Gnats and Gods...

Talk about financial giving floats around in our culture much like summer gnats.  Walk through your day and you see it coming...that cloud of annoyance that hovers right in your path.  Several choices are available.

• You can walk through the cloud, suffer the annoyance, and keep your eyes, ears and mouth blocked. 
• You can avoid the cloud altogether.
• Or, I suppose gnat elimination might be an option.  Get rid of the problem altogether.  Period.  

I think we know why gnats annoy us.  But why does talking about giving annoy us?  Why do we avoid this discussion just like we avoid the gnats?  We hate to talk about money.  We hate to listen about money.  (But we do like money!)

The financial stewardship conversation in congregations often elicits the gnat response.  Many pastors actually apologize before any sermon or conversation about giving--and they preach/speak to eyes, ears, and mouths (as well as wallets) that are closed up tight.  Many congregants check the calendar and schedule fun things like root canals on stewardship Sundays.  Some churches and congregants eliminate the conversation.  No more talk about finances.  No pledging.  No challenges.  Nothing.  Period. 

But talk about giving, especially in the church, the body of Christ, should not be an annoyance at all, it should be a privilege, a call, a joy.  What has happened to us?  Imagine if baptisms were avoided like the questions of giving.  Would we be concerned?  Would be be talking about the issue?  

Why is financial giving the one place that is off the table in our spiritual lives?  Americans were thrilled to learn that stewardship involved more than just financial giving...which, of course, it does.  But instead of broadening our generous spirits, looking at the "time and talent" part seems to have allowed us to avoid the "treasure"--a perfect solution to the financial gnat problem.

It took monotheism a good while to catch on fully in Old Testament times.  People loved to worship the God of Israel; they just wanted to cover their bases...just in case the LORD couldn't be trusted, they still had their household idols.  Perhaps, instead of blocking or avoiding or eliminating this conversation, we should take a good long look at the issue, at ourselves, and perhaps at the household idol that claims our ultimate trust and loyalty, even over the God we proclaim to love and serve.

Don't Study It...

And I am "studying" stewardship.  And it is good.  And we should study what we don't know.  And we should study what we do know.  And then...

I discover a Japanese proverb: "Don't study something.  Get used to it."

This way of being generous in the world as Jesus teaches is something we love to study.  Read the biblical passages.  Talk about them.  Write books and blogs on them.  Marvel at how astoundingly generous Jesus is with time and spirit.  Think maybe if we study it enough, we'll figure out how to do it...how to get others to do it.

Or maybe, we should "get used to it" instead.  Perhaps the point is to practice generosity.  Maybe that's the best study we can do.

Charles Lane begins his book, Ask, Thank, Tell, with two "mission statements" of a congregations stewardship ministry.  Does your mission statement reflect number one: 

• The goal of our stewardship ministry is to raise enough money to pay the bills next year.

 Or number two: 

• The goal of our stewards ministry is to help God's people grow in their relationship with Jesus.      

Observations: 

• The VAST majority of discussion I have heard about money and giving at the presbytery in the last eight years has reflected mission statement number one.
• The conversation in my own church has a split personality...mission statement number two in sermons and publications, mission statement number one in committees and reports.
• People who are operating out of mission statement number two seem frightened and angry.

Lane makes two pertinent points about this issue.  First he says the church of Jesus Christ has been kidnapped by proponents of mission statement number one.  Second he reminds us that Jesus taught a financial stewardship focused on mission statement number two, speaking never about the church's need for money...speaking only about the giver's need to give (as a response to living in relationship with God.)

To quote Lane again:
If a believer gives to the institution so that others can do ministry and the congregation can keep going, then that person has a major roadblock in the way of a stronger relationship with Jesus.  On the other hand, if that same believer can begin to understand that giving is an act of faith, growing out of a relationship with Jesus, and if that giving can grow toward the tithe, then that believer has taken a huge step toward having stewardship at the heart of his or her relationship with Jesus. (p. 17)


Today's challenge (and I think there will be many more...many, many, more...)
How are we thinking of stewardship and how should we be?  How can we take "one step further" in reclaiming our discipleship, following the way Jesus taught us to live?