We select trustworthy pastors who at least meet the following criteria:
Trustworthy Character & Recommendation
They are known to be people of high integrity. They must be recommended by a pastor (or believer) we know and trust (ideally, a current member of our fellowship). After initial admission into the fellowship, we will get to know them later and confirm whether we should continue working together.
Evidence of Being Generous to the Poor
They have demonstrated a heart for serving the poor (orphans, widows, strangers), as evidenced by serving them in the past in whatever way God has allowed them (whether small or great). All that’s important is serving. Remember the widow’s mite (Mark 12:41-44). For example, Pastor Dominic recently shared the following: “Last year, my church supported some Widows, orphans, and needy (both inside and outside our church) to the tune of about 300, 000frs, as the Lord provided the funds, and I personally supported 3 widows and 2 needy persons with my widow’s mite of 50,000frs in January this year.” He isn’t pastoring a large church and doesn’t have much money, but he and his church were able to do that. That shows the kind of spirit we are looking for in a pastor.
We only require evidence of a pastor’s previous generosity to the poor, not the church. Having said that, pastors who have already taken the initiative in previous years to lead their churches to be generous to the poor will receive top priority in partnering with us if everything else is good.
Commitment to Serving in Additional Ways
They commit that their church will pray and do something more than what they receive from us to help widows (and orphans). We don’t require a specific amount; they just need to commit to seeking the Lord and doing their best to be generous to the poor. Whether that means 1 franc CFA or 1 million CFA, it is left to them and God. And the manner of their generosity isn’t limited to money. It can be in fetching and providing wood to older widows who can’t do this, providing health plans to orphans in the church, providing some food for those living with orphans, etc. Whatever the Lord guides. They will describe their own contribution in the report that they submit after delivering help to those intended. While our gifts (for now) will be cash, and the pastor must give all our gifts as cash to the recipients, gifts from the church to the recipients can be in cash or kind.
Biblical Doctrine
Their doctrine is known to be biblical. No prosperity gospel and other teachings that don’t agree with basic evangelical Christian teaching. This is generally stated intentionally because we don’t want to start diving into legitimate doctrinal differences between different denominations.
Commitment to Reporting and Checks
They commit to submitting needed reports to us and cooperating (when needed) with our team to confirm their reports.
Commitment to Being Your Brother’s Keeper
They commit to sharing any advice and feedback they have to help improve how we work to serve widows and orphans together. If they think a pastor is misusing funds, they must say something (they can do this anonymously). If God puts an idea in their mind that might help us serve God better, they must pray and share it kindly. Sometimes they’ll be accepted by the leadership, and sometimes they won’t be. But they commit to being their brother’s keeper when it comes to the work we do together in hopes that God will strengthen it and help many more through it.
Nature of Partnership
Our partnership will be an at-will partnership that is led by the Holy Spirit. That means people are brought by the Holy Spirit and leave when they believe the Spirit is moving them on. We only ask that all our interactions be characterized by love and respect for each other if, for any unforeseen reason, we do part ways in the future, regardless of who initiates the parting.
Thus, if, at any point, a partnering pastor and church pray and believe that God wants them to move on, they only need to let Shaping Destiny (SD) know. Because our relationship is at-will, not contract, we can’t force them to stay and vice-versa. As would be expected, they are, however, required to collaborate with SD to address any issues that occurred while they were partnering with us if necessary. They will also need to finish distributing any money received, write the necessary reports, and collaborate with our teams if someone needs to go and investigate to make sure that the funds were distributed per our requirements.
Question
Question: What if it were possible to know that a pastor would faithfully pass on the gift to the poor even though they themselves have shown no evidence of personal generosity to the poor in the past? Why wouldn’t we take them to ensure the money goes to the poor in their churches?
First, we wouldn’t be selecting the widows and discharging the resources to them. The pastor and their elders will be and we will only check from time to time, not every single time. Thus, we need a pastor who is trusted to be able to do that faithfully.
Second, it’s impossible to know that the pastor would be faithful in serving the poor tomorrow if they haven’t served the poor in the past.
Third, the degree of service we are seeking to see as mentioned above isn’t that they have donated millions to help the poor or even tens of thousands of CFA.
Fourth, generosity to the poor is a fruit of the Spirit. It’s the fruit of love, goodness, kindness (Galatians 5:22-23). If a pastor isn’t bearing such fruit to the poor, their gospel message is questionable. The Lord Jesus taught that by their fruit you’ll know them. How do we know a person is transformed and born again except by their fruit?
Fifth, the parable of the good Samaritan was given to illustrate what it means for followers of Christ to love their neighbor as themselves.
The Bible says,
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:25-37).
Failure to serve the needy is small ways like this, even when one is poor himself, is a sign of lack of fruit of the Holy Spirit. Remember the widows offering wasn’t much but the Lord said she gave more than all the others (Mark 12:41-44).
James says faith without works is dead. If a person hasn’t shown some fruit in this area of generosity to the poor, it’s a bad sign.
Sixth, our goal in wanting to work with pastors to help widows in their churches is 1) to help the pastors to be blessed by God when they become more generous and see the promises God makes to those who help the poor happen to them and their churches, 2) to bless and honor widows who have served well and are now in need. Because we don’t have and will never have enough money to take care of all the needs of the widows, our main strategy in giving is to become catalysts that spur up the pastors and churches to give to love the poor in their churches and see God bless them. I can testify to God’s goodness when you give even out of your need to others in need (I don’t advocate doing so to a televangelist who lives in luxury). To achieve that, we are seeking pastors who already have a generous heart to some degree and then partnering with them to encourage them to do more.
Seventh, someone who doesn’t show a spirit of generosity and who isn’t going to do a little bit more to help the poor can accept the money and pass it on so that they can look good and curry favor with members in their churches. That would be a selfish reason to do it. And that’s more likely for someone who has no fruit of generosity to the poor than those who do.
Eight, the biblical scenario that the pastors serve is as the trustworthy servants the New Testament churches will select and send to take gifts from one church to another. And you can’t be trustworthy enough to handle gifts when you yourself aren’t generous.
“Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable for me to go also, they will accompany me” (1 Cor. 16:3-4).
Also, we can see them as the trustworthy men who were selected to distribute the food in Acts 6.
“In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”
This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them” (Acts 6:1-6).
I think you can’t be a man filled with the Holy Spirit if you don’t care for the poor—as shown by your past testimony, whether big or small but which show you have been bearing fruit in that area. [Please correct me if I’m missing something with this view]. According to the Lord Jesus, the Pharisees tithed everything they had and they evangelized but they missed the greater matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. Justice in the Bible often includes serving the poor.
Matthew 23:23 (ESV)
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”
Matthew 23:15 (ESV)
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.”
