Money

Last fall, your finance committee met and painstakingly put a budget together. Every department was asked to either cut costs somehow, or at least not add any costs. Times are tight, you know. Stewardship kicked off their fall campaign, and urged everyone to step up their pledges so the budget could be met. However, the pledges were less than the year before. Times are tight, you know. Churches generally figure that the pledges represent about 70% of what actually is donated, and when the total of the pledges plus the anticipated 30% don’t add up to the budget requirements, folks start talking about stepping out in faith. The budget gets adopted, no one loses their job and ministries continue as planned. However, as the new year progresses, the reality sinks in as the expenses exceed the income and red ink covers the financial report. The budget is in shambles. Times are tight, you know.

Does this sound like your church? I don’t know of any churches where the situation has been much different. It is especially true this time of year as attendance falls off and folks don’t pay as much attention to their giving. For some churches that have few reserves, the situation can be critical as there is not enough money to pay the bills and keep the ministries going forward.

Stewardship is uniquely in the hands of the laity. It is not up to the pastor. It is our church and our responsibility to give sufficiently to keep the ministries going. How can we approach money issues in a healthy way? Like everything good that we do, we turn to Scripture. From a Biblical perspective, we are to offer our first fruits to God. Not the surplus, not the leftovers and not the stuff that we would otherwise just toss out. We give the first and the best. The reason is clear. If we are to love God with all of our heart, soul and mind, our offering has to reflect that kind of love. We can start with the Old Testament, but quickly remember what Jesus had to say on the subject. Jesus reminded us many times that we are not to hoard money and possessions, but rather store up treasures for heaven. We are not talking about St. Peter’s ATM either. We are talking about the joy and blessing we have from supporting God’s work. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” That is pretty clear.

You might be saying, “Yes, Bill, I know that. But how do I find money in an already lean bank account?” Betsy Schwarzentraub has written a little article that is posted on the GBOD website under “Stewardship” called “First Fruits Living”. Betsy writes about attitude and spirit, and how we might prioritize by offering first fruits to God, and let all else follow, especially the blessings that come from such an attitude. This style of living is not so much about money as it is about how we spend our time and what relationships we build. Here is an example. I used to play golf just as often as I could. By the time I slipped out of the office, (or played on the weekend), hit some practice balls, had a quick sandwich from the grill, played the round and then hashed it over and settled the bets in the 19th hole, 6 hours were typically gone. If we played an out of town course, it was more like 8 hours. With the cost of the round, golf balls, constantly updating the equipment, a desperately needed lesson now and again (not counting the lost wagers—I was not very good), I spent some money. I also developed relationships with my golfing buddies and even structured vacations so that I could play some nice courses here and there. You can see that golf was a priority that had nothing to do with first fruits living. It did not make me a terrible person, and the guys I played golf with are real good people. But if I was playing golf and spending my time, money and relationship building doing that, the church and my family were getting second best from me. I finally realized that if I was going to get serious about serving God, I had to take a hard look at my priorities. I have some old golf clubs in the garage if you need some. I cannot honestly say that I have fully developed a first fruits attitude, but I sure am more intentional about how I spend my time and money.

Changing attitudes takes some time. One of the quickest ways to help the church and yourself get through the financial doldrums of the summer is to emphasize electronic funds transfer (“EFT”). It is really simple. Your church should have a little card whereby you direct your bank to automatically withdraw a set amount each month and pay it over to the church. No searching for checkbooks on Sunday morning and no worries about making an offering while you are on vacation. The money, your first fruits, comes right off of the top each month. The church knows that it can depend on you just as surely you know that you can depend on God. Studies show that churches that offer EFT have a steadier and better rate of giving, especially during the summer. The lay leaders can have an EFT campaign any time of the year.

There is quite a temptation for the lay leadership to go before the congregation and point out how far behind we are in the budget. We get focused on the church’s need for money and lose focus on our need for the church’s ministries. People tend to give generously to causes they believe in. It is up to the laity to make the church a cause that folks can get behind. We do that by reminding the congregation of how our church does ministry that changes lives. We use the offertory call as an opportunity to celebrate ministries. Stewardship is a year round discussion and is not reserved for the fall campaign. Moreover, it is a festival of God’s work through and in our church.

If the budget has been a wreck so far this year, then it is time to celebrate how much we love God and our church. Give everyone an EFT card and help them understand how that little piece of cardboard can be an expression of a first fruits attitude. Talk about the ways your church has changed lives in the community and in the congregation. Develop an attitude of abundance, not of scarcity when it comes to the work of the church. Don’t treat the finances of the church like a wake, but rather have a fiesta as we give generously, even extravagantly, to do God’s work.

Joy!

Bill

Conference!

I am just back (and recovering) from the Southwest Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, and thought I might share a little with you. Even if you are not United Methodist, I would be willing to wager a bit that most large church conferences are just about the same. The Southwest Texas Annual Conference has approximately 1,500 lay and clergy delegates, representing about 350 churches. The territory includes the Corpus Christi coastal area, down to Harlingen and picking up a large part of the Rio Grande River area, up to San Angelo, across the Hill Country to Kerrville, down a little to Austin and all around San Antonio and Victoria. It is a large and diverse area. It is a fun bunch of Christians. There are a few “mega churches”, many, many small chapels and every size in between. We have ethnic diversity among and within these churches and there is a mix of wealthy and not so wealthy congregations. The big equalizer is our “Connection” through which we all care for each other, support one another and share resources. Our pastors are appointed rather than called and usually spend around six years with a congregation before being moved to another congregation. Sometimes longer, sometimes shorter, but always in the tradition of the itinerant pastor.

We have the usual business sessions at Conference where we vote to fill our numerous conference committees, adopt a budget and hear reports. Some of the reports are very exciting, and there are a few that are not so much. I looked around the room one afternoon and I might have seen a few people dozing and I am pretty sure several of the clergy were writing Sunday’s sermon. I must admit that my eye lids drooped a few times. The sessions last from early to sometimes late, and we meet from Wednesday afternoon to about noon on Saturday. We don’t get as much sleep as we like and that is a long time for me to be away from home. So, why do I go? I go for the spiritual refreshment. I go to see friends I have not seen since last Conference. I go to learn how to do ministry better. I go to learn what the churches in the Southwest Conference have done during the past year and what they plan to do this coming year. I go so that I can worship God in a beautiful setting, with friends old and new.

The Conference usually structures itself around a theme. In our General Conference (all of the United Methodist churches), we are focusing on “Re-Think Church”. That means that we are considering how we can reach new people in new places. At our Conference, we are working on “Developing Principled Christian Leaders for the Church and the World” and our Bishop Dorff saw the theme as “Creating a Culture of Growth”. Not just in numbers, but growth in our leadership abilities. All that we do is based in Scripture and John 12:24 became a focal point for the Conference.

“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

In our context, that means that we have to invest ourselves in order that we grow and become fruitful in our ministry. As you can imagine, the preachers, musicians, choirs, speakers, dancers and others planning worship and events were able to mine the imagery from this Scripture to create great sermons, music and presentations. I must say that we had some lively worship services. The Rev. Tyrone Gordon from St. Luke’s Community UMC in Dallas is one of the more dynamic preachers you will ever hear.

I came away from this Conference with a better understanding of the role of leadership in our church and how good leadership in every aspect of the church is critical to making disciples. As laity, not only do we lead our churches, but we must be vigilant in identifying and cultivating the leadership potential in others. The preachers and the presenters pointed out that strong principled leadership is required if we are going to be successful in planting new churches, conducting stewardship and capital campaigns, offering quality Christian education and of course, having dynamic, life changing worship. Good leadership requires personal growth in prayer, reading and understanding Scripture, better strategic planning, embracing the diversity of our congregations, building consensus and avoiding destructive and divisive courses of action. I believe that we have to take advantage of educational opportunities and invite others to join us. I think we have to challenge each other to embrace Bishop Schnase’s concepts of radical hospitality, passionate worship, intentional faith development, risk taking mission and service and extravagant generosity(1).

It is going to be an exciting church year, filled with possibilities.

Joy!

Bill



(1) Robert Schnase “Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations” Nashville: Abington Press 2007