Ignite Your Generosity: a 21-Day Experience in Stewardship.
Chris McDaniel. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2015. 79 pages, paperback.
Key quote(s)
- “The God of the Bible is radically generous. As followers of Christ we resemble him most when we are living generously.”
- “Having our hearts filled with gratitude allows us to joyfully give back to God.”
- “The physical act of giving first to the Lord puts our faith into action. It demonstrates that we believe He is our first priority.”
Summary
Ignite Your Generosity is 21-day devotional—but it’s more than that. Chris McDaniel blends practical action with personal theology and leads the reader to ask if there is more that God wants him or her to do regarding generosity. He encourages the reader to evaluate his/her own generosity in various areas such as time, serving others, and finances. Each day’s devotion can be completed in less than 20 minutes, including the scripture readings and questions that invite personal reflection. As such it could be a stand-alone devotional guide or an addition to one’s regular devotional reading. It’s brief and fairly simple and offers a good resource to begin with for Christians who are not practicing generosity. However, it also could be used to encourage faithful Christians to consider doing more, as God leads. In the foreword Dan Busby suggests the book is organized into three sections:
- What does God want you to know? (Days 2-6)
- What does God want you to do? (Days 7-17)
- Ignite the fire! (Days 18-21)
The revised edition includes small group study guides to help facilitate a small group that meets four times concurrently with the 21 personal devotions.
Application—could be useful for:
- Individual reading and growth in giving
- Read together as a congregation over 21 days
- Counseling resource to help those struggling with finances
- Small group study
Notes:
- Recommended by Todd Harper, Wesley K. Willmer, and Brian Kluth.
- Foreword by Dan Busby, ECFA president.
- Generosity Challenge – a guide with 27 daily challenges that complement the study is available for free at: https://www.ivpress.com/Media/Default/Discussion-Guides/4431-generosity-challenge.pdf
- Chris McDaniel (MBA, Liberty University) is an account executive for vTECH io, a Dell channel partner that provides end-to-end IT solutions.
