A Personal Pilgrimage of Stewardship
By Hugh O. Maclellan, Jr.
Twenty years ago, long before Bruce Wilkinson wrote The Prayer of Jabez, I prayed an arrogant prayer. I said, “God, I don’t think you’re challenging me enough in my giving.” Within the space of a few months, God answered my prayer by bringing two big projects to light.
One month after my prayer, I was asked to help take over a struggling college and make it a Christian college. After months on our knees and in the courts, it is now a wonderful Christian college that’s changing lives for the Lord every year. At the same time, I was faced with starting a local Christian school. Today there are 1,100 students enrolled. I asked God to challenge me, and He did more than I could imagine. That’s why many Christians responded to The Prayer of Jabez—because like Jabez, they want God to expand their territory.
Five years later, I realized that the Lord did not want me in the family business. That was not where my gifts were. Instead, I knew I should be running the family charitable foundation. Regardless, I stayed in the business. The three P’s— power, position, and prestige—had kept me in the business instead of allowing me to pursue my right vocation. I think that businessmen are especially hung up on these three P’s, and it keeps us from being effective. I know I had been, and the first 25 years of my life were a real struggle for that reason.
I was then given the chance to interview several global Christian leaders, and I found several common traits: They were all humble, single-minded and focused. I began to ask myself, “Am I focused and single minded?” On an overseas trip for the foundation, I met foreign Christian leaders who were being trained to start churches in their villages who were far more dedicated than I. Only a third of these men had Bibles. I went home and found 18 Bibles on one shelf. These same men were spending 30 days and nights to learn how to start a church in their village, and I wasn’t willing to spend one hour to teach evangelism in my own church. I realized that I (and Americans generally) am very soft. That experience made a great impression on me as overseas trips always do. I wanted to make a recommitment.
Also, I learned for the first time that God owns everything. Someone gave me three tapes by Christian financial advisor Ron Blue. I listened to those tapes over and over again. Before listening to Blue’s tapes, I thought that my offerings belonged to God and that the rest of it was mine. I had never heard Christian financial principles.
Finally, I heard Campus Crusade for Christ founder Bill Bright speak at a conference about the Gideon principle. In Judges 7, Gideon had an army of 32,000 men, and God said that was too many. Gideon cut it down to 10,000, and God said that was still too many. Finally, Gideon cut it down to 300 men, and God was pleased. Dr. Bright said to us: “That’s all God needs—300 faithful, faithful people.” When I heard that, I went upstairs to my room and wept for joy. I realized that I could be one of those faithful 300, and I didn’t need to worry about anyone else!
First, I set out to maximize my time resource. I realized that I was sitting on too many boards, and I decided not to go for every ego trip. I dropped off several boards, and I took time to disciple a struggling friend.
To maximize my talent resource, I surrounded myself with people who had different gifts. My gifts are initiating, organizing, vision casting and giving. I am weak when it comes to networking, researching and policy setting, so I partner with others who can do these things well.
I also set about maximizing our money resource. My wife, Nancy, and I started giving a minimum of 70 percent of our income. For us, that’s not sacrificial in any way. Any middle-class Christian giving 10 percent to his church is more sacrificial than we are. Nevertheless, giving that 70 percent broke the power of money in our lives. It taught us to live on a semi-budget, rather than a full budget. We moved away from having a lot of expensive gadgets. We don’t have airplanes, boats and second homes. We’ve found out that the more we have, the more we end up having to fix.
Jesus said do not be like the man who hears the Word, and then the worries of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the pleasures of life choke it out. (That is the three P’s again—power, position, and prestige.) Instead, be like the man who hears the Word, understands it, and bears fruit, 100 fold. That’s 100 times 100, a 10,000 percent return! God’s return on my gift and talent for Him is 10,000 percent, not the 10 to 15 percent measly return I can earn on my money.
One other note about making a giving plan: God has a use for my time, talent and resources today, not in an estate plan at my death. In fact, we are responsible for reaching our generation during our lifetime. We are not responsible for the future generations. Christians of those ages will be responsible for them.
I have learned many of my most important spiritual lessons through my giving. One that has really been a struggle for me, but a good struggle, is to give away principal, not just income. I learned from Ron Blue that there is such a thing as over- accumulation. Over-accumulation is when I have educated my children, given them a start in life, and have plenty for retirement plan. Everything over and above is over- accumulation. Five years ago, we gave away 14 percent of our assets, and there was such joy in that.
Not long after, the Lord replenished the 14 percent of assets that we gave away, so I pledged to give away another 15 percent. But I made the mistake of saying, “Lord, I’ll give it to you when my company’s stock reaches $60 per share.” I thought I could set the terms of my giving. The stock hit $56, and then it went down to $12. See, God catches His fish, and then He cleans them. He sends hardship to teach and to purify us. I should have been giving out of my net worth as the stock price was increasing instead of trying to time the top! Then I remembered Paul said, “Give as God prospers you.” I should have been giving capital as the stock price increased!
The second, very practical, lesson I learned was to diversify. In today’s economy, you just cannot put all your bets on one horse. I have seen that over and over again. After seeing my stock drop 80 percent, I went out and invested a large sum in another stock, because the CEO was telling me what a great company he had, but he was not a Christian. He was struggling with his wife and his children. That stock also shot straight down. God was trying to teach this CEO something and was taking me down with him!
A third (rather embarrassing) lesson was this: I did not have a good method for making godly decisions, so I went to the Scriptures for guidance in decision-making. I found three components. First, you need the conviction of the Holy Spirit. How often have you been debating a course of action, and you know inside that it is not right, but you do it anyway? Second, the decision must be consistent with the word of God. Third, outward circumstances by themselves do not make a good decision. I tended to ignore the first two rules and only consider the third, but if any decision does not pass with the Holy Spirit and Scripture, you should not do it.
Another lesson (from my pastor) was this: One of the reasons you may go through tough times is that perhaps God wants to show you your own heart. I’m convinced that God wanted to show me my own heart. I sat down to list some problems about my heart, and I quit after two pages. It was painful, but true. God was taking me through a period of time where He was cleaning me after He’d caught me.
One final lesson was the importance of “pursuing personal holiness”. Spiritual disciplines are very hard for me, but two particular disciplines have become very important in my life. One is the practice of rising early for a daily quite time. I was convicted about this by watching the practice of foreign Christian leaders. The second discipline (which I learned from Gordon McDonald’s book Ordering Your Private World) is to keep a written devotional journal. It is only then when you keep a written journal that you can tell when you are boasting or rationalizing your sin. You also have to keep pages on people whom you are praying for weekly. Otherwise, you don’t pray for them.
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Hugh O. Maclellan, Jr., is president of the Maclellan Foundation, a Chattanooga, Tenn.-based leader in Christian grant making for 50 years. He shared this testimony at the annual Generous Giving Conference in Phoenix, Ariz., on March 1-3, 2001. |
Twenty years ago, long before Bruce Wilkinson wrote The Prayer of Jabez, I prayed an arrogant prayer. I said, “God, I don’t think you’re challenging me enough in my giving.” Within the space of a few months, God answered my prayer by bringing two big projects to light.
One month after my prayer, I was asked to help take over a struggling college and make it a Christian college. After months on our knees and in the courts, it is now a wonderful Christian college that’s changing lives for the Lord every year. At the same time, I was faced with starting a local Christian school. Today there are 1,100 students enrolled. I asked God to challenge me, and He did more than I could imagine. That’s why many Christians responded to The Prayer of Jabez—because like Jabez, they want God to expand their territory.
Five years later, I realized that the Lord did not want me in the family business. That was not where my gifts were. Instead, I knew I should be running the family charitable foundation. Regardless, I stayed in the business. The three P’s— power, position, and prestige—had kept me in the business instead of allowing me to pursue my right vocation. I think that businessmen are especially hung up on these three P’s, and it keeps us from being effective. I know I had been, and the first 25 years of my life were a real struggle for that reason.
I was then given the chance to interview several global Christian leaders, and I found several common traits: They were all humble, single-minded and focused. I began to ask myself, “Am I focused and single minded?” On an overseas trip for the foundation, I met foreign Christian leaders who were being trained to start churches in their villages who were far more dedicated than I. Only a third of these men had Bibles. I went home and found 18 Bibles on one shelf. These same men were spending 30 days and nights to learn how to start a church in their village, and I wasn’t willing to spend one hour to teach evangelism in my own church. I realized that I (and Americans generally) am very soft. That experience made a great impression on me as overseas trips always do. I wanted to make a recommitment.
Also, I learned for the first time that God owns everything. Someone gave me three tapes by Christian financial advisor Ron Blue. I listened to those tapes over and over again. Before listening to Blue’s tapes, I thought that my offerings belonged to God and that the rest of it was mine. I had never heard Christian financial principles.
Finally, I heard Campus Crusade for Christ founder Bill Bright speak at a conference about the Gideon principle. In Judges 7, Gideon had an army of 32,000 men, and God said that was too many. Gideon cut it down to 10,000, and God said that was still too many. Finally, Gideon cut it down to 300 men, and God was pleased. Dr. Bright said to us: “That’s all God needs—300 faithful, faithful people.” When I heard that, I went upstairs to my room and wept for joy. I realized that I could be one of those faithful 300, and I didn’t need to worry about anyone else!
My 10-Year Giving Plan
Studies show that people who write a plan for their giving give four times as much money as those who do not make a plan. It makes sense, because there’s a real commitment there. We all make detailed and disciplined business plans, and even vacation plans. But giving plans are unusual. On my way home from that conference, I wrote a 10-year plan to maximize my time, talent and money resources.
First, I set out to maximize my time resource. I realized that I was sitting on too many boards, and I decided not to go for every ego trip. I dropped off several boards, and I took time to disciple a struggling friend.
To maximize my talent resource, I surrounded myself with people who had different gifts. My gifts are initiating, organizing, vision casting and giving. I am weak when it comes to networking, researching and policy setting, so I partner with others who can do these things well.
I also set about maximizing our money resource. My wife, Nancy, and I started giving a minimum of 70 percent of our income. For us, that’s not sacrificial in any way. Any middle-class Christian giving 10 percent to his church is more sacrificial than we are. Nevertheless, giving that 70 percent broke the power of money in our lives. It taught us to live on a semi-budget, rather than a full budget. We moved away from having a lot of expensive gadgets. We don’t have airplanes, boats and second homes. We’ve found out that the more we have, the more we end up having to fix.
Jesus said do not be like the man who hears the Word, and then the worries of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the pleasures of life choke it out. (That is the three P’s again—power, position, and prestige.) Instead, be like the man who hears the Word, understands it, and bears fruit, 100 fold. That’s 100 times 100, a 10,000 percent return! God’s return on my gift and talent for Him is 10,000 percent, not the 10 to 15 percent measly return I can earn on my money.
One other note about making a giving plan: God has a use for my time, talent and resources today, not in an estate plan at my death. In fact, we are responsible for reaching our generation during our lifetime. We are not responsible for the future generations. Christians of those ages will be responsible for them.
Hard Giving Lessons
I was 48 years old when I made that 10-year plan, and the next 10 years were some of the best of my life. There’s no question about it. God really blessed that time. Recently I realized I had moved away from my giving plan. With a poor decision in business and the stock market slump, I became preoccupied with holding onto my money. When I’m in trouble, I always tend to hold onto my money.
I have learned many of my most important spiritual lessons through my giving. One that has really been a struggle for me, but a good struggle, is to give away principal, not just income. I learned from Ron Blue that there is such a thing as over- accumulation. Over-accumulation is when I have educated my children, given them a start in life, and have plenty for retirement plan. Everything over and above is over- accumulation. Five years ago, we gave away 14 percent of our assets, and there was such joy in that.
Not long after, the Lord replenished the 14 percent of assets that we gave away, so I pledged to give away another 15 percent. But I made the mistake of saying, “Lord, I’ll give it to you when my company’s stock reaches $60 per share.” I thought I could set the terms of my giving. The stock hit $56, and then it went down to $12. See, God catches His fish, and then He cleans them. He sends hardship to teach and to purify us. I should have been giving out of my net worth as the stock price was increasing instead of trying to time the top! Then I remembered Paul said, “Give as God prospers you.” I should have been giving capital as the stock price increased!
The second, very practical, lesson I learned was to diversify. In today’s economy, you just cannot put all your bets on one horse. I have seen that over and over again. After seeing my stock drop 80 percent, I went out and invested a large sum in another stock, because the CEO was telling me what a great company he had, but he was not a Christian. He was struggling with his wife and his children. That stock also shot straight down. God was trying to teach this CEO something and was taking me down with him!
A third (rather embarrassing) lesson was this: I did not have a good method for making godly decisions, so I went to the Scriptures for guidance in decision-making. I found three components. First, you need the conviction of the Holy Spirit. How often have you been debating a course of action, and you know inside that it is not right, but you do it anyway? Second, the decision must be consistent with the word of God. Third, outward circumstances by themselves do not make a good decision. I tended to ignore the first two rules and only consider the third, but if any decision does not pass with the Holy Spirit and Scripture, you should not do it.
Another lesson (from my pastor) was this: One of the reasons you may go through tough times is that perhaps God wants to show you your own heart. I’m convinced that God wanted to show me my own heart. I sat down to list some problems about my heart, and I quit after two pages. It was painful, but true. God was taking me through a period of time where He was cleaning me after He’d caught me.
One final lesson was the importance of “pursuing personal holiness”. Spiritual disciplines are very hard for me, but two particular disciplines have become very important in my life. One is the practice of rising early for a daily quite time. I was convicted about this by watching the practice of foreign Christian leaders. The second discipline (which I learned from Gordon McDonald’s book Ordering Your Private World) is to keep a written devotional journal. It is only then when you keep a written journal that you can tell when you are boasting or rationalizing your sin. You also have to keep pages on people whom you are praying for weekly. Otherwise, you don’t pray for them.
My Giving Practices
As I said before, Nancy and I give away 70 percent of our regular income. We split that 70 percent three ways: 10 percent to the church, 15 percent to small sustaining gifts (gifts of mercy to individuals), and 45 percent to bigger, strategic gifts. To whom do we give? I believe that if you find your passion, and you go all out and start giving in that area, you’ll find real joy. My passion is to reach the lost. My wife Nancy, like many women, has a passion for mercy, so we give especially in those two areas.
Nancy has taught me a lot about showing Christian mercy. The people who really need help are right around you: the single mother with liver disease and four children, the pastor’s wife who needs help around the house, the Christian schoolteacher with a leaky roof, the infertile couple who cannot afford to go to the doctor, the missionary couple burdened with debt, someone who needs gasoline money, or counseling ... all kinds of things. Often only women recognize these needs, but we men can learn! Those gifts do not make business sense and are not tax-deductible, but they are wonderful gifts. I thank the Lord for teaching me to have a merciful heart.
Finally, I challenge you to meet with God to determine from Him several things: What is God telling you to give? What are your passions? What are the barriers that keep you from being more generous?