Generosity in Koinonia

I stood in the exhibit hall at the 2009 General Assembly of the Church of the Nazarene in Orlando. As I gazed across the large room, I heard someone say, “Hello, partner.” I turned to see my friend, Francisco Cardona, from Guadalajara, Mexico. We embraced, glad to be together again.

I first met Pastor Pancho, as Francisco is known to his congregation, in 1994. My 17-year-old daughter, Karla, spent that summer in Guadalajara as a volunteer in the field office and attended Pancho’s church. My wife, Judi, and I went to Mexico for Karla’s last week and spoke at the 11^th Church of the Nazarene on a Sunday morning. While I addressed the congregation, Karla leaned over to Judi and suggested that our home church become a “sister congregation” with her Mexican church family. Great idea! We took a photo of the 11^th Church that morning, then took a photo of our home church a few weeks later and made a mini-poster of the “brothers and sisters in Christ.” We didn’t have a lot of expectations for the partnership at the time, but we had a link with friends in Mexico.

Our congregation in Portland, Oregon, faced severe financial stress. About three years before, when the district superintendent called to ask about presenting my name to the church board, he started by saying, “Have I got an opportunity for you!” In other words, this congregation was in trouble but no one had figured out the cause. To shorten a long story, we ended up selling the building and started meeting in rented facilities.

When we visited Guadalajara in 1994, the 11^th Church met in a rented house. The largest room accommodated two sections of chairs, three chairs per row. They could get about 45 people in the space. In 1998, we learned they were beginning to talk about getting their own facility, so Karla and I made another trip to Guadalajara to gather information. When we returned home, our congregation got excited about what we might do to assist. Here we were, a congregation without a facility of our own, seeking ways we might help our sister congregation get their own worship space.

About this time, I read a biography of Oswald Smith, the founding pastor of The People’s Church in Toronto. Moved by the fact that Smith’s congregation gave 50 percent of their money to support global missionaries, I told my church board that giving only 10 percent for others was for sissies. We needed to do at least 25 percent for others.

The congregation caught the vision—the last year we shared 43.39 percent with others, much of it given toward the growing partnership with the 11^th Church in Guadalajara. We sent the first Work and Witness team to begin the construction of the facility in Guadalajara, a team that included about a third of our small congregation. Many of those on the first team went back with subsequent teams. The relationships that developed were wonderful.

I learned so much about generosity from that congregation. Even though we had reason to worry about our own needs, we gave liberally to others. In the process, we learned generosity isn’t simply a transfer of money, it’s mostly about sharing life.

Paul wrote to his friends in Corinth, “Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, people will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else” (2 Cor. 9:13, TNIV). The phrase “generosity in sharing” is the one I’ve been pondering. The word “sharing” is translated from the Greek word koinonia. We often use the word koinonia to refer to the wonderful fellowship enjoyed by God’s people. In this verse Paul links koinonia with generosity, the “generosity in koinonia.”

I wonder if too often we’re guilty of seeing generosity in terms of debit and credit as if it was a double entry accounting system. Paul seems to be saying generosity is not merely a matter of transferring money from my bank account to that of another. Instead, he says true generosity occurs when koinonia happens, when a close, concerned relationship prompts profound sharing, so that all needs are met. Generosity finds its motivation in koinonia, in the communal life of followers of Jesus, not merely in the altruistic impulses of an individual.

As Pancho, my partner in the work of the Gospel (Phil. 1:5), walked away at General Assembly, I could still sense his presence. The light fragrance of his cologne had transferred to me in our embrace. In the same way, the sweetness of koinonia lingers in the generosity of God’s people.

Originally published by Pensions & Benefits USA.