I had almost lost the victory and it was hard to preach to the people who were there because all I could think about is the people who were not there. I developed stomach ulcers and took every down week in church attendance personally. Until one day, God spoke to me.

CHURCH GROWTH MUST SOMETIMES GO BACKWARDS BEFORE IT CAN GO FORWARDS.

Many pastors feel that they are in the worst season of their lives when the church is not growing. In my case, and in the case of so many others, it was exactly what was needed in order to discover a cause that was greater than my dream. God wanted those people to be scattered to churches that best fit their liking so that he could raise up a generation who wanted to go in the same direction. God also wanted to deal with the issue of anxiety of the leader. He wanted to make me understand that He was always good even in this hard time.

When I first came to Freedom, I let the church empty itself starting with a couple dozen and then a few more and then a few more still. Then, I took a long walk around my city and let God birthed the idea of the His dream. It was a dream that had to be born out of reverse church growth. The reality was going back was really a slingshot preparing to be launched forward.

GOD OFTEN EMPTIES SOMETHING BEFORE HE REBUILDS IT.

The most liberating thing I ever did was rip up my goal sheet of where I wanted to be in five years and learning to love and trust God, seek the purity of motivation in ministry, and get back to making a commitment to God to do the next thing He wanted me to do.

I started to love the people in the building and not view them as a number to get me to my goal. We started to rally with those who remained. We had to put a new dream of God’s church being in operation and not this guy's church. Finally, my anxiety was gone, my expectations in the natural were gone and I began to open my eyes to the church God wanted me to build and not what I wanted. Suddenly, I realized that there was a major work to do and no longer would I judge God’s goodness on week-by-week progress.

Maybe you are reading this and something in your life seems to be going in the opposite direction. I have learned that things could be entering into their best growth period while things are going backwards. The way down is often the way up! Don’t you let yourself be discouraged when you are in the valley. Because the lessons you learn in the valley are the ones that are going to contribute to you celebrating on the mountaintop!