How to Change a LifeThe Phantom Intercessor - 8 Oct 2010

Stewardship are a UK based charity who equip the Church worldwide. They are a fantastic organisation who offer practical tailored support to individuals and churches around all aspects of generosity and finance.
This month their magazine profiled an interview with our own Pete Worthington and they've graciously allowed us to reprint that here. Pete is one of the co-founders of 24-7 Prayer; he's the one who originally envisioned connecting the dots of prayer around the world and created things like 24-7prayer.com to help make that happen. He is also the founder of a charity called Living Generously which is why Stewardship were keen to catch up with him.

Stewardship spoke with Pete Worthington, founder of Living Generously, about the power of generosity.

Stewardship: What got you interested in the idea of living generously?

Pete: Having been greatly impacted by the terrible Tsunami in 2004, I was inspired by the generosity of people responding. I started wondering that if people could make one-off choices like this, what effect could it have if people made a lifestyle choice to become more generous with their time, money and resources?

As part of the exploding 24-7 Prayer movement, I floated an idea by a few people and it seemed natural to launch something practically as one outworking of our core values of Prayer, Mission & Justice. The result was the beginnings of ‘Living Generously’.

In essence, Living Generously is simply a message, a call that says “Hey guys, let’s explore what it means again to be more concerned about what we give in life than what we get.” After all, isn’t this what Jesus’ life was about?

S: Why do you think that talking about – and then enacting – generosity matters so much right now?

P: Whenever people are scared there is a temptation to compromise their core values. Right now, the prevailing culture is one of fear about money. At this time, more than at any other, it is tempting to fall under the prevailing culture of fear, rather than remember who we are and who our God is. Championing generosity has never been so important.

Often in the UK culture we don’t like to talk about money, and we certainly don’t like to talk about giving or ask for funding. Charities have used many methods to motivate giving, but not all giving is generosity. If soliciting giving feels like pulling teeth then we have missed the point. When we really understand generosity, and more importantly when we really understand the heart of God, generosity becomes both a no-brainer and a natural outflow of who we are. We need to be able to talk about money, about giving and unashamedly give people opportunities to give – for their good as much as any far-flung project in the developing world.

S: What is it about our culture that means generosity needs to be championed?

P: Some would say it’s not wise to give when you don’t have enough. The Bible would say it’s not wise not to.

When we walk in the opposite spirit to the recession we actually break free of the fear of poverty. This is why we need to develop a counter-cultural momentum that encourages people to live generously, when courage is exactly what it will take.

We believe that generosity is such a strong biblical principle because it brings freedom and it is a manifestation of love. Love and freedom are the very foundations of the Kingdom.

A pastor friend of mine told me recently that whenever it looked like the church was not going to be able to pay the wages, he would start writing cheques to other ministries. When it looked like his family could not afford their monthly support of missionaries, they would sell their car to be able to give. He understood that it is at the very time that it is the hardest to give, that generosity is the most essential and powerful spirit to release. When money looks short it is tempting to grip tighter to what we already have, but in doing so we shut off the level to which we can receive. He told me: ‘The best savings account you can have is to give to the poor’.

For more information visit www.livinggenerously.com

With grateful thanks to Stewardship, who first published this interview. www.stewardship.org.uk