Sas Conradie is coordinating the Global Generosity Network for the World Evangelical Alliance. On today’s episode of The Evangelism Podcast , Sas shares how he is inspiring Christians to be generous with their finances, time, and resources to advance God’s kingdom and reach the world for Christ by 2033. As an evangelist, I know the vital importance of financial support to fuel our mission, so I’m excited to hear there are people who want to be generous with evangelists.
Learn more about the Global Generosity Network: https://worldea.org/global-generosity-network/
Summary:
- Sas Conradie is the coordinator of the Global Generosity Network, which is an initiative of the World Evangelical Alliance to inspire every Christian to be a good steward of their resources and give generously to advance God’s kingdom.
- Conradie’s heart for generosity began in 1988 when he mobilized students for missions in South Africa, and he encountered the challenge of poorer students not having enough resources to go as missionaries.
- This experience led Conradie to believe that mission work should not be elitist and that the body of Christ has plenty of resources to send everyone who is called to be a missionary.
- Conradie’s involvement with the Lausanne Resource Mobilization Working Group, later renamed the Global Generosity Network, has helped establish various initiatives around the world to inspire Christians to live and give more generously.
- Conradie encourages Christians, especially business leaders, to recognize God’s generosity as the basis for their own generosity, and to understand that generosity is a spiritual battle that requires prayer and support.
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I have a special guest with me, Mr. Sa Ra. Did I say it right? Not totally. Can you say your name the proper way? Sa
Sas Conradie (00:15):
Ra.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:16):
Okay. So we have had an adventure here in South Korea the other day. We took a tour
(00:24):
Soong Church and they took us to the graveyard, or the first missionaries that came here to Korea. They took us to Korean museum and then we saw the palace together. So we’ve had an adventure. So now we’ve become friends. But I’m really fascinated by the ministry that God has called you to. You have one of the most important jobs in the body of Christ. You are encouraging people to be generous. Tell me about it,
Sas Conradie (00:51):
Daniel. Good to be, to have for you to have become our best friend. Yes, sir. Yes. It was such a privilege to be with you, to hear about your ministry, to see how you are reaching thousands, millions with a gospel. You are an example to all of us. Thank you. I’m so honored to say, oh, I know Daniel King.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:16):
Well, I say all for Jesus.
Sas Conradie (01:18):
Amen. All for Jesus. Amen. Yes. No, thank you Daniel. It was a privilege to spend two weeks with you now.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:25):
Yes sir.
Sas Conradie (01:26):
I’m coordinating the Global Generosity network, which is an initiative of the wealth Evangelical alliance to inspire, as we say, every Christian to be a good steward of his resources, finances, and other ways. Share those resources generously with others and give to his full potential to advance God’s kingdom.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:48):
I think this is so valuable as an evangelist. Of course, one of our greatest needs is the finances to be able to do what God has called us to and many people are generous, but I find that when people catch the heart of God’s generosity, it does something wonderful
Sas Conradie (02:10):
In
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:10):
Them, and every single believer can be a part of what God is doing.
Sas Conradie (02:14):
Amen. Yes. Perhaps that was the most important looking our back after the two weeks that we’ve spent together. For me, the most important perspective that I’ve not seen that every Christian should be by nature generous, but that generosity in itself is a way to advance the gospel to reach. We have been talking about the vision of everyone hearing the gospel by 2033. I didn’t ask for the workshop title, but the WA leader told me to lead a workshop on generosity for all, a commitment to reach everyone by 2033. For me, that was kind of a life-changing experience because that means that every Christian needs, or if every Christian is generous with his finances, with his style or their time with his daily lives, but also to share the best thing that I can have to share with somebody else. And that is the testimony. So just think every Christian will start to level lifestyle of generosity where they give into the kingdom, but also where they share their faith every day with somebody else. And for me that has not to click before. If we could mobilize every question then to live generously and to give generously, then it should not be that difficult task, in my view, to reach everyone by 2033. And added to that, I think how people, business people, how Christian professionals, how everyone can also work with those who have a specific calling for evangelism. How can they work together in the workplace? I mean, perhaps Google might invite you for an evangelism campaign in Google. Perhaps we must pray for that.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:40):
Yeah. Amen. Alright, so the other day you were telling me that this journey of generosity really began at Luon, which took place in Cape Town a few years ago. What year was that? That was 2010, the 2010 Uzon Conference at Cape Town. And you started to really have a heart for generosity. So kind of walk me through the path of how your heart for generosity began and then where God has brought you to today.
Sas Conradie (05:08):
Yes. I think my heart for generosity started really back in 1988 when I mobilized students for remission, south African students for mission. Not just, and forgive me the terminology, but not just the wealthy white students who had the resources to go to mission into the mission field, but also the poorer black students.
(05:38):
Apartheid created a two tier society in essence with white, wealthier and black poorer. And for us, that was a real challenge. How do you motivate, inspire people in extremely poor context to take the gospel to the people groups until the interest of the earth? A real moment of kind of a crossroads for me was when a black student told me after a conference that he has a call to go to Russia as a missionary and as an evangelist because that was his heart. The problem is he came from the poorest part of South Africa is church, hundred people, 90 of them unemployed. How could that church support him to go to the mission field, the mission agencies, they require $3,000 a month that he should raise.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:46):
And that’s completely unrealistic for someone in that situation.
Sas Conradie (06:50):
Exactly, exactly. So we tried different ways to connecting with churches, white churches, they were not very positive about that. So in the end, to my shame, I think we just couldn’t find the resources for him to go. And for me, I thought if that is the case, then mission is elitist. If we cannot help that guy from that young man, from that part of South Africa to go as a missionary and for only those who have the resources to go, then we have a serious problem. So that
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:33):
And mission’s work is not supposed to only be for the elite. Exactly. It’s not supposed to be a luxury trip that you go on. It’s actually a command of Jesus for all of us to go into all the world. And so I think that the body of Christ actually has plenty of resources.
Sas Conradie (07:52):
Absolutely.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:52):
To send everyone who has a calling for a missionary.
Sas Conradie (07:55):
The
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:56):
Problem is sometimes they’re misallocated.
Sas Conradie (07:58):
Yes. And that is the journey that I’ve been on for basically since 1992, how we connect, especially finances better with the needs to go to the mission field and for your kind of work as well. So to make a long story short, in the end, a group of business people had a similar kind of vision back in 2 0 0 8 and they decided to form the Luanne resource Mobilization working group. I don’t have any money myself, I’m just a connector. So in a strange way, they invited me to become their coordinator and specifically to coordinate the activities of the resource that was then the Anne Resource Mobilization working group activities at the Anne Congress in 2010 in Cape Town. So we had one very large event of about 1,200 people attending our event. But what was significant is we challenge people to live more generously. We share stories of how Christians in poverty context. For example, in India, you might have seen them mi, the handful of rice video
(09:31):
That premiered at our event in Cape Town in 2010. And that video is still shown all over the world. And that is one way we can fund mission and support mission if everybody will just set aside a handful of rise and perhaps they might have five handful of rice and fulls of rice, and one of them, they set aside permission. So in instance, they live more generously because they give to advance God’s kingdom. Just think if Christians would follow that example to say not as 10%, but 20% of their income aside for God’s kingdom. So as a result, we’ve seen a huge excitement to mobilize people to live more generously during and then directly after the Congress in 2011, we then got together about 22 of us to think through what are the next steps. And we decided that the giving is an expression of the living.
(10:51):
So if we give but we do not live generously, then it becomes transactional. So we decided to change the name from the Resource Mobilization working group to the Global Generosity Network to focus perhaps a bit more on the generous living than just the giving aspect. At that point, actually in 2010 already the World Evangelical Alliance then said we need resource mobilization Working group or the Global Generosity Network later within the WA as well. So the Global Generosity Initiative became an initiative of the World Evangelical Alliance in essence, to inspire 600 million people to live more generously.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:45):
And so this is more than just you, this is a network of people. So who are some of the other networks that are connected?
Sas Conradie (11:51):
Yes. So I mean, looking back at 15 years at our group gathered in, I think it was February, 2011 and Generous Living, they are quite well known in the US to help people give more of their income to kingdom courses, as what we call it. They went global. It is now called Generosity Path. The N Cs started establishing similar kinds of centers around the world today. It is called Trust Bridge. Global Generous Church expanded from the US globally. Yes. Global Trust partner, the roots. You can see also back into that one meeting Faith Reverend Entrepreneur developed and Ner started them also with a focus to inspire Christian business people to live more generously. So as a result, I saw, I just looked again at the photo after I found it again of that event. And for me, it is quite remarkable when we see now actually it is like an explosion of generosity initiatives. Yesterday when I have a list of all initiatives.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:29):
Yeah, it looks like there’s about 20 or 30 different people on the
Sas Conradie (13:32):
List. 40. Yes. Everyone actually compliment each other. It is not competition, but there is a complementarity to that. So starting with a financial discipleship, which I now believe is really key for every Christian to live as a financial disciple,
(13:52):
Is I think neglected in our Christian community up to the point where people transfer their money from one country to another through Trust Bridge global. And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:05):
Then actually I heard someone say one time, first you get saved in your heart, then you get saved in your head, then you get saved in your wallet. And when your wallet gets saved, then you know are truly saved.
Sas Conradie (14:15):
Yes. I just want to say before I forget this, because this was quite special to me today, I spoke to the CEO of Child Evangelism Fellowship and there is a new initiative called Generous Generations that had been started to equip children to live more generously. So I thought they are on my list and I wanted to show the COO here is generous generations. And then I discovered, oh, my list is old. So it is really exciting to see what God is doing and how the different initiatives compliment each other. Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:00):
So if you had an opportunity to encourage a Christian businessman to be generous or someone to fully live out their generosity for Jesus, what would you say to them?
Sas Conradie (15:14):
Well, firstly, recognize, start with the giving of God himself. Start with creation because creation is already a gift from God to us.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:28):
God is a giver.
Sas Conradie (15:29):
Amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:30):
For God. So love the world He gave
Sas Conradie (15:32):
Amen. And even when people revel, God continued to give. God continued to bless. And when it looked as if the whole world is going to be destroyed again, God sent his only son as a gift to us, Jesus Christ, who gave his life to us. So the gospel, in my view, the Bible is a scripture of generosity. It is actually expressing God’s generosity to us. And my view is if we will just understand that, then generosity will become natural. So the Compass Financial Discipleship Devotional, the 14 day devotional starts actually with surrendering to God. And I think that is a problem that we have not surrendered everything to God. And quite often, as you’ve said, finances is the last thing. Just in addition to that, from my own experience, excuse me. What people might not realize is generosity is also a spiritual battle, an extreme spiritual battle. If you look at the generous givers, nearly every one of them, some of our wealthiest CEO have somewhere in their lives a real challenge.
(17:17):
Not just the thorn in the place with family issues, et cetera. So what I’ve experienced myself for those, with the opportunity to give those of us involved in inspiring generosity, it’s a spiritual battle. At one point, just after that 2011 event in our family, we had a very serious mental health problem. A lot of things just went wrong and I couldn’t understand it. So I went to a prayer leader and he said, us mammon is one of the roots of all evil. God says, the love of money is one of the roots of all evil. And what you are doing is you don’t only help people to get freed from that love, but then you want them to use what they are freed from to advance God’s kingdom to see the gospel.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:25):
No wonder there’s an attack
Sas Conradie (18:26):
From the devil. Exactly. So that is, I think what I would appreciate us evangelists to pray for those people. We have the means to give because I am quite involved in the Christian Economic Forum where we meet a lot of very high level business people. And there is a young family who I’ve met last year, a couple, and they started sharing about some of the challenges of their three kids. I don’t want to go deeper into that, but we have similar issues with our two daughters. And I prayed with them. And when I saw them again, actually quite accidentally at our gathering in July, and I saw these three kids, I realized the challenges that that family are going through, through and that young man, that young entrepreneur, I think has 3, 4, 5 businesses.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:44):
Wow.
Sas Conradie (19:45):
So that is
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:49):
A challenge. You’re doing kingdom work, encouraging people to be generous. So if someone wants to learn more information about the Generosity Network or to connect with you, what’s a good website or a place where they can find out more
Sas Conradie (20:04):
About generosity? Our website, if I can give it quickly to you, is world ea.org. And then Global Generosity Network.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:19):
Wonderful.
Sas Conradie (20:19):
Or they can contact me is con, S-C-O-N-R-A-D-I e@walteea.org. W-O-R-L-D EEA dot
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:35):
R. Awesome. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for inspiring generosity in the body of Christ. We need it. And it’s very important what you’re doing. So thank you.
Sas Conradie (20:44):
And Daniel, for me, it is a privilege to call you my friend.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:48):
Yes, sir.
Sas Conradie (20:49):
We are friends now. We have had adventures in Korea. I just wanted to say one final thing. Just think about the generosity. You mentioned in the beginning the missionaries just think about their generosity to the people of Korea because they gave their lives, they gave their everything to serve this country, and they are now recognized as the builders of this country.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:19):
Yeah, that’s true. They gave their lives. Generosity is more than just giving money.
Sas Conradie (21:24):
Exactly.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:25):
You give your life, you give your time, you give your love, you give your care for people. Amen. There’s many ways to be generous.
Sas Conradie (21:31):
Amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:31):
In the generous heart will be open-handed. And I find that when you have open hands, then God can bless you. But if you try to hold tightly to what you have, then where can God bless you? He can’t receive anything that he has for you. But if you’ll open up your hands and be generous, then God will bless you even more.
Sas Conradie (21:52):
So generosity is in essence, open-handed living.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:56):
Open-handed living. Amen. Alright,
Sas Conradie (21:58):
Well thank you so much. God bless you. God bless.
