Money and Mission (William Willimon) and ramblings

I like this article by William Willimon's (from his e-list).

It gives me a lot of encouragement in the light of our church moving closer to confirming our building project. Encouragement despite the fact that members are not only "not rich" but quite a number are on limited fixed income and some are even poor and struggling financially.

Encouragement because even a non Christian community worker from the local council is excited and enthusiastic about our very modest proposed building project because she shares our church leadership's vision of having an extra building to provide better (which is actually pretty basic) facilities for community work.

Encouragement because more and more members are excited about reaching our community for Christ and being a blessing to those in need. Encouragement because I have seen how generous and sacrificial church members can be in responses to doing their part in meeting practical needs for Christ's sake. I think back of past incidents like when NZ Tear Fund's head came to see me to personally convey his thanks for the amount we raised for Burma (Cyclone Nagis) last last year. I did not think it was that big an amount but I discovered it was because he knew of our church size and situation. It helped give me a better perspective of sacrificial giving. In Malaysia in a typical urban middle class church, there would be easily a dozen multi-millionaires. And popping in a couple of thousand ringgit for a special offering is peanuts. Not so here among us.

But at the same time "fear and trepidation" as while no one questions the reasons for wanting to put up a new sanctuary (especially since the building committee have done such a great job of trimming the budget to the bare minimum no frills building) there is as the article says the two top factors in giving is one's belief in the mission, regard for staff leadership. In a way it should not be so hard as it basically means that I just need to focus on doing my job well. But that again is pretty daunting!

What is daunting is that belief in our mission can falter when the going gets tough. I do not see a problem with members supporting it on paper but it MAY be a different thing all together to get down to the hard and sometimes "unpleasant" work. A lot will depend on how we as church leaders (and myself as the pastor) lead by example. "brrrr ..." I think I am doing as best a job as I can and I get lots of affirmation (thank God) but there is also the realization that I have limited leadership and administrative skills (in terms of ... the modern gifted CEO type pastor) which is often needed in this modern world.

2 Corinthians 12: 9-10 is however reassuring!!

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

I am glad number three on the list has never been a problem (fiscal responsibility). Our church leadership has been in my opinion exemplary in handling and accounting for expenditure. Okay, enough rambling,. Hope you enjoy the article below.

Money and Mission

In many ways, this summer has revealed this to be the worst of times and the best of times for raising money for the work of Christ’s church. Historically, churches feel the effects of a financial recession about a year after the recession’s beginning. We are certainly finding that to be true. Our Conference receipts both for mission and for clergy benefits have taken a dramatic drop. We could receive the lowest percentage of apportionments this year in the last decade. Anticipating a shortfall of many hundreds of thousands of dollars, we have made some painful cuts in our Conference staff and budget. (Sadly, few of our congregations have had to cut their budgets as much as the Conference has been forced to cut its budget -- a commentary on the trend of some of our churches to keep more money within the confines of their own congregation.)

On the other hand, this was the summer that our churches raised over $400,000 within a couple of months to save Sumatanga. This was an unprecedented outpouring of support for our beloved institution. I have not seen such generosity since our response to Katrina. On top of that Matt Lacey tells me that this summer saw a marked increase in short term mission teams being sent from our churches to places of need all around the world.

I’m sure that there are many lessons to be learned about stewardship in this worst of times, best of times. In order to learn as much as I could, I read J. Cliff Christopher’s Not Your Parents’ Offering Plate: A New Vision for Financial Stewardship (Abingdon Press, 2008). Christopher chides church leaders like me who sound the alarm and plead for more money for ministry:

The church is the only nonprofit I know of that seems to believe that the more you cry that you are sinking, the more people will give to you. The exact opposite is true. No nonprofit I know of would ever send out a donor letter stating that they are running a horrible deficit and they just want the donors to help balance the budget. They know that such a letter actually discourages giving rather than motivates it. A nonprofit board will deal with budget matters in a board meeting but never publicize such to its donor base. The church goes out of its way to do just that.

In the nonprofit world, two institutions continue to outperform most of the others. The Salvation Army continues to get more donations each year than any social service agency or group. Harvard University leads all universities in endowment-giving year after year. Do they send out a message that they are dying on the vine and must have one more contribution to stay afloat? No, they say, “We took your money last year and we did great things with it. If you will give us more, we will do more great things.” And people give and give to them. People want results and these institutions give positive results!

Above all, Christopher stresses that “money follows mission.” He asked a group of pastors why people give:

They started blurting out, "taxes, guilt, involvement…" No one was even close. Finally, a lady who had been sitting quietly in the back raised her hand and said, "Number one is a belief in the mission. Number two is a regard for staff leadership, and number three is fiscal responsibility." She was right. I was stunned. I asked her where she was a pastor and she sheepishly said, "I am not a pastor, but my pastor told me about this seminar and thought I might learn something. I am the Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity."

The one absolutely most important factor in why people give is mission:

People want to make the world a better place to live. They want to believe that they can truly make a difference for the better. There is embedded in us, it seems, a desire to finish out our work on this earth with a sense that we amounted to something. To sum it up, people want to be a part of something that changes lives.

The best way to raise money for your church is simply to DO YOUR JOB! I get frustrated reading newsletters of church after church that tell me how the men's group is going to have a breakfast on Saturday and the women are going to have a bazaar next Thursday and the youth will have a dance next Friday after the ball game. Then, over in the corner, usually separated by a bold line so that it stands out, I see financial statistics, which usually indicate that a certain amount was needed and a lesser amount was received, with a quote underneath, "God loves a cheerful giver."

When I see that I want to say, "What have I got to be cheerful about?" Did you show me one life story in this newsletter about how the church has been making our world better? Is there one life-changing story in the entire document? Do you really just exist so that men can have breakfast, women a bazaar, and youth can dance? What is it exactly that you want me to support?

I have noted, in our churches, that apportionment giving seems to be a barometer of the spiritual health of a congregation and of the congregation’s confidence in their pastor’s vision. Christopher confirms this:

What I have learned after working with over two hundred churches is that the person leading the flock makes a lot of difference in whether today's donors contribute as completely as they can. When they see a pastor who has a great vision and shows excellent skills in leadership, they will invest in that pastor's vision and trust in his or her skills to make the hopes of the donor come true.

How is your church doing in its stewardship fidelity? Log into the Conference Website and check out your church’s current giving patterns under our “Church Stats” page. Let us all see the current financial crisis as a time to reconsider our commitments, to focus on the main mission of the church, and to enable all our people, through their giving, to be part of Christ’s mission.

Will Willimon