Firstfruits: A Stewardship Guide for Church Leaders
Robert C. Heerspink -
Firstfruits: A Stewardship Guide for Church Leaders is a thoroughly revised, self-directed study guide featuring 27 brief readings that help readers discover the Bible's wisdom on giving for today from a biblical and Reformed practical perspective.
Strengths:
Heerspink does a great job of giving ample time to both the biblical framework of stewardship as well as practical guidelines for encouraging and developing a stewardship mindset in churches.
There are a variety of uses for Firstfruits - it can be used for individual study, small groups, leadership teams, and congregational retreats.
Firstfruits would be great "how to" manual for church leadership groups. It has been used and tested by local churches, and has proven to be an effective guide to help churches develop a stewardship mindset.
Firstfruits was designed to be an easy-to-read book. Chapters, identified as "Discoveries", are just a few pages each in length, with clear formatting, and a few well-chosen discussion questions at the end of each chapter. The visual appeal of the book is further enhanced with occasional stewardship-themed cartoons.
In the first eleven "Discoveries," Heerspink raises some important, thought-provoking questions about the biblical framework of stewardship such as: How is stewardship different than fundraising? What sin has done to our stewardship? What is the purpose of giving? What should motivate our giving today?
Churches with a concern for the younger generation will appreciate Heerspink's practical suggestions for challenging young people in their role as stewards such as: adults modeling stewardship, challenging teens to give not only their time on service projects but also their money, and directly asking youth to give (rather than assuming youth ministries will all be picked up by the general fund or special fundraisers).
Heerspink was a pastor for many years before becoming the Executive Director of Back to God Ministries International. From that experience, he offers fellow pastors some excellent guidelines for preaching about stewardship in Discovery 16 - "Taking Money into the Pulpit."
Firstfruits demonstrates the strong connection between stewardship and spiritual disciplines such as worship, prayer, fellowship, service, study, and giving - citing extensive research done by Barnabas Foundation among thousands of church members, concluding that "stewards grow best when they embed their stewardship practice in a constellation of spiritual disciplines."
One of the most noticeable characteristics of Firstfruits is how immensely practical it is, with practical suggestions on mission budgets, annual pledges, ingredients of a healthy stewardship initiative, adding spice and variety into stewardship development, and much more.
Things to be aware of:
An excellent accompanying website (www.firstfruitsbook.org) sponsored by Barnabas Foundation was created to provide additional congregational stewardship helps, including sample stewardship sermons, offering ideas, "Story Telling Budgets", resource reviews, sample giving cards, and much more. Although the web site is referenced in the book, it would have been helpful if it was more prominently listed in the "Additional Reading" section at the end of the book for easy reference.
Available at Faith Alive Resources