I’ve heard a lot of pastors teach on the Luke 6:38 paradox when they are about to receive an offering. The core principle in Luke 6:38 is “give and it shall be given unto you,” a concept that looks upside down from the perspective of conventional wisdom.  In other words, the way to have what you need is to give. And so, pastors encourage the people they lead to practice that principle and give…and for their convenience an offering plate soon appears before them making it easy for them to put the principle into practice.

What’s interesting to me is that too often, leaders who look to Luke 6:38 to motivate their people to give, do not practice the principle in the way they co-labor with Jesus in building His Church. I’m not referring to the way the leaders manage their personal giving. I’m referring to how their strategic plans align with this crucial biblical principle of “give and it shall be given.”

Here’s an example of what I mean. The conventional approach to staffing has been to go out and find the best proven leaders and hire them to serve on the leadership team of a local church. The hiring process is costly and fraught with potholes. When a really good staff person is hired, conventional wisdom says hang on to him/her. Keep them for yourself.

But Kingdom wisdom says you might want to give them away. Send them out to plant a church, be a missionary, help a struggling congregation get back on mission, etc. It doesn’t make sense I know. But the biblical principle seems to apply to more than just money in the pockets of the members. When we develop leaders and give them away, the principle is that more will be “given” to us. I’m not suggesting that every leader we develop must be sent away to honor the principle. But SOME of the leaders we develop should be planted as seeds to expand the Kingdom beyond the parameters of our immediate ministry context.

For what it’s worth, this concept is actually supported by research. Studies by “Natural Church Development” author Christian Schwarz conducted on churches that are intentional about sending indicate that “sending” churches tend to be healthier than “keeping” churches. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised.