Click through to the Resurgence if you can't see the video.

In this clip from his interview with Pastor Mark Driscoll, bestselling author Randy Alcorn talks about how so many Christians are missing out on joy by not being generous with their time and finances.

For more from Randy Alcorn on money and giving, check out these books:

• The Treasure Principle: Unlocking the Secret of Joyful Giving
• Money, Possessions, and Eternity

See all the parts of this interview posted so far.

Doctrine: Click | View Series

A steward gladly acknowledges that he or she belongs to the Lord. This is exactly what Paul says in Romans 1:6 when he reminds Christians that they "belong to Jesus Christ." Subsequently, stewards understand that everything they have and are logically belongs to the Lord. . . .

A steward recognizes that everything ultimately belongs to the Lord. The Bible recognizes private property ownership, which explains why it forbids stealing. Above all, though, the Bible repeatedly teaches that God alone is the ultimate owner of everything, because it comes from him and is ruled over by him. God's ownership includes all wealth: "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the LORD of hosts." God's ownership extends to the natural resources we cultivate for wealth, as God says in Psalm 50:10: '"For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills." Even the abilities we use to earn a living are gifted to us by God and are to be humbly used, as Deuteronomy 8:17—18 says: "Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.' You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth." . . .

Simply put, stewards know they deserve hell. Everything that they enjoy belongs to God and is gifted to them for enjoyment and service. Practically, this means the air we breathe, the food we eat, and everything else is a gracious gift from our loving God.

Stewards seek to faithfully oversee all that God has entrusted to their oversight. Because they see that they and all that has been entrusted to their care belong to God alone, they aspire to manage everything in their life in a God-glorifying way. Additionally, they do not want to be guilty of robbing God by failing to manage his resources according to his wishes.

From Doctrine, Chapter 12. Stewardship: God Gives (pgs. 373–374). Doctrine is out now.

"Do I get an iPad or not?" That is the question many are asking these days.

With the pending release of Apple's newest "magical and revolutionary device," April 3 has become the new December 25 for many. Adults everywhere, techies or not, are salivating for this new gadget like Ralphie for his Red Ryder BB gun.

In the process of determining whether or not I should take the plunge myself, I have begun asking some questions that might also help you in your process of prayerful evaluation. In fact, my hope is that they serve you well beyond this particular purchase but for others as well.

1. Is this a tool or a toy?

Is this an acute want or an actual need?

While this may seem like a simple question, getting an accurate answer might be harder than we think. Our remaining sin is strong, our hearts are deceitful above all things (Jer. 17:9), and our justifications are often powerful and compelling.

In addition to prayer and the study of Scripture, I have found that drawing other trusted friends into my evaluation process is a necessity as well. For me, it is usually my wife and one of my elders, but it can be anyone who knows our sinful tendencies well enough to help us gain the clarity we need.

To answer this question, I often write out a list of the reasons why I think I need the product, whether or not it is a “tool” or a “toy” (there’s room for both, to a degree). Then I share that list with those helping me make the decision and engage in an actual dialogue.

I use the word "actual" on purpose, because handing them my list and then getting upset when they push back on my reasoning won't help me make a sound decision. It just makes me look like an idiot.

2. What's the posture of my heart toward this device?

This may be the most important but often overlooked part of the process. I try to expose any of my idolatry regarding what it ultimately just a melding of metal and microchips that my heart has become inclined toward.

I ask myself questions like:

• Am I just wanting to buy this device because it is new and I want to keep up with the digital Joneses?
• Am I simply joining the throng of worshipers before our cultural idol of consumerism?
• Am I defining myself by what I can purchase?
• Does buying this make me feel more successful? (as in, "My identity is more in my position in this organization than my position in Christ.")

Many times, as I answer these questions, I have found they lead me to repentance, not the electronics store. They have also exposed the resting place of my true joy and citizenship—I have become more excited by microchips and metal than Jesus.

3. Is this a wise financial move?

Recognizing that everything we have is ultimately God's and we will someday give an account for how we have managed His money, I simply crunch the numbers.

• Tool or toy, can we afford it?
• If so, is it worth the value it would add to our creation or recreation?
• Would I feel good about having Jesus with me when I check out?

After all, He is, you know.

If the device in question can clear all those hurdles, I may pull the trigger. Or I may give it a few days to make sure and then pull the trigger. In either case, I have done all I can to see that my conscience is clear before God either way (Rom. 14:23).

So can I tell you whether or not you should get an iPad? Nope.

Different people will make differing decisions based on their differing circumstances. But hopefully you now have some tools in your hand to make a Gospel-informed, wise decision.

He gave a small fortune. She gave a few pennies.

From wealthy Theophilus to the poor widow, all of us fall somewhere on the spectrum and can learn from what these two have in common: a heart for Jesus. With the Generous Campaign well underway, I thought it would be worthwhile to draw on their example in order to remind us of the how and the why of giving.

Are you a Theophilus?

At the very beginning of the Luke series, we met Theophilus, whose name means “love of God.” The Gospel of Luke (and the book of Acts) is dedicated to Theophilus, who most likely funded Luke’s effort to chronicle the life of Jesus and the early church.

As Pastor Mark has pointed out, this represents hundreds of thousands of dollars in time and travel, research and writing. With the help of Theophilus’ contribution, Luke wrote the majority of the New Testament.

In our day, we hope to continue sharing the truth of Jesus with the world. Like Theophilus, are you willing to sacrifice a chunk of your fortune for the benefit of thousands of people waiting to hear about Jesus?

The Widow’s Offering

Though we can all sacrifice as Theophilus did, not everyone can give in substantial amounts. But Luke’s Gospel speaks to the poor as well.

“Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on’” (Luke 21:1–4).

Like the widow, are you willing to joyfully trust Jesus with your life, and, out of love for him, sacrifice more than just your abundance?

Means Don’t Matter

The ministry of Mars Hill Church requires money, but we ultimately rely on Jesus to sustain us, not individual donors. The Generous Campaign—and church giving in general—is about the heart, not the budget.

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also,” Jesus said (Luke 12:34). We must all ask ourselves regularly where our heart is. Is your heart for you, or is it for Jesus—and does your giving align with your answer?

If you don’t know Jesus, take advantage of Theophilus’ gift. Study the Bible and learn about our good God. If you do know Jesus, we invite you to give cheerfully, sacrificially, and generously so that we can show everyone how good he is.

Find Pastor Jamie on Facebook and Twitter.

If you’ve benefited from the Resurgence, please consider giving so that we can continue our mission of training missional leaders. To do so, go to marshillchurch.org/give and give to the Global Fund.

Here at Mars Hill Church, we’re kicking off a major effort to raise funds for a number of local ministry needs and our global effort to see as many churches and disciples of Jesus as possible.

It’s called the Generous Campaign, and it’s modeled on the idea that since God has been generous to us, we ought to be a generous people (2 Cor. 9:11–12). In a previous post we’ve reflected on the numerous ways that God has blessed Mars Hill, Acts 29, and the Resurgence over this past year.

Be Generous

If you’ve been blessed by these free resources, we’re asking you to consider giving to the Mars Hill Global Fund to support these ministries. The Global Fund will go to starting new Mars Hill campuses, planting new churches with the Acts 29 Network, providing more free resources online, and training more leaders through the Resurgence.

Global Giving Match: $1 Million

Thanks to one particularly generous family at Mars Hill Church, all contributions to the Global Fund will be matched up to $1 million total. That means if we can raise $1 million during the next few weeks, $2 million will go to our worldwide effort to plant as many churches and make as many disciples of Jesus as possible (Matt. 28:19; Acts 1:8; 1 Cor. 9:22–23).

It’s All About Jesus

Our desire to expand and build is not an effort to promote Mars Hill Church. It’s not about promoting the Resurgence, the blog, the books, the music, or the conferences. We’re training leaders, planting churches, and starting new campuses so that more people can meet Jesus. That’s it. God has blessed us with a finite number of days and resources, and we want to do our best to use all of it to tell everyone about Jesus.

If you’ve benefited from the Resurgence, please consider giving so that we can continue our mission of training missional leaders. To do so, go to marshillchurch.org/give and give to the Global Fund.

Find Pastor Jamie on Facebook and Twitter.

If you’re a church planter, chances are you’re wasting money.

The Sales Pitch

Let’s be honest: this is America, home of free-market capitalism. There is money to be made from church planters. And so a whole church-planting industry is ready to tell you that if you’re going to do it right, you probably need:

• a club-ready sound-and-light system
• a few Macs with top-of-the-line video editing software (might as well throw in an iPhone so you can Twitter your sermon prep)
• a top-end website with content management
• a children’s ministry setup that rivals a corporate daycare
• a trade-show-style display booth for all your visitors’ information
• industrial signage for both the inside and the outside of your venue
• a custom trailer to haul it all in

Most new church planters fall for this sales pitch like Tony Romo in the playoffs.

Don’t Believe the Hype

But in case you haven’t yet spent $100k on your “startup costs,” let me suggest that you hit the brakes and consider a crucial point: That’s GOD’S money that you’re spending. You’re going to stand before Jesus and answer for every dime. When many church planters in Africa don’t even own a Bible dictionary, do you really want to argue that the lighting rack was a “must-have?”

Don’t believe the hype. You can plant a missional church with next to nothing. We forked out only $19,000 in startup costs and got everything we needed. Sound system? We bought the most basic thing that would get the job done. Children’s ministry? We asked for donations from Christians and other churches in our city and got almost everything for free. Website? We bought a template for $50, tweaked it a little to make it our own, and hosted it with a local provider for a fraction of the cost of the turn-key church-planting web solutions. Computer and projector? We worked through the IT director at a local university who included our order in his volume purchase and passed the discount along to us.

Don’t Be a Statistic

You know the stats: 80% of church plants fail. Of course I hope your church isn’t one of them. But in your budgeting decisions, you should act as though it could be. If you had to shut things down, would you feel okay about how you’d spent the Lord’s money? Would any of your donors have reason to question your expenses as frivolous? Can you stand eye-to-eye with the family in your church who’s struggling financially and tell them with integrity that you’re spending only what’s necessary?

Don’t Take the Bait

A few months ago a church planter I know had to close up shop. As I scrolled through his fire-sale ad on Craigslist, I couldn’t help but wonder: did he really need all this stuff? If he had allocated funds differently, could he have stayed in the game a little longer and reached a place of viability? It’s not my place to question his decisions; “before his own master he stands or falls” (Romans 14:4). But I’m concerned that lots of young, starry-eyed church planters are easy prey for the salesmen of church-plant capitalism.

You don’t have to be. Stand firm, church planter, and don’t take the bait. We’re 4 years in, and I just now ordered business cards. Letterhead? Maybe next year.

Spiritual Gifts Series: Click | View Series

We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously... (Romans 12:6-8 NIV)

Spiritual Gift of Giving Defined

The gift of giving is the ability to give money and other forms of wealth joyfully, wisely, and generously to meet the needs of others and help support ministries.

People with the Gift of Giving

Regardless of the amount, people with this gift genuinely view their treasures, talents, and time as on loan from God and not their own. They are often moved to meet the physical needs of others. They enjoy giving of themselves and what they have. Even if they do not possess the resources to help, they earnestly pray for those needs to be met.

Giving in Scripture

Roughly 25 percent of Jesus' words in the Gospels are related to our resources and stewardship of them. Though he was poor, Jesus not only fed thousands (Mark 6:41) but also gave us his life as a gift (John 15:13). Elsewhere in the Bible, the widow (Mark 12:42-43), Tabitha (Acts 9:36), Barnabas (Acts 4:34-37), and the Macedonian church (2 Cor. 8:1-2) all had this gift.

Do You Have This Gift?

• Do you tend to see the needs of others more than other people do?
• Do you enjoy giving your time, talent, and treasure to others?
• Do you see giving to a worthwhile project as an exciting honor and privilege?
• Do you give to the church regularly, cheerfully, and sacrificially?
• Do you often hear people commenting that you are a generous person?
• Do you find yourself looking for opportunities to give your money—even when no one asks?

We recently finished a 4-part blog series of practical advice for church and ministry leaders on how to deal with an economic downturn. "The big idea is how to keep morale up when money is down so that gospel momentum can be maintained. Just because money is down does not mean that our vision should be down. People need Jesus, and many need practical help from Jesus’ people."

Navigating the Series:

View Series: Money, Morale, and Momentum series page

Part 1: Some Scriptures to Guide Financial Decision-Making

Part 2: 3 Principles to Guide Financial Decision-Making

Part 3: 5 More Principles to Guide Financial Decision-Making

Part 4: 9 Ways to Keep Morale and Momentum Up During Tough Times

Dr. Wayne Grudem, editor of the ESV Study Bible and one of the top evangelical theologians of our day, explains why theology is so important for the local church.

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Part 4 of the Money, Morale, and Momentum series.

Continued from Part 3.

1. Morale

The big dissatisfiers of staff are pay (including benefits) and policy, so the goal is to keep pay high and policy low, as is reasonable.

2. Conflict

Email should only be for positive things and neutral information. For something negative, pick up the phone or meet face to face.

3. Momentum

People do not support a world that they did not create, so momentum is maintained as people are called forward to building new initiatives, new campuses, new church plants, and new ministries. Momentum is either forward or backward but never stagnant, which means even when money is down vision must stay up.

4. Freedom

For most senior leaders, freedom is a high-value item. While they do not use their full freedom, stress and anxiety are inevitable if they do not have it. Too much policy can remove freedom, and in so doing hurt the morale of senior leaders and subsequently slow or stall momentum.

5. Budgeting

Eat what you kill and have a monthly and quarterly budget that you watch so you do not get too far behind. If you do, and you then lay people off, their severance will cost you for months, which will put you even further behind financially than if you had the financial data to make cuts earlier. The days of an annual budget are gone. Things are changing so quickly that ministry leaders need to carefully track income and spending weekly, comb over monthly reports, and not make budgets in anything other than pencil beyond a quarter in advance. Changes to the budget need to be made quickly; otherwise poor reporting and slow responding will sink the ministry financially.

6. Wants

Communicate what you want for your people and not just what you want from them. During this time we want them to work hard, budget well, live generously, share with one another, grow in faith, live within their means, learn contentment, and grow as stewards in all of life.

7. Opportunity

This is a good harvest time because the god of money has been killed and is not resurrecting, so people are searching for a new god and are open to the gospel, community, and service. This means it is a great time, for example, to have budgeting seminars and such to teach people biblical principles about wealth and stewardship. Guys like Dave Ramsey can be very helpful in this area.

8. Financial Planning

Have a financial planner meet with staff members annually at your expense to get them in order personally and ensure they are being wise stewards. If your staff members do not have wise budgeting and stewardship plans, they will not influence others in the ministry to do the same. It is wise to ensure that coaching and help are available for the staff members to be the first fruits of good stewardship.

9. Safety

Sometimes it is the overlooked small things that ruin everything. So, as budgets are cut, such things as human safety cannot be cut. One tragic example is a church that opened a new children’s wing, and somehow a small screw was left on the floor; a child swallowed it and died. Too few churches have good security, cleanliness, and safety, and there is no excuse for cutting these kinds of things.