Christian Giving: Dollars and Sense

By Fr. Ray Kasch

“When I was growing up I watched my father drop a $5 bill in the offering plate every Sunday. So when I became an adult I figured that if I dropped a $20 dollar bill in the plate that I was being more than generous. Then I saw what it took to operate a church and I realized that I did not really know about giving. I really think we need some teaching on this topic. How do we know unless someone tells us?”
 
This was some very honest input that I received from a member shortly after we began All Saints’. While $5 may still be a significant amount to give for some, as I reflected upon the conversation, I knew that he was right. We do not want to spend an undue amount of time talking about money in the church, but given that we have a fair number of members who either did not grow up in the church or were last in church when a McDonald’s burger was 15¢, my friend had identified a true need. This tract is a response to the need. It will offer a theological approach to giving in order to encourage action that is based upon truth rather than upon guilt. It is presented in the form of questions that I have received about giving, many of which I have wrestled with myself. I hasten to add that I am continually seeking to be a better steward of all that God has given to me and I have not yet arrived. Hence my input is as a fellow traveler and not as an expert. ~ Fr. Ray
 
1. Is giving based upon the Church’s budget?
No. According to Holy Scripture, giving is an act of worship, it is not a business decision. Before Moses, and therefore before the law, Jacob entered into a covenant with God. When God met him at Bethel, Jacob put up a structure and said, “This memorial pillar will become a place for worshipping God, and I will give God a tenth of everything he gives me.” (Gen. 28:22, New Living Translation). Several important truths come to us from this text. First, note the connection between worship and giving. Jacob in essence said “here is where I will worship God and giving is how I will worship him.” This means that we miss the point if we see our pledges as “dues” or as an obligation. Giving as worship has very practical applications. For example, there was a time when, because I was paid twice per month, that I put money on the offering plate twice a month, giving the church a portion of each paycheck. But when I realized through my study of Scripture, that giving was an act of worship, I decided that it would be better if I made a weekly offering at weekly worship. After all, we do not only pray twice a month or sing hymns only on the first and fifteenth, so why should we give only once or twice a month? It wasn’t that I needed to give more in amount; rather I saw that I needed to give more frequently. To say it another way, I felt a need to unite my frequency of giving to my frequency of worship, so that my giving became an act of worship.

Second, we see in the example of Jacob, another reason for giving. He saw himself returning to God from what God had given to him. This is at the heart of Christian stewardship. We give because we have received. It used to be that the priest would say at the offertory, “All things come of thee, O LORD, and of thine own have we given thee.”  We believe as Christians that anything and everything we have is from our loving heavenly Father, and so in giving we are returning to God a small portion of what he has given to us. If you make $500 per week, how much of it belongs to God? If you said, “$50”, then you understand tithing, but you were tricked by the question. The beginning of stewardship is the realization that it all belongs to God. All is rightfully his; we simply get to use some of it. Thus, even if we were a part of a church whose buildings were paid for and had millions in the bank, we would still need to be faithful givers, because we would be returning to God what was rightfully his. Certainly it is through the offerings of God’s people that the church has a budget, but what motivates our giving is thankfulness to God not balance sheets.

The third lesson from Jacob is that giving should be thought of in terms of proportion, not in terms of amounts. He did not offer to give what he did not have. Rather than saying that he would give a million dollars and later wonder how he was going to do that on a shepherd’s income, he said that he would return to God a proportion of what God gave to him. If we follow this example we do not put ourselves into debt by giving to God, on one hand, nor do we stop giving at the end of the year because we have given a set amount, on the other. Again, we need to avoid a “dues” mentality.
 
2. How much should we give?
Jacob gave to God a tenth of all that God had given to him. This idea, known as the tithe, has been what the Church through the ages has seen as a minimum standard for our giving. That said, this remains a highly personal question and is not automatically answered. Three insights from Scripture can guide us in answering this question.

1) As just mentioned in the case of Jacob, one biblical example is to give a tithe, a tenth of your income. The idea of a tithe is repeated throughout Scripture, with over 40 references in both Old and New Testaments. In fact the people of Israel were expected to give offerings beyond the tithe. Offerings went to the poor, for sacrifices, for celebrations and a variety of other reasons. Some have estimated that a faithful Jew in the biblical times gave over 30% of their income. It would be like someone today paying taxes and tithing, which of course many Christians do.

2) Another insight we have from Scripture is the widow whom Jesus praised (Luke 21:1-4). She gave much less than the rich man, but because she gave her last dime, her proportional giving was vastly more than the rich man’s. Does this mean that we should empty our bank accounts? No. The point of the story is the woman’s faith in God, which was expressed in her giving. I believe that the truth of this story is that our attitudes and motives in giving are even more important than the amounts.

3) The message of the New Testament is that we are not under the law, we are under grace. That truth should also inform our giving. We should not feel self-righteous if we tithe, nor should we feel condemned, if like the widow, we have only a penny to give. The answer to “how much?” is “What do you have faith for and what can you give cheerfully?” We are not under the law and no one needs any more guilt sown into their life. If we do something out of compulsion and not because we have faith to do it, it becomes the same as being under the law again. Thus when it comes to giving, whatever we do, it should be grace-filled. That is why Holy Scripture says, “God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Cor. 9:7, NIV ).
 
3. What if I cannot afford to give?
Although it may seem that way, that is invariably not a reality in America. I have met Christians, in other countries, who make less in a year than most of us make in a month, and yet they abound in generosity. For example I met a family in Haiti, where the average income is $300 per year, who were willing to share with their neighbor. They talked to me about Christian giving and although they were down to their last 5 potatoes and wanted to know how to give. I also met ministers in the Philippines, where the average annual income is 1/10th of that of an American family. Yet they taught their congregations to give generously.
If we are honest with ourselves we will admit that most of us have enough money to do what we really want to do. Can a people who eat out and rent videos and have cable TV really say they cannot afford to give? Most people that I know are not rich by American standards but which of us have ever been down to our last 5 potatoes?

There is an interesting passage in Malachi where God, through the prophet, accuses the people of stealing from him. The people ask how they have stolen from God and he replies; “You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me. ...”  Then God makes this amazing statement. “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be food enough in my Temple. If you do ...I will open the windows of heaven so great you won’t have room enough to take it in! Try it! Let me prove it to you!” (Malachi 3:8-10 NLT) It is a shame that the TV preachers have so misused this passage, because legitimate teachers as a result are shy about using it. It is a remarkable promise. A number of years ago I took the challenge of Malachi, to let God prove it to me. I gave a tithe of what I wanted to make, rather than what I actually made. By the end of the year my income had increased to make my giving less than a tithe. I do not advise that for anyone else, nor do I practice that today. It was a season in my life when I needed to take a step of faith, and God showed himself faithful and/or merciful. The point is that we too often do not put ourselves in a place for God to show us his faithfulness. If you are destitute, the church needs to be taking care of you, but if you have food and shelter, then you can afford to return to God a portion. The truth is that we cannot afford not to give, because in the end, giving is a spiritual matter. Receiving abundantly from God but giving begrudgingly to God is a form of ingratitude. Jesus said “where your treasure is there is your heart also,” and so we can see what we really love when we see where our money goes. Is it truthful to say that we put God first, when the first thing to go in a budget crunch is our offering to God? Most of us feel financial pressures, but when we prioritize our financial lives to reflect our faith in God, then we can ask for and expect divine provision.
 
4. Where do I give?
Every dime you give to God does not have to go to your local church because the kingdom of God is certainly bigger than one church. Make it a matter of prayer and God will direct you, both in what you are to give and where you are to give it. There are, however, a couple of factors to consider. A few years ago, when the TV preachers first became popular and were convincing people to send them money, I heard a minister say a very practical thing. He said, “You do not eat at McDonalds and walk across the street and pay at Burger King.” His point was that if your church is feeding you spiritually, then you need to give there first. If it is not feeding you, rather than sending your money “across the street,” perhaps you need to find a new church.

Another factor is wherever you do give your money; you need to be sure that you really give it. Most churches make a budget based upon pledges, and if you pledge but fail to give or if you spend the money yourself and call it your pledge, then you will sabotage your church’s budget.

Also by “be sure you give it,” I mean let go of it once you have given it. If you cannot trust the church with your money, then you are foolish to trust it with your soul. Since it is not our money anyway, then it is ultimately up to God to get the money where it needs to be. Designated offerings are biblical and good. For example when you read the Book of Acts, you will see God using his church to give support exactly where it is needed. But if we seek to control every dime of our gifts, then they are no longer truly gifts. Once again the motive of our giving becomes the central issue. People who give with an agenda usually give with strings attached, while people who give as an act of worship and gratitude usually give freely.
 
Conclusion. It is a privilege to be vessels of God and to give what has been given to us. This is particularly true when we see our gifts being used to extend God’s kingdom and make a difference in this world. This is even true for a relatively small church of 50 families. If each family gave $20 per week, the church would barely survive with an annual budget of $52,000. But if that same church took giving seriously, and each family tithed, the annual budget would be $180,000.* Such a church would not only be surviving but well on its way to starting another church, or funding a missionary or starting a charitable ministry. In being faithful we experience Jesus' truth that it is indeed more blessed to give than to receive.
 
*Based on a recent statistic that the average annual family income in the U.S. is $36,000.