David’s Campaign
I Chronicles 29
By Dr. Frank Berg, SGS, Inc
I Chronicles 29 could be characterized as the perfect capital campaign. King David asked Israel to give their wealth of gold, silver, precious stones, bronze, copper, etc. to raise gifts for the new temple. The whole campaign went very well. Why did the campaign go so well?
I. David’s Campaign went well because they found the Right Motivation for Giving.
vs 1 – “The temple is not for man ...but for the Lord God”. The reasons they found for giving was to construct a building for God. The building would accommodate the following:
-A center for worship of God
-A pulpit to proclaim God’s Word
-An altar where sacrifices for sin can be made
-For choirs to sing and musicians to play Psalms and hymnody
-Classrooms where scholars can teach God’s laws to children, youth and adults
The highest and best motivation for giving is “for the Lord God”.
There are other lower motivations for giving. In a church where a capital campaign was developed, the pastor promised that if the people raised a certain dollar amount that he would let them shave his head. They reached that goal and he had his head shaved. He put pictures of the ordeal on the internet. Now, people gave because they wanted to see their pastor have his head shaved. His bald head was a symbol of their accomplishments. It was funny and all good, but not the highest motivation to give.
Or sometimes a person promises a matching gift for every dollar given. Again it is all good, but it is not the highest and best motive for giving.
A worse approach is to never challenge the church to give because we are afraid to offend people. I guess some people want a free ride because they never desire that we talk about giving. Indeed, the gift of eternal life is free but it is costly. Salvation sent Christ to the cross. So people should understand that there is a cost related to doing the work of Christ. Why are we in the church if we think it is going to cost us nothing.
The right solution is to find the right motivation for giving. We are excited and pumped about doing God’s work:- to establish a place where there is great preaching, praise and worship, where we can clap and raise our hands, greeting and hugging, fellowship, youth and children’s ministry, etc... all for God.
There should be no offense when we are invited to support the Lord’s work. The reason the campaign in Israel went so well is because Israel understood the right motivation for giving: “It is not for man but for the Lord God.”
II. David’s campaign went well because Israel found the Right Way to make a giving decision
verse 5: “Who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the Lord”
verse 9: “Then the people rejoiced because they had offered so willingly, for they made their offering to the Lord which a whole heart, and Kind David also rejoiced greatly”
The steps to follow when making a giving decision are:
-Hear from God
-Have faith
-Find God’s will for your life
-Surrender to God’s will
-Be whole hearted
-Rejoice
Or could I describe the right decision as based on reason and revelation. Reason is related to our income, budgets, finances...so it is tied to realism. Yet the right decision must include revelation which is related to prayer, faith, a sense that God is leading me to give this gift.
In a
capital campaign a visitor went to pick up a commitment card from an insurance professional
who is a church member. He rode the
elevator to a high story in a very modern and prestigious building.
He
stepped into the insurance professional’s office. There were thick carpets, expensive
furniture, an awesome view of the city.
The
visitor said that he had come to receive the member’s giving decision.
The
insurance professional said “he was not going to commit very much because he
was a business man and everything needed business sense. It did not make a whole lot of sense to give
away money to a project he was not entirely in favor of.”
The
visitor was slow to respond, but finally made his point by saying “...As an insurance professional, I thought you knew better. You realize that such a small premium payment
can hardly provide you with much protection.”
The
insurance professional did not make his giving decision the right way. It lacked consecrating himself to the Lord;
it lacked prayer, faith, joy; it lacked an openness to what God was saying to
him.
So
when you make a giving decision, the beginning point is to review your
relationship with God and to consider your openness to God’s Spirit to change
your thoughts and emotions.
Israel found the right way to make
their decision by consecrating themselves
first to the Lord and then giving their gifts.
III. David’s campaign went well because of Unity and Togetherness in Israel.
vs 1–2
- “Then King David said to the entire
assembly....now with all of my ability I have provided for the house of my
God...”
vs 6 –
“Then the rulers of the fathers’ households, and the princes of the tribes of Israel, and the
commanders of thousands and of hundreds, with the overseers over the king’s
work, offered willingly”
So the
leaders joined the King. Then the people joined to follow the king and the
leaders.
An
opportunity is an opening or chance for
something special to happen.
We
know that life has its perfect opportunities when you need to act.
·
To
Start A business
·
To
make an investment
·
To
meet a person
·
To
attend a school
·
To
buy an item on sale
These
are openings or chances for something special, but you need to act on it
immediately or it will pass you by.
When
is it the right time or perfect opening for churches to raise funds for their
facilities? Often we think the opportunity to make an appeal is related to the
economy – if the economy is good, you go for it; if the economy is bad, you
don’t. However, more significantly the
right time or the opportunity to raise funds is related to unity, togetherness,
common agreement. When a church sees
evidence that God is at work to bring faith and togetherness, that is the best
time to raise funds. The opportunity for
something special to happen is when there is unity and togetherness in the
church.
David’s
campaign in Israel
provided an opportunity that rallied the whole congregation. By joining together and acting together they
accomplished a major goal.
IV. David’s Campaign went well because they
entered into Over and Above Extraordinary
Generous Giving.
vs 3 –
“And moreover, in my delight in the house of my God, the treasure I have of
gold and silver, I give to the house of my God, over and above all that I have
already provided for the holy temple...”
vss.
7-8 – “And for the service for the house of God they gave 5,000 talents and
10,000 darics of gold, and 10,000 talents of silvers, and 18,000 talents of
brass, and 100,000 talents of iron. And
whoever possessed precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the
Lord.”
A great financial and spiritual victory took place several
years ago at Mill Creek Church who have plans to relocate about ten miles away
to a new 7 acre parcel. Garry Appelt,
who is a lawyer that works with many First Nations in Northern
Alberta and pilots his own airplane to service his clients, became
our campaign chair. I told Garry and
others that the capital campaign would be fun, and if it isn’t fun why are we
doing it. As we moved through the campaign,
Gary would say
to me, “Frank when is the fun coming?
All we have had so far is hard work.”
I assured Gary
that the fun was coming.
This
church has a German Congregation with their own German Pastor who live around
their facility. The Germans put a lot of sweat equity into their church
facilities and were in no mood to move.
Well, Gary
did his best to encourage the German congregation to join in the capital
campaign by going to their service and making a speech in German. He lunched
with several of the German key leaders.
Over time the German community became more positive and started joining
in the campaign.
We
estimated that the church could raise around $1.2 million over a three year
period. However, with all of the good
forces that joined in to give us a great tail wind, the church ended up raising
over $2.3 million. The German people
made a choice to move away from resistance and the status quo to extraordinary
generous giving. Of course, there was
great rejoicing and people had to pinch themselves about the amazing
fundraising results. Gary finally in the end admitted that the
campaign had been a barrel full of fun.
Israel entered into extraordinary
generous giving. That is what happens
when churches choose to have good will toward vision that is before them. All I can tell you is that it is a choice to
become supportive and generous.
David’s
campaign succeeded because the people found the:
- right motivation for
giving...it is for the Lord God
- found the right way to
make their decision...openness to the Lord’s leading and being faith
filled
- joined together for an
opportunity to make an opening for something special to happen
- entered into extraordinary
generous giving by making a choice to have good will to the vision before
them.
