Is John Wesley's Encouragement to "Make All You Can, Save All You Can, and Give All You Can" Good Advice for Pastors Today?

Is John Wesley’s Encouragement to “Make all you can, Save all you can, and Give all you can” good advice for pastors today? We’ll talk about that in this episode of the More Than a Pastor Show. Let’s get started!

Hello my friend. Welcome to the More Than a Pastor Show. I’m Rich Avery, your host. This is the show where we help pastors, missionaries, and other ministry leaders grow your income and build financial security.

We help you take your skills, experience, and ministry know-how and leverage them into sustainable income outside of the church, through a business or side hustle that’s right for you. So you can serve God and provide for your family, no matter what.

Links for Today's Show

• Free PDF: How to Know if Starting a Business is Right for You
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Helping Costa Rican Pastors Cultivate Generous Stewardship

I hope you are doing well and enjoying a great season of life and ministry right now. I’m getting over a cold, so I may sound a little more raspy or wheezy than usual today. I got sick on my way back from Costa Rica two weeks ago and the head and chest congestion is still lingering.

I had an amazing time in Costa Rica. It was my first time there - I was working with a group of 30 pastors from the Association of Bible Churches to help them learn how to model and foster a culture of generous stewardship in their congregations and community, so they can be more financially sustainable through local giving.

We met at a Christian retreat center/camp in the northern part of the country and it was so beautiful, lush and green, with volcanoes in view. Unfortunately I didn’t have time for any sight seeing on this trip - really wanted to see a toucan, sloth, and capybara up close. But I hope to be back again and definitely want to plan on some extra time for some exploration.

If you’re a regular reader or listener, you know I’m passionate about helping pastors and churches thrive financially so they can accomplish the mission God has given them.

If you’re concerned about the level of giving in your church, like these pastors in Costa Rica, wondering how you can grow giving or maybe pursue alternative revenue streams for the church, or thinking it might be time for you find ways to earn money outside the church, but you’re not sure where to begin or if it’s even possible, I’d love to have a conversation with you and help you clarify your best next step. You can schedule a free call with me at morethanapastor.com/coaching.

Make All You Can, Save All You Can, and Give All You Can:  Good Advice for Pastors Today?

I love it when I get emails and feedback from blog readers or podcast listeners. And today’s episode is inspired by a reader named Gary who writes:

Hi Rich, Your blog says, "send me an email," so I am!

This past Sunday our pastor preached a sermon using the Wesley quote “Make all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.” After the sermon and then reading your blog post about it (Make All You Can, Save All You Can, and Give All You Can), I wonder two things:

1. "Make all you can." If we put this into practice, wouldn't that mean that no Christian would ever go into the ministry or, say, teaching profession, because they could make more money in other fields? Couldn't a person use this principle to avoid God's calling them into a lower-paying profession?

2. I have always felt a huge tension between "Save all you can" and "Give all you can." The more a person does of one, the less they have for the other. How do I justify saving for the future -- instead of "trusting God with it" -- rather than give it away?

So it's a nice aphorism, but it doesn't feel very practical to me.

Gary, thank you so much for taking the time to write me an email. I appreciate it! You ask some great questions here. I’ve felt this tension, and I'm sure others have felt it as well.

It was in his sermon on “The Use of Money” in 1760 where John Wesley famously encouraged his listeners to "Gain all you can, save all you can, and give all you can." Is this good advice, or even applicable at all, for pastors or other Christians today?

Here are my thoughts:

1. I don't believe that "make all you can" necessarily means pursuing the highest-paying career option available to us.

In fact, when we look at John Wesley’s life, we see that he preached mostly to the poor and uneducated, to the people working the docks, the coal mines, the farms, so I don't think he was imploring them to become doctors instead.

I take "make all you can" as an invitation to be a good steward of all the resources at our disposal (our assets, skills, know-how, experiences) and use them in a way that produces as much of an increase as we can within reason. (Wesley also spoke against wearing ourselves out in the pursuit of wealth).

So using pastors as an example, we have a ton of skills and resources that could be leveraged into extra income outside of the church. Each week, we are creating sermons or lessons for our congregations.

Is it good stewardship to use this week's sermon once and only for our local congregation? Or are there ways we can turn sermons into books, podcasts, courses, and other materials, to produce an increase in our impact (a wider audience) and income?

That's exactly what John Wesley did. He turned his sermons into pamphlets which were sold and generated a substantial income. Or it could mean using our skills in other ways that can produce income. For example, buying a rental house or launching some other passive income stream.

2. Setting Lifestyle and Savings Goals/Limits Help us Manage the Tension Between Saving and Giving

Twenty years ago I began being mentored by a very wealthy man from my church. He was a financial advisor who managed the wealth of millionaires in our community. He said he and his wife realized early on that their income would be substantial in this line of work, so they set a lifestyle limit and a savings limit, and planned to give away everything else that exceeded those limits. This was a very "Wesleyan" thing to do as John Wesley also modeled this.

Wesley came to a point in his life where he limited his lifestyle so that he could give more away. It was in 1731 when he was earning 30 pounds a year, and his living expenses were 28 pounds. So he had 2 pounds remaining to give. The next year his income doubled to 60 pounds, but he still kept his lifestyle expenses the same, and now he had 32 pounds to give away. The next year his income increased to 90 pounds, and you guessed it he kept his living expenses at 28 and gave 62 pounds away.

3. The Question is all About Stewardship: How Are We Stewarding the Resources God Has Entrusted to Us?

So I believe we have the ability to honor God in all three: in making all we can, saving all we can, and giving all we can. Because it honors God when we steward well the resources he's given us and when we seek to produce an increase, it honors him when we create long-term and short-term savings for future needs, and it honors him when we give out of our abundance, and when we give sacrificially, to meet the needs of others.

And he invites us to find him in the tension of all three, and be guided by his spirit toward the lifestyle, savings, and giving limits and goals he would have us follow.

I faced a personal challenge with this tension maybe 25 years ago. In doing a spiritual gifts assessment I discovered that the gift of giving ranked very high for me. And that made sense because I find great joy in giving and serving.

But as I read the description of the gift of giving it said that it wasn't just about the act of giving but also the act of creating an increase that could be given away. And I asked myself, and God, how could I as a pastor have the gift of giving if I have no capacity to create an increase?

Then over time the Lord revealed to me that there were  other ways I could create an increase outside of my pastoral salary which would allow me to save more and give more. I could create more income through real estate investing and pursuing other side income opportunities that utilized the skills and abilities God had given me.

So Gary, that’s how I take Wesley’s quote, and how I think we can all apply as we seek to steward the resources, skills, and abilities God has given us.

Thanks again for writing and for checking out my blog, it means a lot.

Have Feedback on This Episode? Please let Me Know!

If you have a question or feedback on this or any other episode, I invite you to do what Gary did - send me an email and let me know. You can email me at [email protected]. And maybe I’ll feature your question in a future episode as well.