Here’s my article for our church newsletter this month; in a very rare twist, I delved directly into the “money issue.”
I have never preached “a sermon on the amount.” I have preached about money and its influence over us; I have preached on the financial side of justice; I have even preached on the relationship between the Old Testament law of tithing and the New Testament expectation of self-sacrifice. What I have never done, is stand in the pulpit and tell people how much money they should be giving to the church. Why? Because I can’t. The Bible doesn’t give a clear command on how much we’re expected to give. That isn’t to say that the Bible is silent on matters of finance. Quite the opposite! The scriptures repeatedly extend the call to give generously, justly, and to be carefully aware of allowing money too much control over our lives. As Jesus said: No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. (Mt. 6:24)
Having said that, I have watched – with interest – as the Consistory (under careful leadership of our Deacons) began preparations for our 2012 budget. 2011’s budget was $196, 852. I don’t have a clue what 2012’s will be, but I imagine the changes our Deacons propose will be cautious.
I’m not a number person. Indeed, you have probably heard me say: I was a musician for most of my life – I count to 4… 6 or 8 on a good day. Sure, it’s a joke – sort of. Nonetheless, numbers do not come easily to me.
I was curious though, when I started thinking about that number: 196,852. It’s a big number. Divide it by 52 weeks in a year, and it means that our budget requires a weekly intake of approximately $3,785. As you know, we haven’t come anywhere close to that over the past several months.
As a pastor, the question I ask myself is simple: Is that too much to ask? In other words, is $3,785 a week too much to expect our congregation to give considering our income, the current economy, and the size of our membership.
According to the IRS, the average income in Pultneyville was $75,053 in 2007. For Williamson, it was $44,122. I don’t know what the average income is for the members of our congregation, but I doubt it’s lower than the Williamson number. (I used the 2007 numbers because they are the most recent, easily available statistics.) For the record, we have 148 active, confessing members; our worship attendance averages around 100.
If I pull out my calculator, and divide our 2011 budget ($196,852) by our average worship attendance (100) it tells me that even if those who don’t attend worship didn’t give anything to the church, each of us would need to give less than$38/week to exceed our budgeted needs. In other words, 100 people making Williamson’s average income ($848.50/wk), can ensure we meet – and exceed – our yearly budget if they give about 4% of their income.
When I look at it that way, $3,785 a week doesn’t seem so unreasonable, and $196,842 doesn’t seem like such a big number.
Why write this in my article for the Courant instead of having the Deacons do it themselves? That question is simple to answer: because it isn’t merely a financial issue, it is a theological one.
Our financial decisions reflect our internal priorities. Budgets are, at a very real level, theological documents. I don’t know what people in our congregation give (and I don’t want to!) However, I imagine most of us would like to believe that God was worth at least 4% of our lives – perhaps even 4% of our financial lives.
Imagine what we could do – as a congregation – if all of us were willing to give even that 4%? Again, my calculator tells me that, if even just our active members gave $38/wk, we would take in $5,624/week ($292,448/year). Put another way, for $38/wk, we could support our full budget and add an extra $95,606 to missions – that would be almost 33% of our intake – and that’s at only 4% – what if we gave 5% or 8% or 10%?!
What is $95,606? It’s over 15 ½ mission shares. Depending on the ministry, that’s almost enough to support an entire mission.
As I wrote earlier, I have never preached a “sermon on the amount,” and I’m not about to start now. Let me ask the question, though: if you were to think theologically about what you give, how much would it be?
What’s holding you back?
As always, if you’d like to discuss this further, please let me know! That’s why I’m here.
Grace and peace,
`tim
