Tag: free-will offering

  • Letter #38 (Treasure–1)

    Dear Small Church Pastor,

         Matthew 6:21 and Luke 12:34 state, “Where your treasure is there will your heart be also.”  Notice that the statement indicates your heart goes where you put your treasure.  In other words, where you invest your finances or other resources will reveal your priorities.

         If you will look at your banking app or your check register or whatever else you use to keep track of how you spend your money, you will see fairly quickly what you consider to be the important things of life. 

         We all know we have basic needs that have to be met—food, shelter, clothing and other needs essential to our existence.  Those are given expenses.  However, if you will look past those items to your expenditures other than those survival needs, you can see where you are prioritizing your spending.  Identify those things.  Then write them down somewhere and take a close look at the list.  These are your priorities.

         Now ask yourself a few questions:  How many of these things are luxuries instead of necessities?  Which items are purchased so I can keep up the appearance of success?  How many duplicates are there that are not essential to my existence?  Am I investing money in things that are satisfying desires and not needs?  How many of these items can I live without? 

         Two final questions:  Can I shift expenditures so I am benefitting others instead of myself?  How can I better use my money to benefit the Kingdom of God?

         If you can honestly answer these questions and make some decisions about how you are investing your money, you will be on track to using your money more efficiently and for better results, not just for yourself, but for the cause of Christ, too.

         Now, allow me to approach one of the controversial topics about money—tithing and free-will offerings.  Are you tithing and generous in your offerings?  If yes, great.  Keep doing that.  If not, start.  There is a definite spiritual principle involved in tithing and giving offerings.  You are demonstrating faith in God’s ability to help you survive on 90% or even less, depending on your offerings.  Remember all your blessings originate in God and His bountiful supply to His children.  The 100% came from Him.  It’s His anyway.  And God looks for our obedience in this area of using our money.  (Remember Malachi’s statements to Israel?)

         If your mind and bank account scream that you can’t make it on less than 100%, don’t listen to them.  If you honestly answer the questions about your spending from above, you should see areas in which you are spending money that does not just need to be spent.  There is a possibility that money should be your tithes and offerings.

         Allow a few examples, if you will.  How many times a week are you eating out instead of cooking at home?  Is lunch in a restaurant or out of a packed lunch from home?  Is the coffee shop one of your stops on the way to work, or are you bringing a thermos with a beverage you brewed for much less money?  How many full outfits of clothes are in your closet?  How often do you change vehicles and start financing all over again?  When was the last time you fixed something, instead of replacing it?  Do I need to continue?

         Please notice something about giving into God’s work—this will require obedience and self-discipline on your part.  It will require you to submit your desires and wants to God, as much as your needs, and to ask Him to show you how you can fulfill His will when it comes to your finances.  Please, please, work out your own giving through His guidance, and avoid the temptation to compare your giving to what others give.  The amount is not the critical aspect here.  The obedience is the important thing.  Obedience to God in giving will be rewarded.  It might not come this week or next month, but the reward will come.  God always honors diligent, persistent obedience to His spiritual principles.

         Another thought on this topic—be sure your people see you put your tithes into the offering plate or box or whatever system you use.  If you’re using all digital offerings and tithes, tell them that you have sent yours in and they can follow suit by making a few clicks, too.  Explain to them how to use the digital giving portal.   If you expect your people to give into the work of God, you need to show you are doing that, too.

         (This is probably enough to consider for this letter.  More about treasure in the next letter.)

    Sincerely,

    A Small Church Pastor

  • Letter #25–Generosity

    Dear Small Church Pastor,

         (This letter may strike a nerve or seem controversial, but I present it with all the grace and concern I can muster from my experiences.)

         According to a minister who was associated with it, there is a very small church located in our area that has a bank account totaling over $100,000 (That’s right–one hundred thousand dollars).  It has a small facility.  The congregation is quite small in number.  You might ask yourself how this could happen.  It may be that this happened because they did not share their financial blessings with anyone else over a very long period of time.  They merely banked them “in case we need the money.”

         The building is well-kept.  The grounds are neat.  They even have a newly designed sign out front.  But they are lacking something, and it reveals itself in the few cars and trucks parked on the grass when they meet.  They are so “thrifty” when it comes to spending money that, in the eyes of those who are familiar with their situation, they appear to lack generosity.

         The lack of generosity in financial matters has a way of spreading to every other area of a congregation.  Its insidious influence can be seen in the lack of outreach to a community.  It shows up in no new faces in the worship services for months, even years.  The lack of generosity is revealed in the percentage of income that is invested in local, regional, national and world missions annually.  It is evident in the lack of new salvations or re-commitments to God recorded during a calendar year.  It is demonstrated in the reality that few, if any, members of a congregation have ever shared their faith with anyone else.

         Generosity is a mind-set.  Generosity is a lifestyle.  Generosity is a valued characteristic of people who understand that blessings are designed to be shared, not hoarded in self-interest. 

         Generosity is the opposite of a clenched fist that desperately tries to hold onto blessings in fear of losing them.  Generosity is the open hand that freely gives because it has feely received.

         Allow me to encourage you to teach about, encourage and promote generosity in your people.  As you teach, encourage and promote, remember that generosity includes more than just money.  It also includes time and talents. 

         You might want to present a series of messages that show how time, talents and finances were generously shared in the Old and New Testaments through the free-will offerings as well as through tithes, through working together to achieve common goals and through dedicated time investments that benefitted people.  Then you might highlight examples of generosity from all three areas in your locale. 

         As you lead your people, provide opportunities for people to give their time, talents and money toward missions, community outreaches, local charities or joint work projects with other congregations.  Encourage them to be generous toward others individually as they encounter needs around them.

         Set an example of generosity in your own life.  If you are giving of your own blessings toward them and others, some of them will eventually realize you are practicing what you are preaching.  Examples are great teachers.

         One of our pastorates involved a congregation that had learned the value of generosity.  One year as I looked at what we had accomplished through outreaches into the community, I realized we had invested thirty-four percent of all our income into local, state and national missions.  I know that’s not a record, but I also am keenly aware of the limited incomes of the families in that congregation.  They gave in their own need.

         During that same year, we volunteered to provide labor to rebuild a home that was terribly deteriorated for a single lady.  The rebuild took months of weekends and vacation time to accomplish.  We also fed over 300 people each month at our missions dinners.  That congregation had invested themselves generously in the cause of the Kingdom of God by sharing the blessings God had sent to them.

         As with all aspects of ministry, developing an attitude of generosity will take some time if it does not already exist in the people.  If the attenders are already tithing, fostering generosity may be easier to accomplish.  If not, the people need to understand their responsibility to the tithe, a responsibility that reflects an understanding that God already owns all our resources and that we are simply giving back into His Kingdom work that which He can acquire in any method He chooses to use.  And tithing does involve generosity in general, in my opinion, because it involves giving from what we have into a need that should be met through the congregation.

         If you are blessed with a congregation that understands what a free-will offering of time, talents and treasure entails, you are at a definite advantage over someone who is having to start from scratch by teaching about giving in general.  Such an already generous congregation often will continue in their giving in ways that may surprise even a veteran pastor, because they are individually meeting needs that are never openly mentioned to the whole congregation.

         Example: I know of someone who often has helped older people who have trouble operating a new smart phone or a new laptop to access the internet.  (I suppose generosity can include sharing knowledge, too.)

         A final thought that may stimulate your curiosity—take a minute to search out the word “freely” in the Bible.  It can give you one starting place when it comes to promoting generosity.

    Sincerely,

    A Small Church Pastor