Reformation in Giving I

There have been many conversations about finances at Mount Vernon as we seek to meet our budget. Times are tough. My desire through it all is to focus our attention on the need for sacrificial giving from every member. We will not all give the same amount, but if each gives sacrificially, regardless of the economic climate, our budget will be full to overflowing. 

This kind of change can't happen overnight. Let's say a family has been living off of 98% of its income for twenty years. How, all of a sudden, is that family going to give 8% more to the church--at least overnight? In our personal budgets, it is amazing how quickly expenses that were once considered discretionary now seem fixed. That's why the church needs a reformation in her attitude toward giving. We want to be a congregation full of Christians who give generously, cheerfully, and sacrificially. 

This raises some important questions. First, what does Scripture say about how much of my income I should give away to "the Lord's work"? Second, what does Scripture say about how much of what I give away should be given to the local church? These are important questions.

Let's begin with how much of my money I should give away to "the Lord's work." 

It is not "our" money.

Of course if this is the question, we are never really going to get to the heart of the problem. You see, it is not "our" money. Listen to Paul quoting Psalm 24:1, "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it." Exactly. God is the sole proprietor of the universe. It all belongs to him. That is where we get the idea of stewardship. A steward is someone who manages someone else's property. That is the Christian view of everything! We are here to manage what belongs to God--that includes our time and our kids and our stuff.

If we really think that what we have belongs to us--we will never give with the heart that God wants us to give. We will assume that we are doing God a favor when we give to the church. Instead, we are simply transferring God's wealth.

Why ask how much to give instead of how much to keep?

This doesn't address the question though. We still need to know how much of God's wealth to give to other purposes. But there is still a problem. Why is it our default to ask how much to give away? Why don't we ask "How much do I need?" I see passages of Scripture that stagger me with their call to generosity. Consider the widow who gave two coins to the Temple treasury. Jesus commender her generosity noting that others "gave out of their wealth; but she, gave out of her poverty" she "put in everything--all she had to live on" (Mark 12:44).

I still remember the comments of my college philosophy professor at the University of Oregon on this passage. He said her offering wasn't that impressive because she didn't have much to begin with. My professor missed Jesus' point. When all that separates you from food and lodging is a few dollars, that money is uniquely valuable. Jesus would not have commended her if he didn't see the sacrifice entailed in giving up everything she had left.

Other passages speak of radical generosity. Paul wrote of some early Christians who saw a need and gave "as much as they were able, even beyond their ability" (2 Cor. 8:3). That is fantastic giving. So I ask, why do we constantly ask, "How much can I give?" instead of assuming we are going to give it all away and then ask, "How much do I need to live?" 

Is our labor in vain?

I want to hold off addressing the question of giving to the local church versus giving to other evangelical missions. For now, I want to admit that it is possible some Christians are reluctant to give sacrificially to the local church because they are unconvinced the local church is truly doing the Lord's work. Maybe the church is printing bulletins and offering classes and organizing small groups but is it truly doing the work of the Lord? 

The "work of the Lord" is what Paul charged the Corinthians to accomplish in 1 Cor. 15:58, "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor is not in vain."

There is a labor that is in vain. Perhaps a contractor spent months on a housing development that never received the necessary funding to be completed. That work was in vain. Perhaps there is a chef who spent an hour on a souffle only to drop it on the kitchen floor. That work was in vain. But there is a work that is never in vain. We are supposed to be about that work. Paul calls it "the work of the Lord."

The work of the Lord is the building of the church.

When we read through Corinthians, we find that the work of the Lord is the building of the church. In 3:9 Paul describes the Corinthians as "God's fellow workers . . . God's field . . . God's building." In the verses that follow, Paul describes himself as an "expert builder" who is laboring for the spiritual construction of the church. Later in the book, he even describes them--the members of the church--as the result of his work in the Lord (9:1). A few chapters later, on the topic of spiritual gifts, Paul exhorts them to "excel in gifts that build up the church." The Corinthians are to devote themselves to  the building of the church. When salvation of the lost and the spiritual growth of the saved is the building of the church. This is the work of the Lord.

Chapter fifteen ends with Paul's exhortation to do the work of the Lord. Chapter sixteen begins with a call to financial giving. "Now about the collection for God's people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made." In this case, some or all of these monies were being sent as a gift to Jerusalem, to build the church there. The work of the Lord is to be supported financially.

We want to fund a fire hydrant not a sponge.

As a pastor, I ask this question every day: is my church doing the work of the Lord? Is the church growing spiritually? Is the love of Christ becoming more prominent? Is our faith evident in deeds? Are we sharing the gospel? Are we sending our own into our homes and workplaces our communities and the far reaches of the globe to proclaim the Good News? Are we being built up in the faith?

The last thing we want to do as a church is fund a sponge that simply soaks up fellowship and teaching. We want to fund a fire hydrant that takes in fellowship and teaching and then shoots it out. This is the Lord's work and it is worth funding

More remains to be said. How do you work through how much to give even if you begin with the fact that it is all God's? How do you work through how much to give to the church versus how much to give to other worthy causes? Specific answers are for future posts.

Comments

[Berkley Gryder]

Important topic. The most important aspect of giving for any church is having a congregation of people whose hearts are fully detached from the love of the world, and filled with the love of the Father. That must be preached, learned, talked about, prayed for, fasted for, encouraged through sober-minded joy-filled fellowship. Once that is in place, then giving can become an unstoppable force and endless source, because it is rooted in the fear of the Lord, and true belief that is ready to die for Christ, and more importantly, live for Christ as a living sacrifice.