The Generous Church - Part 1

There are many things the seminary does not teach prospective pastors that are important to know about the church. I loved my seminary experience, but when it was finished, I felt better equipped to handle the classroom than a church office. Fortunately, I had another resource. My father had been in church work for nearly thirty-years when I first started. On more than one occasion, I called home to ask for help.

He taught me two valuable lessons about church finances. The first is that there is no need to ask to see the giving records of church members. He assured me that if I paid attention, it is easy to separate the givers from the non-givers. I did pay attention and this is what I learned.

Givers:

• Seldom talk about their personal financial situation
• Appreciate sermons and Bible studies that deal with money
• Support the work of the church with their words and presence
• Do not worry about the church running out of money

Non-Givers:

• Like to discuss their personal financial situation and it does not matter if it is good or bad
• Are uncomfortable when the sermon addresses the issue of money
• Tend to criticize church programs and efforts
• Hold the church back because a ministry is "too expensive"

I realize these statements might be simplifications, but if you will pay attention to folks in the church hallway or at the coffee shop, you will seldom be surprised by their giving to the church.

The second lesson my father taught me is that there was no need to protect a person’s wallet. He assured me that they would protect it themselves. In other words, do not be afraid to ask people to give, they will never give too much. Although the church frequently is accused of asking for money too often, I am afraid that we do not ask people to give often enough. It is a shame that we ever allow people to miss the blessing of giving.

A third lesson was taught to me by the first church where I was pastor. It was a great church. By that, I mean great people! They took a chance on a young man with a serious physical handicap and allowed me to serve for thirteen years. However, when I first started, I would not have been surprised if my term would end after a year because it seemed like the church would be financially broke.

The church was located in the Texas panhandle, commonly referred to as West Texas. I have never understood the directional designations used in Texas. We lived in West Texas but in order to get to El Paso, we had to travel 400 miles west. We were less than 50 miles from the furthest northern border of the state, yet, after we moved four hundred miles to the south, we then lived in North Texas.

Our church was made up of farmers and I am a city boy, raised in Denver, Colorado. I knew nothing about farming and farmers, but I was their pastor. As I listened to these farmers talk about the economy, it became obvious to me that they were all living on borrowed time. One missed rainstorm or one too many steers dies and the whole economic system of the panhandle would collapse. I often wondered why they invited me to join them when it appeared that I would have to return home in disgrace once the church doors were closed.

One week the Church Treasurer stopped by my office to report that the church bank account was overdrawn by three thousand dollars. I do not mean we were behind budget; we were actually in the hole, owing money to the bank. Personally, I had been overdrawn at the bank before, but never by more than a few dollars. At my young age, I do not think I had ever had three thousand dollars at one time.

On Sunday morning before church, I gathered the Deacons to share the terrible financial news and to get some guidance on what to do. They acted as if it was no big deal and told me just to get in the pulpit and make an announcement that we were behind at the bank and not worry about it. I did. The money came in, and everything was fine once again.

After church, I told Sharon that I was not going to do that again. I had simply reinforced their belief that giving to the church is to be done when there is a need to pay the bills. I had promoted crisis giving which is not a good way to do church finances. So I began to teach giving and stewardship as a regular part of ministry. Folks understood that giving is a spiritual issue, unrelated to meeting needs. Fortunately, during the next dozen years we never had to do another crisis offering.

The truth is that the little country church in the Texas panhandle actually became a very generous church. Although our community consisted of only a few hundred people, our church gave more dollars to the national denomination’s mission program than several mega churches from the big cities. (I don’t mean just percentage, but actual dollar amounts.) We took on a major building and remodeling project and raised five times our annual income in less than two years. According to a statewide survey concerning pastoral salaries, I was the highest paid pastor among small churches in the whole state of Texas. As I said earlier, it was (and still is) a great church.

This kind of generosity should be the normal experience of a church. A church does not have to be wealthy to be successful, but it does need to be generous. Sadly, it is not happening often enough. Stories of churches that are barely hanging on, needing to cut back on ministry and mission opportunities because there is nothing to give, are common.

This is the first of a series of articles on the "Generous Church." I want you to think through this subject with me. I value your comments, so let us know what you think. Next, I plan to discuss the reasons the church is not experiencing generosity and it has nothing to do with the economy.

Comments

[Richard Blair]

Good stuff. I have sent this article to our pastor.

Dick Blair

[Steve]

Great story Terry, but I can't agree on all points. I spent 15 years in the lending business, providing financing to those farmers and low income families seeking housing under the category of "last resort lending." I have witnessed numerous farmers who felt so obligated to give 10% to their church that they did so while being unable to repay their debts. I have seen single moms crying in guilt and shame because they could not live and feed their family on $12,000 a year and give what they felt the pastor said that God commanded. I believe the church was right to treat you generously, however, I have been in more than one church where the pastor was paid considerably more than the average church member earned in wages. That doesn't seem right either.

So I may fall in your category of those who aren't of the kind a pastor wanted to see coming, although personally I do give to my church, and I have often strongly supported budgets, building programs and stewardship. I just think that it is easy not to understand that although many ministers have people who will step up and give to them when they have difficulties, a whole lot of others are not privvy to that benefit.

[Geoffrey Bray]

Great article. We're working on that. We currently give away 50% of what comes into the church. Not sure we'll always be able to maintain that level ... but our goal is as you say generosity ... not necessarily 50%.

[Pat Hail, Jr.]

Terry, thank you for expressing some really good principles of Biblical Stewardship.