Yesterday I sent out the call. Today I am dropping the former 1% Challenge I sent out a month after the first call was sent out. On June 1, 2006 I sent out the 1% Challenge following the call as DLM was entering I felt one of the most critical times in the next 50 years of the ministry. I was right that DLM was entering one of the most critical times it was going to face, but I was wrong on why and what the critical part was going to be.
Having just sent out the call a month prior and expecting an increase in costs for the ministry that would result, I sent out the 1% challenge to ask those who believed in the ministry of DLM to commit 1% of their income above and beyond their tithe to DLM.
I am dropping the 1% challenge and issuing a different and better challenge in every way and purpose than the first. It is better for everyone who responds to it and better for the blessing of DLM as a natural outcome of the change. It has been, though unofficial and unspoken, present in DLM since 2007 in many ways. Now, I'm raising the bar with a better challenge for God's people and for DLM. I suspect for most people, this will be unlike what they have heard and I expect it will be life giving and freeing for them as it has been for me and countless others.
I just read the letter I sent out on June 1, 2006 for the 1% challenge and while there were good things about it - I now see multiple things that are not the best of what God has for us nor reflecting the wisdom on things I have learned in walking with God since then.
Here are original parts of the 1% challenge and what is changing and why:
1) In the letter I wrote DLM was entering one of the most critical times in the next 50 years of the ministry. At the time as I mentioned earlier I thought it was because the expenses of the ministry were going to significantly increase in response to the Call. I was wrong, as God would not long after lead me into a time of ministry sabbatical and costs did not increase as such. The critical time DLM entered into was the season in life I entered and the real possibility that I could have given up on the vision for this ministry and with that the ministry as it is and I believe is to become - would not have likely continued. At least it would not have happened through me and would have had to been given to someone else to step out and lead and follow God in it. It is a miracle now that what is happening is happening with DLM. I did not plan or intend to resume in moving in this again as I now am and nothing of my own ambition has moved this forward. In the past few weeks this has moved forward as I have followed where God is leading me in it, I did not plan or intend to move this forward right now.
2) The entire letter reflects the influence I was under at the time in how to do ministry, what it looked like and how you make it happen in a way. If I was asked at the time about the way of thinking I was in and my thoughts on a lot of things, they would have been mixed. I had the thinking of this was a cure that a lot of people needed and it would bless and impact people for God and my desire to see that move forward right away influenced the way I approached the 1% challenge. There was a battle of wills going on in that letter and that challenge I sent out of both trusting God, wanting to help people and doing what I could to move things along and increase the funds coming in to do so. I see this often in many ministries today and I understand the motive behind it of wanting to serve God and help others, but the worry of the finances needed to do so and the human draw to do what we can to help nudge donors along the way to help the organization in it's goals. I do not condone when this method is used, I am not here to judge or put down ministries who are genuinely seeking to be able to continue to do what they do as it takes money to do it. However, what you build a organization by and with is going to influence and play a role in what it becomes and the culture and spirit of the people who are a part of it. I have no desire to foster or grow a culture or spirit with DLM that is far from the heart and spirit God has given me for it. This means a complete surrender and trust and obedience to what God leads me in for it and on the financial means for it to move forward and grow. Since 2007 I have not sent out any letters or continued to seek to raise support or used any donor funds push appeals, but relied 100% on what God provided through the people He has told to help and in the amount they should help. This was largely influenced by the ministry of the L'Abri I read about around that time. I wanted to rely on God in this way before that, but was not in a place of wisdom or understanding or faith to do so. I am not saying this is how to do it or how it should be done, but simply as those before me who have relied on this method, it is what God has led me to adapt for DLM.
I know some people may respond with why this won't work or that people will not if given the choice give much at all, but the word is clear God loves the cheerful and willing giver. As I have embraced this way of thinking I have also for the first time ever been able to read Matthew 13:44 and not think it something scary. Rather, I have come to realize the more I discover what the Kingdom of Heaven is, the more this makes perfect since and I being to understand why he went in his joy and sold all he had and bought the field. Notice, it does not say he stepped out in faith, or thought long and hard about it, but in his joy he went and sold all he had and bought that field. When we grasp the Kingdom of Heaven, we will begin to grasp it is a treasure, and of great worth and our joy in all areas increases naturally.
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. - Matthew 13:44
3) In my letter I said I would lead by example and do what I asked others to do. This did then and does today remain true.
4) The challenge was for 1% above and beyond the tithe to give towards DLM in the letter. I am dropping the 1% challenge. First, because not everyone is going to be called to give and support DLM. I do not want people giving just to give and guessing this is the ministry for which God wants them to give to. I want people knowing God wants them to give to DLM and what amount to give - hearing from God, walking with Him and being in relationship with Him. Second, because hearing from God what ministry to give to is only part of it, I want people to know not only what ministry God wants them to give to, but to know what amount God wants them to give. This may not even be to give to a ministry, but to those around you that you see in need. The point is not to give just to give to feel good, but to seek to grow in your relationship with God to know who to give to, when to give and what to give to them. For DLM to become what it is to be, it needs to be grown agenda free and without any pressure on anyone to ever give. Rather it needs to be an environment in which God moves in the gift of giving through people who know who, when and how much to give as God shows them.
5) In my letter I addressed the thoughts that may arise from people who may feel uneasy in the talk of money and anything with or about God. I do not feel the need to address in the same way those feelings or thoughts, because with this change in the dropping of the 1% Challenge and in the new way of trusting and relying God for the finances for the ministry, there is no reason or need for anyone to feel uneasy or weird about it. Simply put, I am not asking for your money, DLM does not need it and neither does God. It is His money, He does give us the ability to earn it and we are to be stewards of it, but who, where, when and how much to give has been given to us as his stewards to distribute as he desires it to be. This requires us to be seeking him and to hear from him to know those things. DLM exists help people walk with God and learn how to hear from Him to know where, when, how and in what amounts to use what God gives them - not to coach or sway them to give their resources to DLM. In fact in doing that I believe God would hold back blessings he has for DLM and maybe even rebuke this ministry as I and DLM would be partially accountable for having not helped those who God sends us learn and know His will for their life in that area. In helping people know where, when and who to give to and what amount, we are serving Him and He will provide for every need as He has since I stopped sending out letters asking for support in 2007.
6) The motive of giving must be right. If you are giving to get or hoping to get, that is the wrong motive. While Malachi does say to test God in giving to see that he will bless us, it is one verse and a blessing is a by product, not the goal. God wants our hearts and if our giving is not out of a out flowing of love, the issue at hand is not the giving, it is our heart that has not experienced the love of God as the gift of God. Trying to tell people to give or why they should give or God wants them to give or even to give to shift the heart towards God in shifting where the treasure we have is are all missing the point. Giving flows out of love. When we experience the love of God and our hearts are healed and restored giving is a by product and the blessing the by product of that giving.
So the 1% Challenge is not being renewed, but it is being dropped.
What it is being replaced with is the Receive, Hear, Obey Challenge.
Receive the love of God, from the gift of God, so that the love of giving is released in you, then seek to hear God's voice and know where, when and how much to give with what God has given you and then obey. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom and DLM is a ministry that will follow this giving philosophy.
On May 1, 2006 after months of prayer and consideration I sent out the first "Call". At the time and still to this day it may be the first and still the only thing of it's kind ever sent out to the world by anyone. 
