The Generous Church - Part 2

It has probably been occurring a lot longer, but fifteen years ago was the first time I was a witness. It was a Sunday morning and I missed church because I was sick. Spread out on the couch while the rest of the family goes to church was not fun, so I turned on the television to watch others go to worship. I tuned to a channel that was broadcasting a large congregation in our neighborhood and I was eager to see how they did church.

I was especially interested when they announced that it was Stewardship Sunday since I was just beginning my ministry with churches in this area. As the pastor walked to the pulpit to speak, I was prepared for a great sermon. Instead, what I got was an apology.

The first words out of the preacher’s mouth were expressions of sorrow and regret that this was the one Sunday each year that he felt that he needed to preach on money. He promised the visitors that if they would come back next week they would not hear him talk about money or giving. He would deal with more practical and spiritual matters.

Since that day, I have heard similar statements by many preachers. I have heard and read in church publicity that potential visitors are promised that they will never be asked for money if they attend church. I have listened to pastors brag about the fact that they never talk about money. Even as I am being introduced to speak to a Sunday morning crowd, I have heard the pastor say they are grateful that I am there to speak about money so they will not need to do it themselves.

While listening to the pastor apologize for talking about money, I realized the church has a serious problem. The problem is that we have taken the wrong approach to the issue of money and stewardship. In contrast, Jesus tackled the subject head on.

When the young ruler came to Jesus asking the spiritual question about salvation, Jesus told him what to do with his money. When everyone else wants to make giving a private matter, Jesus sat down "opposite the treasury" so he could observe how everyone gave. As we prepare to be judged on the basis of what we avoided, i.e. drinking, swearing, smoking, improper sex, etc., Jesus reminds us that judgment will be on the basis of what we do, i.e. providing food, water, clothing, and comfort to the outcast (see Matthew 25:35-40). While we tend to show preference to the rich and famous, Jesus had the highest praise for sacrificial givers.

How did the church change from this description - And all those who had believed were together, and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need, (Acts 2:44-45) – to a common opinion today that "all the church really wants is my money!"

I have never believed for one moment that the church is only interested in people’s money – that statement is blatantly false. Yet, as often as it is expressed and repeated, it must be the opinion of many.  Rather than having a reputation of generosity, of giving to meet the needs of others, the church now has a reputation of greed, of needing money to keep programs running and staff members paid. When people have a financial need, their first inclination is not to turn to the church but to the government.

In order to become known once again as a place of generosity, it is important for church leaders to understand how we arrived at our current state. I make no pretense to being a church historian and some of you, much smarter than me, can help us understand how these conditions arrived, but I want to suggest three characteristics of today’s church that have contributed to our loss of generosity.

First is a failure to teach and provide practical leadership in generosity. Frequently, I have been asked by church laymen to encourage their pastor to preach on the subject of giving. Occasionally, this is even after the pastor has already told me that he often teaches on the subject. I am also of the opinion that many who claim to teach giving and stewardship do nothing more than an annual "tithing" sermon, a once a year tip of the hat to a doctrine that barely scratches the surface of what the New Testament says about giving.

It is not enough only to teach generosity, it must also be modeled. After an unusual week when I had already been approached by two or three "beggars" seeking help from the church, another one appeared in my office at the conclusion of the Sunday morning service. After listening to his story, I led him to the front door of the church where several of our men were still visiting. I introduced my new friend to the men, gave a quick recap of his story, and asked if they would like to help him. I am aware that I put them on the spot, but isn’t that the way we learn some of the best lessons in life?

Another problem that works against generosity in the church is the sense of narcissism that permeates society and has also become a problem within the church. For the sake of brevity, I will not discuss how things got this way, but these are some of the common characteristics of today’s church. In many ways, the church has become "seeker driven," which means that we cater to the desires of individuals. We structure church in a way that meets people’s needs. The subtle message is that it is all about us and our needs. 

When the church does teach stewardship, the majority of the teaching sounds more like thriving in a capitalist economy than biblical stewardship. For example, one of the leading programs used by churches features participants who call in to a radio show and shout about being debt free. The strong emphasis on being debt free is often seen as the goal of good stewardship. When the sum total of our stewardship education is money management, people conclude that good stewardship means having a good net worth. 

Many churches feel the pressure to offer the "best" of everything. It might be building space for children’s activities and events, state of the art video equipment used for large crowds, a coffee bar that rivals the best in the neighborhood, or a pastor who can mesmerize a crowd for forty minutes every week. These resources are very expensive and often leave a church struggling just to make the payments.

A third problem is our unwillingness to give our time for service to the church, which creates another financial problem. The number of paid staff members has increased dramatically in my lifetime and the reason is that we are all too busy. Consequently, when the church needs workers, the simplest approach is to hire more staff rather than seek out volunteers. It is not unusual for staff salaries to consume as much as sixty percent of church income.

All of these factors, and probably a few others, combine to make it very difficult, if not impossible for most churches to be generous. Maintenance requires too much and there is little left to give away. When the church lives with a barely surviving mentality, it is not surprising that individual Christians also adopt that same attitude. I understand when the pastor apologizes prior to asking me to give. It is because he realizes that he is simply asking me to help pay the bills which have been incurred because of the way we do church, and that is not exciting for anyone.

Comments

[David Lane]

I like this! it is something that God has been teaching me and my family.

Adding to this I believe that the modern US church is organized in a non-Biblical manner. This is expressed best by a teacher in Texas named Voddie Baucham, Jr. If you are interested you can read a book by him called "Family Driven Faith" and some others. A quick trip to his web site - http://www.voddiebaucham.org/vbm/home.html - will give you an introduction. There are some sermon/talk videos on the home page toward the bottom. You can also go to youtube and find many sermons by him. His home church site is http://www.gracefamilybaptist.net/GFBC2/Welcome.html.

As Terry has discussed and I agree the church can be a major part of the solution to many of society's issues. If the church was organized as Terry mentioned in this article "And all those who had believed were together, and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need," (Acts 2:44-45). Those sharing and being shared with are part of the family (on the most part) not society as a whole. Then outreach was a part of this as well. I think that the way that the first century Christians stood out by their love made outreach almost unnecessary as they were attracting so much attention and so many questions that they were growing in this manner.

This is the direction that God is leading me and I am following. It is so Biblical that I wonder why I am almost 50 and only getting it now.