Let me tell you a story about some friends of mine. This Christian couple are longtime church members.
The husband’s family practiced the tithe (ten percent of one’s income BEFORE
taxes, of course), believed that the church was the “storehouse” of God’s tithe,
and taught him the same. The wife’s family were church donors but not tithers,
but when they married, the couple decided to be regular contributors to the
church, always giving ten percent of their income.
The church they have attended for years was a generous
supporter of the denominational missions program at one time, usually sending more than ten
percent of its undesignated gifts to the denomination for “missions” (that
included not only domestic and foreign field personnel, but seminary support,
benevolences, etc.). In fact, their
church was one of the largest supporters of the denominational work in the
state.
Something interesting happened several years ago,
however. The church found that it needed more money for church-based
ministries, so the decision was made to cut back in missions giving. The cut was small at first, but once the
change was made, it was easy to continue reducing the amount that went to “mission
causes.” This really had nothing to do
with changes in the direction of the denomination but was determined more by
local needs. Today, the church gives
about 2.5% of its undesignated gifts to “mission” causes outside the immediate
community. Members have the choice of
giving plans and can support the missions program with which they are most
comfortable—the old-line denomination or a new organization of moderate
churches.
There is another interesting twist to this story. My friends still give more than a tithe of
their income, but only a small portion of that funding goes to the local church—about
35% and part of that goes to a capital campaign. It seems that when the church felt that its
support for external missions was optional, my friends decided that they had
permission to redirect some of their gifts to what they perceived as worthy
mission causes.
I thought of my friends when I read a short item in “Century
Marks” in a recent issue of the Christian Century. The article discussed charitable giving and
closed with this observation:
“[C]hurch members are not likely to increase giving
toward institutional maintenance. To
stimulate increased giving, church leaders need to convey a vision that engages
people both inside and outside the congregation.”
These words certainly seem to address the decision made
by my friends to support causes that have a greater vision for mission and
ministry beyond the local congregation.
I wonder how many people are like my friends.
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