Stewardship
Isaiah 55:1-3
Matthew 6:19-24
At my annual meeting with a publisher friend at a Minnesota Twins game, the talk often turns to religion. Being Jewish, he is both fascinated and puzzled by all things Christian.
The aspect of my being a pastor that most blows him away is our
method of supporting the church. From his perspective, the way to go about
the business of maintaining a congregation is to have the leadership come up
with a budget, and then assess dues to each member to come up with the
required funds. There is flexibility in how his
My friend was stunned to learn that we don’t do that. “You mean you totally depend on what people decide to put in the offering plate?” he asked. “What if people don’t give what you need?”
The answer is, of course, if people don’t give, we don’t have a congregation.
Until I had this conversation, I had not appreciated how strange our method of operation is, nor how precarious a position I am in. There are no certainties; we have no control. The whole system depends on faith.
With that in mind, the first thing any pastor should do regarding stewardship is to say thank you. I say that on behalf of myself because it is clear that the expense of putting up with me is a sizable part of the budget. But I also say thank you on behalf of the congregation. On behalf of those, long gone, who had the dream of building this congregation, on behalf of all of those who have supported it over the years. I say thank you on behalf of all those in our community whose lives have been enriched by what goes on here. I say thank you on behalf of the ELCA, and on behalf of the entire Christian church throughout the world.
What you have done here is remarkable. Your gifts are what has made all this possible. And it has all happened through faith. If stewardship has happened here the way it should, every penny and every moment of time that has ever come into the mission and support of this congregation has been given freely--because the giver made a decision to let go of it.
The voluntary giving policy
of this church rests upon two fundamental Biblical principles: one
inspirational and one practical.
The inspirational principle is that we have a need to give, as real as our need for air and water and exercise and sleep. It’s what makes church stewardship efforts differ from all fund-raising groups. Fundraisers, and there are many worthwhile ones, focus entirely on a goal. The task of fundraising is to gather enough money to meet the goal.
In some ways it is a financial tug-of-war. The contest is between the target, whose goal is to protect his wallet, and the fundraiser, whose goal is to get into it. The skilled fundraiser probes for weak spots in the target’s defenses around that wallet. The target tries to cultivate sales resistance. Each side wins some, loses some. The result of all these small skirmishes determines whether or not the fundraiser wins the war.
Stewardship tug-of-war is a temptation that churches frequently fall into. For example, Salem Lutheran has a long and dangerous history of deficit spending. Currently, we are running below what we need as a congregation, and we have nearly used up our reserves. The finance and stewardship committees look at that disturbing statistic and can hardly help but launch into fundraising mode. How are we going to get the dollars out of your pocket to meet the need of the congregation?
But that is not where the Christian stewardship starts, and trading stewardship for fundraising actually hurts us over the long run. When people are suspicious of or irritated with the church for asking for money, it is almost always because the church leans on the fundraising approach rather than teaching stewardship. People hear the first shot across the bow, and hands tighten around the wallets. The battle is on.
We in church leadership fire away with every assault weapon at our disposal. We blast away with the big guns of guilt and shame, a blitzkrieg of moral obligation, a carpet bombing of promises of great rewards that will come to you if you give. But the resistance is stubborn and determined.
When the smoke clears, we win some, we lose some. If we’re lucky, we pry enough Benjamins loose to muddle on for another year, and then the tug of war resumes over again.
Jesus never played the financial war game. Yes, he spoke about giving, specifically about money--far more than most people realize. But he always did it in the context of stewardship, not fundraising.
The difference is this. Jesus never had a specific goal in mind in any of his talks about giving.
He often suggested a general direction where the money could go, toward of the poor and powerless. But he had no organization he was trying to run, no church building to maintain, no salaries to pay, no pet projects to grow. He had no plans to build a crystal cathedral or start a university named after him, or finance a national political lobby, or even to create a network of social service organizations.
Not once in his entire ministry did he say, “This is how much we need to keep the ministry going. Will you come through for us?”
Jesus spoke about stewardship not fundraising, because he was not after money, he was concerned with spiritual health. In Matthew 6, when he urges people to give generously, he doesn’t give a single instance of need or of a worthy cause. That’s not the point of stewardship. The point is we need to give to be healthy. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. If we do not open up our treasure, we do not open up our hearts, and God cannot enter into us.
God is, above all, a giving being. God gives and gives and gives, not out of compulsion or because there’s stuff that needs to be done, but because that’s who God is. God loves, God shares. God shows us that giving is how you form relationships, and relationships are what life is all about.
So, in a faithful Christian church, giving is not a duty, it is the pathway to a full life lived in the presence of God. Giving is how we fulfill our purpose as creatures made in Gods image. Giving is how we learn to know God best, to form meaningful relationships; it is how we become all that we can be.
Giving is so important that we do a disservice to our young people by sheltering from this life-giving practice. We put a great emphasis on an offering in our Sunday School this year. It’s not a clever scheme to balance our budget on the backs on little children; in fact we give away everything that comes in. We do it because giving is what Christianity is about and our children need to know that. They need to learn to do it. For reasons of spiritual health, every person in this congregation, regardless of age, needs to learn and practice giving.
I can fund raise for a new hospice center, for Kiwanis projects, for cancer research, for scholarships, for a youth mission trip, for a thousand worthwhile purposes. But I’m sorry, I cannot fundraise as part of a stewardship campaign, because they are not the same.
If we have to resort to guilt to keep this place functioning, if we have to plead desperate straits to get enough income to limp along for another year, if we have to bribe people with promises that they can get in good with God by giving in order to pay the bills, then I’m in the wrong profession. Maybe that’s the case and I will learn that hard lesson.
But as I read the Gospels, stewardship is not about collecting dues or plotting schemes or sales gimmicks or creating guilt or panic or pity. Steward is first and foremost about our need to give generously in order to be in proper relationship with God.
That is the inspirational Biblical principle of stewardship.
There is also a practical Biblical principle involved in stewardship. While the central point is my need to give, I want to make sure my gift has value. Throwing money down a rat hole is not giving; it is wasting. The second principle of stewardship is caring for and managing the resources that we have been given.
It is the job of the church council to see that the giving in this congregation does not end up down a rat hole, that it is spent wisely, efficiently, and fairly. My training and concern is for the spiritual health of this congregation. But there is a spiritual element to the practical side, and it goes as follows:
David Attenborough has a fascinating series of nature films, having to do with insects. He introduces us to a species of mayfly, in which the males live for only a few hours after hatching into adults. They have no way of getting nourishment; they don’t even have a mouth or a digestive system. Their entire adult life consists of flying around looking for a mate, until the nutrients within them are used up. Then they die.
You have to wonder: what is the point of such an existence? Millions of them suddenly appear and disappear in a flash and the only thing they ever accomplish is making more of their species.
Contrast that with the coral that live off the coast of
By steadily secreting calcium carbonate over the course of thousands
of years, they have created the breathtakingly beautiful
It is a life-giving creation that provides a home and shelter to
thousands of species of plants and animals, and protects the continent of
My point is not to compare the relative moral character of two groups of invertebrates. It is simply to point out that if you are concerned with getting more bang for your buck in your giving, look to the examples of the mayfly and the coral.
The adult mayfly has no way of getting what it needs to maintain life. So it accomplishes nothing more than its own brief existence, then it is gone and forgotten as if it had never lived.
The coral is part of something bigger than itself. It lives in a sharing relationship with thousands of other species, all working together, to produce something of great value that has lasted for a half million years.
The Bible teaches that giving is something we need to do to maintain our spiritual life. Without it, we die spiritually. We end up accomplishing nothing more with our lives than our own brief existence, then are gone and forgotten as if we never lived.
The Bible offers a way to get more bang for the buck. By working together to create something that is far bigger than any of us. Something that brings life and protects life. Something that is beautiful. Something that lasts.
Linda and I were PTA presidents at our kids’ elementary school. It happened to be the school in the city that had the most services for special needs children. These kids were confined to their area and equipment and the other children kept to there’s. Wouldn’t it be better, we wondered, if all the kids could learn to play together. We floated the idea. With a great deal of help, we found ways to get federal, state, and local assistance. And yes, we did some aggressive fund-raising.
The result was an incredible playground, filled with padding and a wide variety of equipment, safe for all children. We had only a tiny role in making that happen. Yet every time we pass that school, and see all those children on the playground, what a wonderful feeling. To know that we were privileged to be a part of something that large, that beautiful, that lasting, and that life-giving. That’s getting a big bang for the buck.
We don’t get many opportunities in this life to be a part of something really special, something way bigger than us, something of great beauty that lasts and gives life. This church is one of them. This congregation was here, bringing life to the Creston community, long before anyone here was born. It has a chance to be here long after everyone here is gone.
We are invited to be part of that. To be able to experience, every time we pass this church building, the wonderful glow that comes with knowing that we are a part of something that large, that beautiful, that lasting, and that life-giving.
“Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread?” Isaiah asks. “And your labor for that which does not satisfy?” Why throw your money down a rathole, on pleasures that are here today, gone tomorrow and never make any difference, and have no more impact on the world than the life of a mayfly. Put it where you can get a big bang for the buck.
We give because we need to for our spiritual health. We give to this church because it is our chance to be a part of something special, something lasting that can grow into a thing of far greater value and beauty than any of us can accomplish individually with our lives. Something that future generations can look at and say, “Wow.”
I ask you this week to take seriously your need to give, for your own spiritual health. Then prayerfully consider where to get the most bang for your buck. Please look over the stewardship materials in your box in the narthex. For those who honestly have no idea what giving to a church entails, you will find a chart that tells what other members of this church gave last year. It’s already outdated because last year’s giving won’t work next year. But use it as a guide.
You will also find a time & talent sheet and giving intent form. Please fill these out and bring them to church next week. The time and talent sheet is to help church leadership identify the gifts and interests of congregation members. The giving intent form is there because nothing of great value happens without commitment. Great things are not built by people who throw in whatever donation they feel like giving whenever they happen to be in church or when they happen to think of it. They are built by people who believe and are committed to getting the best bang for the buck they can find.
So we ask everyone to make giving pledge next week. But since this is stewardship and not fundraising, we don’t need to know what you are committing yourself to. Write your name on it, so that it can be returned to you as a reminder of your pledg e. Make the pledge to God, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.