Not Your Parents' Offering Plate

I went to a leadership learning group up in KY today with several other young clergy from the Kentucky Conference. Bishop Davis and Moses Kumar, who is the head of the General Council on Finance and Administration for The United Methodist Church, led our time together. Our topic was stewardship. We talked about various aspects of it, especially as it relates to connectional giving (apportionments), but much of our conversation centered on a book that we all read by J. Clif Christopher entitled Not Your Parents' Offering Plate: A New Vision for Financial Stewardship.

It was a thought-provoking book and discussion. I don't agree with all of Christopher's ideas, but I do think he has some good ones. In the end, I think his thesis is that as pastors, we need to think about giving in the church more like the head of a non-profit organization would think of giving. I'm not sure I quite buy into that, but I do think there is probably a lot we could learn from non-profits. For example, we need to do a better job at thanking people for their giving and at communicating what a difference in the world and in the lives of people that their giving makes.

In the non-profit world, though, asking people to give is mostly about being able to fund whatever it is your organization is trying to do. That certainly is part of giving in the church - we need money to do the work of ministry - but giving in the church is also more than that. It is about spiritual truths and practices, stewardship and discipleship. Part of what we believe about the world is that God created it and everything belongs to God. We have been entrusted with a great responsibility to care for the world and use what we have to make it a better place that is more in line with God's vision for the world (you know, the Kingdom of God). Also, part of being a follower of Jesus Christ is learning to trust God with all of our lives, including our finances. We should be growing as disciples and in our spiritual practices: studying scripture, prayer, worship, works of mercy, acts of justice, and giving.

In the end, if we lose sight of why we give, then we have become nothing more than fundraisers, albeit for a worthy cause. But if we stay firmly grounded in a biblical and theological understanding of giving and stewardship, then not only does the gift make a difference, but we have made a difference in the giver as well.