James C. Petty - Act of Grace: The Power of Generosity to Change Your Life, the Church, and the World

This book is written for Christians about the topic of giving. It focuses on thequestion of why God gives us money and on the surprising implications of the answerfor the economic lives of Christians. The book addresses what we are called to dowith the wealth that God grants us.

I believe that God has a controlling purpose for us regarding the use of our money.Understanding this purpose can provide us with two things. First, it provides lightthat will guide our spending, savings, investment, and contribution decisions. Second,it offers a vision that will motivate and unleash godly generosity in us, his disciples.

In of this book, we will explore Gods purpose for money by surveying howmajor biblical characters viewed the purpose of their wealth. The survey begins withthe Old Testament saints, then moves to Gods Son in the Gospels, and finally concludeswith the apostolic teaching received from the risen, ruling Christ.

explores the real-world implications of that God-ordained purpose for moneyas it was worked out in the early church, the medieval church, and the modern evangelicalera. After that, we will look at the potential to be realized in the twenty-firstcentury and its substantial impacts for world evangelization, church edification,and relief and development for the poor. I hope to demonstrate that the primary obstacleto the substantial completion of Gods purposes on earth is not a lack of fundingevenin view of the poverty of almost 200 million Christians and the need to evangelize5 billion people.

This book is not the first to explore the topic of giving in the United States. ChristianSmith, John and Sylvia Ronsvalle, Mark Noll, Robert Wuthnow, and others have donesplendid work studying why Christians dont give more. They have generously offeredtheir tools of sociological and historical analysis for our cause, and for that weshould be very grateful. They bring their gifts to bear on this topic not just becauseof professional interest but because of their faith in Christ and their desire tosee the church address a glaring deficit in its health and mission. Many of the dynamicsthat they document are also described in Scripture. The fruitful overlap of theirfindings and biblical principles helps us to see why there is a problem and how wecan change.

I am deeply grateful to God for those he placed in my life who pointed me to him,the fountain of all generosity and giving. Both of my grandmothers, Katherine AkersJohnston and Ruth Roberts Petty, modeled a deep love for Gods Word and were theprimary means through which the gospel was brought to our family. My mother, Katherine,embodied an activism of love for the lost and troubleda demonstration to me of thereal existence of selfless love in the face of her sons native skepticism.

I am also thankful for the faculty and students at Westminster Theological Seminary,who patiently challenged my blindly proud assumptions about the foundations of humanknowledge. I am particularly grateful in this regard for Bill Edgar, Dick Keyes,Edmund Clowney, John Frame, and Cornelius Van Til. You were the means that God usedto change me from skeptic to kingdom activist.

I must also mention John Bettler and my former colleagues at the Christian Counselingand Educational Foundation. They not only gave me the opportunity for a twenty-yearministry in stewardship but actually taught me how to repent and live out the lifethat I now professed as husband and father and then as pastoral counselor and fledgingauthor. I also give thanks for the challenging examples of Bob and Katherine Arthur,Rex Anderson Jr., and Milton Velez, who lit the way for me to see kingdom generosityas a way of life for all of Christs disciples.

Finally, I want to acknowledge the critical role of my two primary editors. My wife,Marsha, has spent hundreds of hours correcting, copyediting, and advising me onthe initial texts of all my books and pamphlets. Without her, my works would haveimploded on the launch pad. Second, I am also deeply thankful to God for providingSue Lutz, an especially hearty soul, who edited and shaped my books from visionaryramblings into well-written prose that could be useful to the church. On the lastday, these insightful women will be revealed as great ones in the kingdom.