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Henri Nouwen expresses beautifully what we have in mind when we consider our new 2026 budget as a church family. He writes, “When we give ourselves to planting and nurturing love here on earth, our efforts will reach beyond our own chronological existence.” The funds that we commit to give together next year are our collective expression of confident hope in the future Encounter Church to be a small colony of heaven placed right here in the heart of Columbus, with a burning desire to live the life that reflects our ultimate allegiance to Jesus and to invite others into that Kingdom life.
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Towards that end, we are guided in our giving by the words of the Apostle Paul written to a church family like ours centuries ago in the city of Corinth: “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” [2 Corinthians 9:7] May we be a church family full of cheerful, lavish, and hope-filled givers.
A western worldview encourages us to see ourselves as owners of our resources. In the Biblical frame of reference, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein” [Psalm 24.1]. Hence, the Biblical worldview envisions us not as the owners but as stewards who have been trusted with resources and the care of everything—Creation, gifts and talents, money, time, the gospel—for the sake of God's purposes in the world [Genesis 1.28; 1 Peter 4.10]. The idea of stewardship implies that we are accountable to God for what we do and with what he has trusted to us.
This notion of stewardship changes how we approach giving as Encounter church. On the one hand, giving is not an optional extra reserved for wealthy members of our community but rather a shared responsibility for the advancement of the mission that God has entrusted us with as a church. On the other hand, giving is not constrained by any predetermined giving level or percentage of income, but rather invites a thoughtful and prayerful pondering of the strategic and effective ways of investing lavishly of God's resources entrusted to our care. “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” [2 Corinthians 9.7]. Hence, as stewards of God-given resources we seek to cheerfully and lavishly invest what God has entrusted us with for the sake of his glory and the advancement of his kingdom.