Stewardship Kaleidoscope...Why Give to the Church?

Did you know that 50 years ago "church" received 50% of all charitable giving?  The further back you go, the more the church received.  For awhile, we were the only game in town doing charitable work.  Today, the number of non-profits grows every year.  And they have moved our receipts to around 35% in 2010...and they will continue to compete with us.

I have no doubt that God can work through non-profits.  None.  But we must pay attention to why much of our church money has moved to the non-profit sphere.  Why?  Because they ask.  They treat fund-raising like a business.  They have development budgets and are staffed with fund-raising professionals.  They have become expert at saying who they are and what they do--how they change lives.  We, the church of Jesus Christ, tend toward sitting in our pews and thinking that we will get money "because we're the church."  

Clif Christopher (Not Your Parent's Offering Plate) lifted up this perennial problem to this stewardship conference, reminding us (like we didn't know at some level already) that times have changed.  But he also articulated well what we know (but again, need to be reminded) that we, God's church, are very different than any non-profit on the face of the earth.  Sure, sometimes we do some of the same things.  But the purpose of the church of Jesus Christ is unique.  We change lives through and for Jesus Christ.  

We don't ask people for their money to pay the light bill or to pave the parking lot.  We use money that people generously share to change lives.  As we come together to worship and teach and serve together, we park on those parking lots, and we need those lights and air conditioners, but they are the means to an end, not the end itself.

Can your stewardship team have that conversation?  Do they know our purpose?  On top of the fundamental purpose we all share, do they know the specific call to which your church has been gifted and positioned?  

Christopher uses the St. Jude commercials as an example of good communication.  You don't see the salaries of the doctors and nurses or the cost of the equipment, though the healing could not proceed without those things. What you see is their purpose...healed children.

I work with youth at my church, youth who have been nurtured by my congregation, many from birth.  I see how their lives are shaped and changed by the faith nurture they have received.  We have recently had several young families visiting with young children.  I look at those children and can say--children nurtured in the faith in this church will be changed into disciples of Jesus Christ.  We make and keep our baptismal promises.  That's what your money goes for here.  That is what we are called to do.  That is what the Holy Spirit is enabling in this time and place.  Thanks be to God.

Learning from non-profits is a good thing.  It doesn't make us less "Christian."  It makes us more effective disciples.  We are not becoming a "fund-raising" business.  We have already become a people of God--who have been given the distinctive purpose of changing lives for Christ.  Let's speak joyfully about our call.  Amen and Amen!

Stewardship Kaleidoscope...Dollars and Conflict

Wish you were here...especially if you are involved in a leadership position and responsible for interpreting stewardship with and for your congregation.  Next year in St. Louis...start planning now.

The workshop yesterday that I signed up for focused on money and conflict.  (Can you imagine those two things going together?  me either, but just on the off chance they do, I went.)  The fundamental assumption was that we, as human beings, disagree about things.  All kinds of things.  Good things.  Stupid things.  Important things.  Ridiculous things.  Disagreement is etched into our DNA.  I learned in school at some point that the DNA code that makes up all life is expressed in an alphabet of four letters...A, C, T, G.  I think there is an additional code for those humans who have opinions about something...about anything...that adds two additional letters...N, O.  It is an oppositional streak that is stronger than Superman, and we can only recognize it in the "other."  We, of course, don't have that oppositional streak.  Our opinion is right, so our "no" is justified.

Here are three thoughts, probably not new thoughts, but thoughts worth remembering as we, the people of God, live together with our oppositional DNA code.

Conflict is as deeply theologically grounded as anything else we discuss.  Have you read your Bible?  You simply cannot escape conflict.  Adam and Eve in the garden + snack time = conflict.  First offspring, brother + brother = conflict.  It goes from there...Why would we think we can now agree completely on everything?  Our most recent major conflict is simply another in the list.  If and when ordination standards are agreed upon (and I list that one because it is the reason most commonly given this year for refusing to participate together as a presbytery at many levels, from financial giving, pulling out of the denomination, or thinking we cannot work together to change lives for Jesus Christ), if and when we agree on that issue, another will appear.  Always has, always will, as far back as just after in the beginning.

Our workshop leader suggested we need diversity, disagreement with others, to remind us that we just might be wrong.  Isn't that one of the great tenets of our faith, the inevitability of our sin? our wrongness?  Well sure, we say, except on this issue, where we are absolutely right.  Period.  He reminded us that Paul actually used monies given by some of the smaller churches to support the "saints in Jerusalem." (Who were, highly critical of these other churches BTW.  Imagine that campaign.  Choose a church with whom you disagree.  Take a collection and send it to them for their ministry in Jesus' name.  That going to happen?)

The reality is we are all missionally oriented.  Our unity is in Jesus Christ.  God calls us into different congregations, uses our gifts to accomplish different things, to reach different people.   I wish we were more unified in the human sphere.  I do believe that is what God would want.  But I also recognize that we are still in the betweens...waiting for the Kingdom to fully come.  Believe me, I disagree with the theology and philosophy of some churches in our presbytery, and I know they disagree with me.  But I believe with my whole heart that they are called by God, as am I, to do God's work in the here and now. I trust if it is not God's work, God will take care of that.  So conflict is not the end of the world because we are all part of the mission of Jesus.  Our call is not to stop disagreeing.  Our call is to serve and disagree while we are unified in Christ.  That is our hope and our foundation.

Finally, we are called to be pastorally oriented.  Our call is to avoid ostracizing each other.  In first grade, my son would come home from school angry and mean.  He yelled at his family.  He abused his siblings.  He fought anything and anyone who crossed his path.  After several days of this, and a few weekends where he didn't have the problem, I (his somewhat slow mother) figured out there was a problem at school.  And there was.  All the frustration that built all day at school had to go somewhere.  Had I been somewhat more pastorally oriented, I might have understood earlier there was a problem.  But I just thought he was being oppositional.

Don't we do the same with each other?  What are our pastoral issues?  What are our fears?  What are our struggles?  This may or may not bring us to agreement, but we are called to love each other...even our enemies (meaning, biblically, those separate from us, those not like us).

God doesn't give us resources to control each other or punish each other or show each other our great strength or power or control.  God gives us resources to bring the good news of the gospel to our world in all times and places and to all people.  We may not be able to eliminate all our conflict, but we can joyfully live in the unity of the One who shares with us all that we have and all that we are.

One last thought.  We are called to be Presbyterians.  That means we live and serve in an organization who models its life together on unity in Christ.  We certainly aren't perfect.  Our diversity means "we might be wrong."  But we see this ideal set forth before us in the scripture and we make the attempt to live into it.  It's hard.  Mega-churches are often mega-churches because they have the luxury of serving a pretty homogeneous crowd and they don't usually have to share their sandbox with others.  They get to do what they want.  We choose a different way.  We choose a way that requires listening to God, to each other, and most importantly, requires trust that God is at work as we work and serve with those who are "other"--in more ways than we can count, in more ways than we can work out.

The good news is that our oppositional DNA is rewritten by four more letters...YHWH...our Almighty God of love and radical servanthood, revealed to us in Jesus Christ.  Thanks be to God!