My friend, preaching colleague, and fellow Hoosier, Max Dawson, writes a wonderful column every week about Kingdom Leaders.
You can find other columns like this one from August of 2025 on his facebook page.
Max serves as one of the Shepherds at the Dowlen Road Church in Beaumont, Texas, and is a great example of a Kingdom Leader.
Kingdom Leaders Are Known for Their Generosity
Last Thursday’s journal looked at the ugly picture of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11). This Christian couple was so bold as to think they could lie to God and get away with it. They quickly learned otherwise. They wanted people in the church to look upon them as being very generous. The problem was that they lied about their giving. They died because of that!
There was one character in last week’s offering who was barely mentioned. This man is introduced to us at the end of chapter four. “And Joses, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles (which is translated Son of Encouragement), a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet” (Acts 4:36-37).
Barnabas (along with many other disciples) gave liberally to help the poor among the saints in the Jerusalem church. Because of his initial generosity, as well as many other good qualities, he was quickly identified as a leader among God’s people. He was known as “Son of Encouragement,” for so his name Barnabas meant. This man was a blessing to the church.
Barnabas is a good model for leaders in the church today. You may already know that he became an important character in the book of Acts. He was a helper to the Apostle Paul (Acts 9:26-28), and co-worker with him on his first missionary journey (Acts 13:1-4ff). But he is first known in the book of Acts as a generous man.
A leader’s generosity says a lot to others about his character and about his love for people. That’s one of the reasons Barnabas was so highly regarded in the early church. And, note this, Barnabas did not give in order to gain recognition. (That’s why Ananias and Sapphira gave–so others would look up to them.) Barnabas was a generous giver because he loved the Lord Jesus and His people.
John Maxwell, commenting on Barnabas, wrote, “Effective leaders gather for others, and then give it away” (Leadership Bible, p. 1350). Maxwell listed five ways to cultivate generosity in your life. (Here is his list. Note that I have added a Bible verse for each.)
1. Be grateful for whatever you have. (Col. 3:17, “…giving thanks to God…”)
2. Put people first. (1 Cor. 9:19, “…I have made myself a servant to all…”
3. Don’t allow greed to control you. (Eccl. 5:13, “…Riches kept for their owner to his hurt.”)
4. Regard money as a resource. (Eccl. 11:1, “Cast your bread upon the waters…”)
5. Develop the habit of giving. (1 Tim. 6:17-19, “…ready to give, willing to share…”)
Being generous with our money is one of the ways we show our trust in God. When we give liberally to His cause, or when we give personally to individuals in need, we give believing that God will always provide for us. We give knowing that “God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8). Be generous in your giving.
Kingdom leaders are known for their generosity–though they seek no recognition for that
ThePreachersWord 