If you’ve been a Christian for any amount of time, you’ve probably had an experience where God completely proved you wrong and proved how He is the One in control.

That happened to me this weekend.

This past Sunday we took up our annual Christmas offering called “The Big [re]Gift.” A few weeks ago our staff met and set a huge goal for this offering. It was one that would take an outpouring of God-like generosity to meet. Honestly, I was skeptical if we would really meet it. Then consider the fact that there was snow forecast for Knoxville. That’s like kryptonite for churches around here! Everyone stocks up on bread and milk while waiting for our blizzard of two inches of snow to hit (sarcasm MAJORLY implied!). And sure enough, on a snowy Sunday that kept around 1/3 of our regular attenders away, I thought that surely meant we wouldn’t even get close to reaching our goal.

I was wrong.

As of this morning, we are at 80% of our huge goal we set! Why is this a big deal? It means our church is going to be helping other new churches, an orphanage in Haiti, ministries at UT and in our community, people in our community who need us to show them Jesus, and people within our church who are in need. This pumps me up!

I am so unbelievably humbled and thankful to serve such a generous group of people. I’m still keeping the goal secret to not discourage anyone from giving what God leads them to give one way or the other. But on January 2 as we kick off 2011, I am going to share that goal with you and you will be blown away, too.

If you missed this past Sunday because of the weather or didn’t come prepared to give to The Big [re]Gift, you still can do so at any of our services in December. Just use the blue envelope that will be in your hand out. Or use our new online giving system that you can find at www.onelifeknox.com/give.

Thank you, OneLifers, for re-giving what God has already given to you and for modeling God-like generosity. It is truly making a difference and will continue to make a difference for so many lives!

This Christmas I am learning a lot about generosity. We are in the middle of our Christmas series at OneLife called “[re]Gifted” where we are discovering what it means to become givers and redefining the concept of generosity. We called it “[re]Gifted” because of the fact that everything I have to give has already been given to me. That completely shifts my thinking to realize that I’m not really giving my own stuff away, but I’m giving God’s stuff away!

In addition to that, generosity needs to become who I am not something that I do. And when it does, I become more like the Father who gave his only Son and more like the Son who gave his only life; all for me, expecting nothing in return.

Honestly, I can’t really get my mind around that. But what I can get my mind around is that one way to become more like the Father and the Son this Christmas is to model their generosity in my own life. The same is true for our church as a whole. To become more like Him, we should be givers like Him.

That is one reason we are taking up a Christmas offering this Sunday called “The Big [re]Gift”. In 2011 we want to give away more than $30,000 to various needs and missions causes. As I said on Sunday, we could do a lot with that money for our own church and staff. But we would much rather make an impact all around the world. So we are taking a day to give specifically toward these causes, and every penny given will go straight toward this goal.

To see all the different ways this money will be used as we re-give what God has given to us, check out this brochure. And if you would like to give toward this offering as we redefine generosity in our church, you can do so this Sunday during the special offering time or at any of our services in December. Just be sure to use the blue “[re]Gifted” envelope so we know that’s what it is for! Or you can also do it online at any time by going to www.onelifeknox.com/give.

I am so excited to be part of something that is bigger than myself and is making a huge difference all around the world. And I am thankful that God is using it to teach me and to redefine generosity in my life. I truly want generosity to be who I am, not just something I do.