All posts by Dr. Scott Rodin

Holy Defiance

The journey from half-way living to the all-in life in Christ requires that we cultivate a holy defiance of the enemy.  Jesus set the example.  When Peter questioned his mission he shot back, ‘get behind me Satan’.  When the Pharisees challenged his authority he shouted, ‘you brood of vipers!’  When commerce invaded the temple it incited such righteous anger that he overturned tables and drove out merchants declaring for all to hear that this .

What is God Up To?

I am convinced that God is more concerned with who we are than what we do.  He is more concerned with the transformation of our hearts than the transaction of our business.  I have learned the hard way that He loves us enough to let us falter and fail when we try to live life on our own terms according to our own strength.  He will deny us prosperity if it proves the only .

First Steps to Freedom

Living ‘all-in’ for Jesus means being set free. The half-way life is the way of bondage. When we lived in Scotland our kids watched a show called ‘Thunderbirds.’ This league of  defenders of the universe were marionettes masterfully guided by professional puppeteers.  Their every move, even facial expressions were controlled by someone else. Being ‘all-in’ as followers of Christ is a calling to a vibrant, abundant, dynamic life.  It is the enemy who wants .

In Defiance of Half-Way Living

I am beginning 2012 with one defiant proclamation – I’m done, through and finished with living half-way.  I’ve been trying it for years, and I have come to the conclusion that as a Christian the half-way life sucks! Actually, for anyone, there is nothing satisfying, fulfilling or joyful about half-way.  Leaving half-way through a movie, going half-way to your vacation destination, completing half of your degree, climbing half-way up a mountain, being committed half-way to a project, .

Five Things They Never Told Me About Christian Fundraising

What’s so Christian about the way we do our fundraising?  Is Christian fundraising nothing more than secular fundraising with some Bible verses strewn throughout our appeal letters?  I have been wrestling with these questions over my career wanting to understand what our Christian theology has to do with our fundraising strategies and techniques.  As a result, I discovered five things that I believe mark us as distinctly Christian fundraisers, and change dramatically the way .

What is Holistic Stewardship?

At the 2007 Christian Stewardship Association conference in Dallas I spoke about “holistic stewardship” and many people asked me how I defined the term. To me, holistic stewardship begins with God’s intention for His creation and His gracious decision to create humanity in God’s image. It is built further on the central Christian tenet that the God in whose image we have been created is the God we know in Jesus Christ. God’s self-revelation .

Managing the Relationship Between the Board Chair, the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Development Officer

The effectiveness of most every ministry relies on the health and quality of the relationship between the Board Chair, the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Development Officer.  Raising the funds needed to sustain and advance a ministry is, in its best configuration, a team effort involving all three people. In my twenty-five years of not-for-profit work as a CDO, CEO, Board Chair and consultant, I have seen some ministries flourish and others implode .

Accountability for All the Wrong Reasons

Most all Christians would agree that accountability is important to the process of growing as disciples of Jesus Christ. We seek accountability for ourselves and we agree to hold others accountable for the sake of spiritual development and public witness. In this way, true accountability is an integral part of carrying out the command to “make disciples.” Yet there is another aspect to accountability that is important to understand.  Accountability is a response to .

How Does a Steward Pray?

As God’s people we are called to be people of prayer. We are also called to live as godly stewards. And there is a powerful integration of these two callings, a rich interconnectedness that can ignite both a deeper prayer life and more passionate pursuit of godly stewardship. Scripture gives us an illustration of how we should pray and a theology of what it means to be a steward. As we look at each .

Stewardship

As Evangelicals our theological heritage and commitment to Biblical authority uniquely equip us to develop and practice a rich, holistic and uncompromising theology of stewardship. The goal of this chapter is to look at six evangelical theological convictions that form a theology of stewardship, namely a christocentric epistemology, the Trinity, the creation of humanity in the Imago Dei, the fall and the corruption of all creation by sin, the incarnation and atoning work of .