Rule of Life

In this second roundtable on Generosity, John Mark is joined by John Cortines, co-author of God and Money; Jimmy Mellado, president of Compassion International; Sara Miller, founder of A House on Beekman and partner at Praxis Labs; and Christian Huang, president of Mobilize Love.

This wide-ranging conversation explores nuanced issues around giving and generosity, including tithing, serving the poor regardless of proximity to need, “high-touch” versus “low-touch” involvement, and how to take simple steps in the face of overwhelming inequality.

This podcast accompanies the Generosity Practice, a four-session experience designed to help integrate generosity into your community. Learn more at practicingtheway.org/generosity. Thanks to The Circle and other givers, all our resources are free. To learn more about The Circle, visit practicingtheway.org/give. To run a Practice with your church or small group, visit practicingtheway.org/resources

John Mark leads the first of two roundtable conversations with leaders who have devoted a significant share of their lives to advancing generosity and giving.

This episode features Reward Sibanda, senior advisor for church relations at World Vision International; Patrick Johnson, founder of Generous Church; and April Chapman, CEO of Generous Giving.

Their conversation explores the reasons for our disordered relationship with money, misunderstandings around Matthew 5 and 6, and how vital it is to remember God’s often-overlooked trait of generosity.

This podcast accompanies the Generosity Practice, a four-session experience designed to help integrate generosity into your community. Learn more at practicingtheway.org/generosity. Thanks to The Circle and other givers, all our resources are free. To learn more about The Circle, visit practicingtheway.org/give. To run a Practice with your church or small group, visit practicingtheway.org/resources

Josh and Abbi learned early on in marriage to live on a meager income – just enough to cover essential needs, and not much else. Today they consider it a gift, because it taught them how little they really needed. When they did make enough for a small surplus and sensed the pull of materialism, they incorporated practices into their lives to maintain radical generosity. The result has been joy and contentment, both for themselves and for their children.

This podcast accompanies the Generosity Practice, a four-session experience designed to help integrate generosity into your community. Learn more at practicingtheway.org/generosity. Thanks to The Circle and other givers, all our resources are free. To learn more about The Circle, visit practicingtheway.org/give. To run a Practice with your church or small group, visit practicingtheway.org/resources.

The early church was marked by extravagant generosity to the poor.  Followers of Jesus formed socioeconomically diverse communities that cared for each other like family, something unheard of in the 1st century Greco-Roman world.

All of this was in response to the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles, which repeatedly emphasize the call to care for those in need. John Mark Comer and Christian Dawson explore how followers of Jesus can walk in the footsteps of the early church by cultivating diverse, interdependent communities. Along the way, they address key questions such as, “Who are the poor, and who are the rich?” And, “What does it look like in my life to care for those in need?” 

This podcast accompanies the Generosity Practice, a four-session experience designed to help integrate generosity into your community. Learn more at practicingtheway.org/generosity. Thanks to The Circle and other givers, all our resources are free. To learn more about The Circle, visit practicingtheway.org/give. To run a Practice with your church or small group, visit practicingtheway.org/resources.

Lola grew up in a family that, in her words, “gave with ease.” When she joined a community of followers of Jesus, she experienced the same generosity during a period of unexpected difficulty. Taking in generous love softened her heart and kindled a desire to show up for others in need.

This podcast accompanies the Generosity Practice, a four-session experience designed to help integrate generosity into your community. Learn more at practicingtheway.org/generosity. Thanks to The Circle and other givers, all our resources are free. To learn more about The Circle, visit practicingtheway.org/give. To run a Practice with your church or small group, visit practicingtheway.org/resources.

From the first pages of Scripture, this simple truth is clear: We are guests in God’s world. Our role is that of a steward, not an owner, and in that role, we are entrusted with God’s resources for our own good and for the good of others.

Through careful examination of key passages such as Luke 12 and 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, John Mark Comer and Christian Dawson discuss areas of theological controversy around money, how to avoid the pitfalls of wealth, and practical ways of cultivating a stewardship mentality, even with little resources.

This podcast accompanies the Generosity Practice, a four-session experience designed to help integrate generosity into your community. Learn more at practicingtheway.org/generosity. Thanks to The Circle and other givers, all our resources are free. To learn more about The Circle, visit practicingtheway.org/give. To run a Practice with your church or small group, visit practicingtheway.org/resources.

Sunny believes that how we use money is a concrete reflection of what we truly value. That conviction, along with the understanding that everything he owns is really God’s, has produced a lifestyle of increasing generosity in his family. As an engineer, Sunny knows that measuring and reporting is key to improving, and he’s given that same scrutiny to his stewardship; he and his family check on their giving regularly and seek to give 1% more each year – not because they feel they must, but because they sense God’s pleasure in the practice of generosity.

This podcast accompanies the Generosity Practice, a four-session experience designed to help integrate generosity into your community. Learn more at practicingtheway.org/generosity. Thanks to The Circle and other givers, all our resources are free. To learn more about The Circle, visit practicingtheway.org/give. To run a Practice with your church or small group, visit practicingtheway.org/resources.

Accumulation and acquisition are often celebrated as the path to security and happiness, but Jesus warns against the broken human desire to always want more. 

In Episode 02 of the Generosity Season, John Mark and Christian Dawson explore how Jesus’ way of generosity can set us free from enslavement to greed and slowly train our hearts to be deeply happy and content.  

Learn how the pursuit of possessions leads to hurry and anxiety, ways to become more sensitive to our invisible propensity towards greed, and why Jesus calls wealth so deceitful.

This podcast accompanies the Generosity Practice, a four-session experience designed to help integrate generosity into your community. Learn more at practicingtheway.org/generosity. Thanks to The Circle and other givers, all our resources are free. To learn more about The Circle, visit practicingtheway.org/give. To run a Practice with your church or small group, visit practicingtheway.org/resources.

Jim and Jan faithfully tithed over the years, but their vision for generosity was dramatically expanded through a Generous Giving conference. After hearing Jesus’ counterintuitive words on money and listening to testimonials from people who’d given over $100 million over their lifetime, they left with a deep conviction that everything they had was truly God’s, and that stewarding those resources with radical generosity – rather than sinking into “spiraling affluence” – was the pathway to joy.

This podcast accompanies the Generosity Practice, a four-session experience designed to help integrate generosity into your community. Learn more at practicingtheway.org/generosity. Thanks to The Circle and other givers, all our resources are free. To learn more about The Circle, visit practicingtheway.org/give. To run a Practice with your church or small group, visit practicingtheway.org/resources.

The practice of generosity, and specifically our open-handedness with money, is not a peripheral issue in the teachings of Jesus. It is a central aspect of our apprenticeship to him. It is also a counterintuitive pathway to joy.

Jesus’ teaching on money and possessions sound absurd or even reckless to our modern ears. Yet social science over the last few decades attests to his wisdom: Generous people are happier, healthier, have stronger immune systems, and even laugh more often.

In Episode 01 of the Generosity Season, John Mark Comer and Christian Dawson discuss the paradox of generosity, two competing mindsets around giving, and simple steps to free our hearts from the fear and slavery of money. Along the way they unpack key passages like Matthew 6 and Genesis 3 to shed light on the happy, generous God revealed in scripture.

This podcast accompanies the Generosity Practice, a four-session experience designed to help integrate generosity in your community. Learn more at practicingtheway.org/generosity. Thanks to The Circle and other givers, all our resources are free. To learn more about The Circle, visit practicingtheway.org/give. To run a Practice with your church or small group, visit practicingtheway.org/resources.