And you want to teach
what?
Teaching stewardship in difficult times
Manuel Collazo
Commissioned Minister of Stewardship Education and
Development
A crisis....
This could be the worst moment in our lifetimes to
discover that American Christians give away
relatively little of their money.
The economy is in the midst of the worst downturn
in at least 17 years and the most serious U.S.
banking crisis in at least 20. It has the potential to
be as painful as the Great Depression. Banks are
failing. Workers are losing their jobs. Homeowners
are losing their homes.
And you want to teach about stewardship?
The Wall Sreet Journal
Or an opportunity...
The bad news have been delivered already.
Over the next few months or years, as our economy
travels down a long road of recovery, our neighbors
may need much more assistance than we've grown
accustomed to providing.
And like skyrocketing home prices, the lack of
generosity among American Christians is a trend that
cannot continue without doing serious harm.
A once generous nation...
This once generous nation now distinguishes itself by
some very appalling statistics.
More than one out of four American Protestants give
away no money at all—"not even a token $5 per
year," say sociologists Christian Smith, Michael
Emerson, and Patricia Snell in a new study on
Christian giving, Passing the Plate (Oxford University
Press).
Of all Christian groups, evangelical Protestants score
best: only 10 percent give nothing away.
Even the most generous ...
Evangelicals tend to be the most generous, but they
do not outperform their peers enough to wear a
badge of honor.
Thirty-six percent report that they give away less than
two percent of their income.
IRS Statistics reflect that on average americans
average only 3% of giving to charitable organizations
(that is ALL charitable organizations)
Only about 27 percent of Evangelical Christians tithe.
A correction long overdue
Economists sometimes view recessions as necessary
purging of excessive behavior, correcting irrational
investments in stocks in the 1920s or tulips in 17thcentury Holland.
Perhaps the current correction, as families learn to
live on less and depend on each other more, will
make American Christians more generous.
It would be a correction long overdue.
The $85.5 Billion Gap
American Christians' lack of generosity might not be
as shocking if it didn't contrast so starkly with their
astounding wealth.
Passing the Plate's researchers say committed
American Christians—those who say their faith is very
important to them and those who attend church at
least twice a month—earn more than $2.5 trillion
dollars every year.
A new world economy
On their own, these Christians could be admitted to
the G7, the group of the world's seven largest
economies.
Smith and his coauthors estimate that if these
Christians gave away 10 percent of their after-tax
earnings, they would add another $46 billion to
ministry around the world.
A billion here, a billion
there...
This kind of money matters. Smith says he embarked
on his study after discovering the difference a healthy
church budget could make for a church youth group.
Working on Soul Searching, his 2006 book about the
religious lives of teenagers, Smith says, "It was clear
how much churches can do when they put up the
money for hiring a good youth minister or putting
programs in place."
We need to open our
eyes...
His inside look into church spending opened his
eyes to the limits of church giving.
This is pretty pathetic, he remembers thinking.
We need to evaluate our budgets and our giving
with critical eyes.
Are we doing what God calls us to do in this day
and at this time?
Do we really believe what we preach?
Three important questions
How much do American Christians
really give?
What could they give?
And most importantly, why don't they?
What is our potential?
A long time ago....
Our church was going through a crisis.
We needed money to pay our loans and the
congregation had gone through a separation.
The pastor called me to ask me to join him in
prayer. He was praying for a millionaire to pay
off the loans.
I told him that I would pray about his prayer.
After a long night
I immediately made good on the promise and as I
kept a backup computer at home I started
analyzing the finances while conversing with the
spirit about my pastors prayer.
To my surprise I felt an answer in my spirit, “The
millionaire is here”.
I looked at my watch and thought to myself that I
was more tired than I thought. And that my mind
was playing tricks.
After a while...
I kept my vigil and started arguing with God and I
remember saying “well if he’s here show him to me
as I can’t see him!”
“We are one in christ” was the answer to my
argument and then it hit me.
It was 2:00 AM when I called my pastor and told
him get the board together we are having a
meeting.
“Why?” he asked... “Because I found the
millionaire.”
We are all poor...
My first assumption is that everybody in the church
was poor. To a church like ours that meant finding
what the mean salary for our area was. I quickly
took that and divided it by two. The number I got
was $22,500 per year.
That still sounded too high, so I took the number
and rounded down to 20,000 per year.
Then I did an estimate of working people in the
church.
All together now...
I took that number to be 220 working people at the
church. Our attendance hovered around 300.
My next assumption is that we all tithe.
So when I put it all together (220 x 20,000 =
$4,400,000 x 10% = $440,000.00) our budget for that
year was $225,000.
Thats why I called the pastor, our targets were way
off.
Not the most popular guy...
Well what did you expect? I was grateful I got out
of the meeting with my skin on, but the bottom line
was that for the first time we knew where we were
and knew where we needed to be.
The pastor started a sermon series on stewardship.
(52 weeks).
A thorough 12 week Stewardship bible study was
taken by 6 key families of the congregation (the
leaders).
Where were we?
The median salary for the City was 45,000 a year.
If we took those numbers and ran the same
formula we could see where we were.
Our 225,000 budget as right at 2.3% of our income
potential.
Within 4 years the church had doubled the budget
to $525,000 in giving with 125,000 collected (not
pledged) to the construction of a new facility.
As Christians where are
we?
One early finding: That estimate of $46 billion in
additional giving is unrealistic. Not because it's too
big, but because it's too small.
Estimating 10 percent giving for every committed
Christian in the U.S. neglects two groups: those who
truly can't afford to give 10 percent (due to illness or
unemployment or similar reasons), and those who are
already giving more than 10 percent (more on this
group in a moment).
A handful of generous
givers...
If you calculate that 10 percent of Christians can't
give because of their financial limitations,
most of the rest give 10 percent,
and a handful of generous givers continue their
current generous giving pattern,
committed American Christians could realistically
increase their giving by $85.5 billion each year.
The Biggest Givers
Actually, it's not quite true to say that American
Christians give only a small portion of their money
toward religious endeavors. Looking closer, the
picture is more disturbing.
About 5 percent of American Christians provide 60
percent of the money churches and religious
groups use to operate.
In my work with Disciples Churches I see a 20/80
trend 20% of the Congregation contributes 80% of
the budget.
The Biggest Givers...
As already noted, a quarter gives away no money at
all.
The average, regularly attending churchgoer gives 6
percent of after-tax income, but that's a mean skewed
by a handful of very generous givers.
The median annual giving for an American Christian
is actually $200, just over half (1/2%) a percent of
after-tax income.
Covering for others...
As previously stated, about 5 percent of American
Christians provide 60 percent of the money
churches and religious groups use to operate. (It's
these people who skew the average.)
"A small group of truly generous Christian givers,"
say Passing the Plate's authors, "are essentially
'covering' for the vast majority of Christians who
give nothing or quite little."
The poor are the most
generous...
In addition, America's biggest givers—as a
percentage of their income—are its lowest income
earners.
The widow who gave out of her poverty rather than
her wealth (Mark 12:42; Luke 21:1-4) has a lot of
company, it seems.
Yet so does the rich young ruler (Matthew 19:16-22).
Those that earn the least
“Americans who earn less than $10,000 gave 2.3
percent of their income to religious organizations,"
Smith, Emerson, and Snell write,
"whereas those who earn $70,000 or more gave only
1.2 percent."
While the actual percentages are slightly higher for
Christians who regularly attend church, the pattern is
similar.
According to their gifts...
Households of committed Christians making less than
$12,500 per year give away roughly 7 percent of their
income, a figure no other income bracket beats until
incomes rise above $90,000 (they give away 8.8
percent).
In fact, in absolute terms, the poorest Christians give
away more dollars than all but the wealthiest
Christians.
Perhaps ...
We see the pattern in recent history as well: When
Americans earned less money following the Great
Depression, they gave more.
When income went up, they began to give less of it
away.
Perhaps God is trying to tell us something ...
No surprise
That giving is so low may be no surprise to those
familiar with the adage of the camel and the eye of
the needle. (Matthew 16:23-24)
But were not interested in chronicling stinginess. We
need to be instead propelled by a nagging question:
•
Why?
Some plausible answers.
First, a major reason Christians don't give more is
because many can't.
Fixed costs in households have increased from 54
percent to 75 percent of family budgets since the
early 1970s.
A mere two buying decisions—the purchases of
homes and cars—are enough to lock household
budgets into tight budgetary situations for decades.
The larger the income ...
It doesn't get better with larger incomes, says Bill
Walter, a financial planner for 35 years at Church
Growth Services, a South Bend, Indiana-based
consulting firm that helps churches raise money in
capital campaigns.
In fact, a high income often means more debt.
On borrowed time...
"Oftentimes there's a misperception that if we have
this really wealthy church in this well-heeled
neighborhood, achieving the campaign goal ought to
be a slam dunk."
Instead, Walter says, "Many of the folks in the wellheeled neighborhoods driving Lexuses and going to
their summer cottages are doing this all on credit."
A matter of trust...
Another part of the answer, the researchers found,
is that some would-be donors don't trust how
churches and religious organizations would use
their donations.
Only 9 percent of church-attending Christians say
this is an important reason for their lack of giving—
but majorities in several church families (Lutherans,
Presbyterians, Baptists, and Catholics) say they
don't have high levels of trust in their
denomination's management and allocation of
funds.
Lead by example...
A larger problem isn't that the parishioners distrust
their churches; it's that they are acting just like them.
American families are repeating their churches'
examples.
"Relatively little donated money actually moves much
of a distance away from the contributors," Smith,
Emerson, and Snell write.
Its about the people...
The money given by the people in the pews, it turns
out, is largely spent on the people in the pews.
Only about 3 percent of money donated to churches
and ministries went to aiding or ministering to nonChristians.
You need to ask...
Meanwhile, the study found that a major reason
Christians do not give is because they are not
asked to.
The researchers found "a strong correlation
between perceived expectations and readiness to
give money."
Americans know that nearly all denominations
teach that Christians should give away 10 percent
of their incomes.
A reluctancy to speak...
But this teaching is rarely reinforced.
Pastors are reluctant to bring it up because the issue
is so closely tied to their own salaries.
The Cheerful Giver Dilemma
Resource constraints, low leadership expectations,
and ignorance are each significant hurdles to clear if
American Christians are to become more generous.
But the real question may not be why Christians don't
give away more money.
A better question, the researchers suggest, is, How
do they give when they do?
Hollywood giving...
Offering money, many Christians believe, should
be like Hollywood's version of romance:
spontaneous, exuberant, and impulsive.
Financial gifts should be joyful, we think, so we
give only when the urge strikes.
"Structured systems" such as annual pledges, write
Smith, Emerson, and Snell, "seem to strike many
American Christians as rigid, impersonal, legalistic,
and even unspiritual."
Intentional Giving
This attitude translates to giving from our wallets
instead of our paychecks.
When the offering plate comes by, we dig into our
purses or pockets and freely, joyfully give of what we
find.
Meanwhile, nearly all of our income is spoken for.
Bi-polar giving
One congregant put it this way: "God requires it, but
… he also tells us that he doesn't want us to give if
we don't want to."
The proof text for this attitude is : "Each man should
give what he has decided in his heart to give, not
reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a
cheerful giver." (2nd Corinthians 9:7)
Give until it doesn’t hurt?
The application, however, suggests that God prefers
consumerism to generosity.
If buying the bigger home or the larger car makes it
more difficult to give cheerfully, we will cut back on
the giving until it's cheerful.
What does this all mean?
So we give our money like we spend it:
haphazardly and without intention.
"Most people are looking out no more than a week
or a month on their spending," says Rusty Leonard,
an investment manager and founder of
MinistryWatch.
Christians act no differently with their money than
other Americans who don't save for retirement, buy
houses they cannot afford, or invest only when
stocks are rising.
Time to pay attention...
But, Leonard says, Christians are starting to pay more
attention to financial issues, and their attention to
issues such as debt is helping them be better givers
as well.
Teaching Stewardship
Chip Bernhard has seen such effects as the senior
pastor of Spring Creek Church in Pewaukee, a
Milwaukee suburb.
The church is one of more than 4,000
congregations using Dave Ramsey's Financial
Peace University curriculum this fall.
By the end of the three-month course, which Spring
Creek offers twice a year, the class of 50 to 100
people will have as a whole paid off about
$100,000 in debt.
Helping people see it
Helping people take a long-term view of household
finances increases parishioners' ability to give not just
because they have more money, but also because
they start thinking about priorities.
Teaching people the theology of giving is the easy
part, Bernhard says. More difficult is showing that the
church means it.
Where your treasure is...
So, for example, no one can be in a leadership
position who doesn't give (though there is no
minimum specified).
"Where your treasure is, there is your heart," says
Spring Creek's executive pastor, Tom Price.
"Why put people in leadership positions if their hearts
aren't in it?"
Thank you!
In addition, Spring Creek elders call to thank anyone
who gives any dollar amount above their usual
offering.
Once a quarter, members receive a newsletter with a
testimony, a handwritten thank-you note, and an
update on their financial giving for the year.
More than bricks and
mortar
The church is undergoing its second capital campaign
to expand its facilities—something that often lifts
general giving along with directed gifts, notes Walter
of Church Growth Services.
But Bernhard says he never talks about giving in
terms of brick and mortar.
The mission
"Our expansion is people driven," he says.
So the church makes sure members hear the
testimonies of people who have experienced a
changed life because of the church's ministry.
Then Bernhard tells the congregants, "That is why
you give to Spring Creek."
Boring is Better
Helping Christians take a long view of their finances
helps, Passing the Plate's researchers note.
Even more important is helping them form habits.
Asking church members to make annual pledges will
do more to encourage generosity than asking for
spontaneous gifts or pleading for cash to fix a broken
boiler.
On autopilot?
And if there is one thing better than pledges, it's
automatic withdrawals.
Giving would never again be dependent on having
cash in your purse or remembering your checkbook
on the way out the door.
This approach would make obedience independent of
our various charitable impulses.
A spiritual discipline...
It makes sense. Financial planners encourage
families over and over to have their savings and
retirement investments taken right out of their
paychecks.
But is obedience that requires no effort, no thought,
really obedience? Spiritual formation occurs when
we, week after week, grab the checkbook, write a
check, and drop it in the offering plate.
We remember God's goodness, his continual care,
as we build up a habit of giving.
Intentional Giving
Giving should be a matter of intentional obedience, a
joyful expression of returning thanks to God.
And there seems to be something sacred about
physically collecting the offerings and blessing them
during worship.
Isn't something lost if it's left to church administrators
sorting the daily mail?
The bible says it so...
On the other hand, the Bible warns often enough
about money that perhaps we should be mistrustful
of our ability to be impulsively generous week after
week.
A man's pocketbook, Martin Luther said, is the last
piece of him to be converted.
Money has a strange power, as the current
economic crisis illustrates, that suggests humility
and prudence are the appropriate attitudes toward
it, not exuberance and impulsiveness.
A decision...
Rather than being impersonal and legalistic, a steady,
habitual, even automatic approach to giving can do
more to form us spiritually than the give-only-out-ofjoy approach.
The decision to give a percentage of our income
automatically and "off the top" can affect everything
from the house we live in to the groceries we buy to a
pizza delivery.
Reorienting life....
When we pass on a purchase because we know the
check to church or a sponsored child is going out that
week, it forces us to prioritize.
It places supremacy with someone or something
other than us. Most importantly, and formatively, it
reorients our life.
Reorienting ourselves
Francis Chan, pastor of Cornerstone Church in
California's Simi Valley, says churches are often
theologically accurate when they teach about
giving. But they haven't reoriented themselves.
Chan asks, "Do our actions show that we really
believe that our money belongs to God?"
Cornerstone gives away 55 percent of what it
brings in.
And staff members have tried to model financial
generosity in a number of ways.
Following the leader...
Some raided their retirement accounts and gave
the money to organizations serving the poor and
needy.
Some started businesses and donated the profits
(and then their free time) back to the church.
The example spread to church members.
A college student moved into his car, showered
and shaved at friends' homes, and gave what had
been his rent money to a Christian aid
organization.
A difficult choice...
Cornerstone faced a difficult choice when its
leadership looked into purchasing a new building.
After five years of stagnant attendance, the church
realized that its building limited growth.
So Chan and the rest of the pastoral staff brought
in consultants and architects who laid out a
sweeping new campus for the church: an extended
complex of buildings, brick streets, fountains, and
gardens.
The right reaction
“I really felt it was repulsive," Chan says. "It showed
us spending money for our own comfort."
Chan showed the designs to the congregation. When
the gasps subsided, he told them it was off the table.
Instead of a huge sanctuary, he explained, they were
building an open-air amphitheater and saving millions
of dollars.
A greater joy...
A few small buildings would suffice for offices.
"There is greater joy in sacrifice," Chan says, "than
when we give just out of our excess."
That greater joy comes from habitual, routine, and
generous giving—even automated giving—and forms
our lives. It's what teaches the giver to be cheerful.
So what should we be
doing?
Talk about it. Do an analysis of where you really are
in your giving.
Teach. Pick one of the many courses available to
teach stewardship, Crown Ministries etc.
Train the Trainer. Have a stewardship expert,
someone that walks the walk he can be the resident
expert.
Keep the focus, forget the million and one fundraisers
concentrate on increasing giving by one percent
every year. That one percent can increase budgets
by 33%.
How to increase 33%
Lets take the same example we did before.
50 x 45,000 = $2,250,000 x 3% = $67,500
If we increase giving by 1%
50 x 45,000 = $2,250,000 x 4% = $90,000
That is an increase of $22,500 or 33.33%
Try selling 22,500 cupcakes in a year to make that
budget increase!
Bibliography
From the Christianity Today Article titled Scrooge
Lives! Why we're not putting more in the offering
plate. And what we can do about it. By: Rob Moll
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/december/10.24.h
tml
Passing the Plate: Why American Christians Don't
Give Away More Money By: Christian Smith, Michael
O. Emerson, Patricia Snell Oxford University Press /
2008
Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the
Problem of Race in America By: Michael Emerson,
Christian Smith Oxford University Press / 2001
Web Resources
www.mayordomia.net - Author’s web site where you
can find resources in english and spanish on
stewardship and church administration.
manuel.collazo@mayordomia.net