I wanted God, my boss, and everyone else to be generous with me, but I hadn’t ever been generous . . . didn’t really even know what it meant. But I knew God wanted my heart . . . my whole heart. And that money was a big thing for me, if not an idol, at least a major distraction. I had a problem. A selfishness problem.
Author Archives: Cameron Doolittle
Lee Behar of the Maclellan Foundation answers this question from Samuel in Kenya: “How do you measure what you do with your granting? Do you have a good process for that? We haven’t learned how to measure the impact of our gifts.”
Each month, we introduce you to a Christian who is on the generosity path, and we ask them what God’s taught them about giving. This month, meet Johan du Preez, an investor and entrepreneur from South Africa. 1. Multiply Charitable Capital. As a private equity professional, Johan thinks about money often. “My real interest is in capital,” he says. “Capital always has an agenda and I’d like the agenda to be Christ.” As he discovered the power of investment returns as CEO of various companies, he looked to integrate that […]
From two continents this month, we received two very similar questions.
“How do I evaluate different giving opportunities I guess I want to know exactly where and how God wants me to give?” — Walter in South Africa
“How to distinguish between the Holy Spirit and the ideas?” — Kang in China
Each month, we introduce you to a Christian who is on the generosity path, and we ask them what God’s taught them about giving. This month, meet Shantha R. Singh, a home maker and Raja B. Singh, a Chartered Accountant, living in India. 1. Beyond the Full Tithe. When preparing to teach about giving, Raja studied Scripture and found three tithes – two annual tithes of ten percent each, and a third tithe of ten percent every third year. “So, on an annual basis, the Jewish people actually gave 23.34 […]
“Does giving begin after tithing ten percent to my local church? Or is that generosity as well?” – Ameke, Ethiopia
We received this question last month and asked our friend, Dr. Sung Wook Chung, to share his thoughts.
“How do you collaborate with other funders/foundations?” – Cynthia, South Africa
In this final post, David explains what he, and the Maclellan Foundation, have learned about how Christians can give together well.
Each month, we introduce you to a Christian who is on the generosity path, and we ask them what God’s taught them about giving. This month, meet David Tjokrorahardjo from Indonesia. 1. Listen to God’s Prompting. “My wife Julia and I had been back in Indonesia for a couple of years,” says David, “and then God started to speak to my heart about giving away one of our companies.” The company was doing a couple of million annually in revenue. “It was a time of testing for us, but something […]
Christians, to whom God has entrusted with resources, could gather together in their own nations to pray, fellowship and strategize together to see the Lord’s Kingdom expand throughout their country.
It’s not a new idea, in 400 BC, God gave Nehemiah a strategy to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem, as described in chapters 3 and 4 of his book.
Now, it was the Lord that gave you your brain, your work ethic, your guts, and the favor. God did not give you wealth. He gave you the ability to make wealth.
So here is the question that I want to propose: Why you, why me?
Why wasn’t I born blind in a village in Brazil? I still would have had a great life, but it would have been a different life. Why was I given these unique abilities in the unique place where I live in this unique time?