|
|
The Stewardship Connection Tithing—Is
that Still Around? With thanks to Napoleon Hill |
|
| Surf my website:
Congregational Mission Endowment Funds Stewardship Adventures: Increasing the Harvest 15 to 30 Percent
|
Other people are often really important to us when it comes to developing our attitudes about virtually everything. Share with me for a few moments some of the things about other people that impress you and make you want to strive for excellence. Generosity. Thanksgiving. Caring. Active in community functions and concerns. Involved in their family's lives. The list can go on and on.
Now, let’s take a moment to look at these.
Are they attitudes? Are
they behaviors?
My son Dave came into town last Tuesday and I picked him up at
the Columbus airport after midnight.
On the way to the car, he asked if I’d ever read the book by
Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich!
He had an abridged tape of it he’d been listening to and
wanted me to hear it. It was interspersed with actual comments by the author.
Now, ordinarily, in spite of my being a capitalist, that’s not
the kind of reading material I look for. But I figured if he wanted me to hear it, he had his reasons.
I’ve since read the unabridged version, and believe it contains
some valuable gems for stewardship. Early
in the tape, Hill listed 12 keys to enduring riches. 1.
A
positive mental attitude. 2.
Sound
physical health. 3.
Harmony
in human relationships. 4.
Freedom
from fear. 5.
The
hope of future achievement. 6.
The
capacity for applied Faith. 7.
Willingness
to share one’s blessings with others. 8.
Be
engaged in a labor of love. 9.
An
open mind on all subjects toward all people. 10.
Complete
and Total Self-Discipline. 11.
Wisdom
with which to understand people. 12.
Financial
security. Observe, if you
will, that according to Hill, Carnegie and others, that money comes at
the end of the 12 principles that make one rich.
Kind of sounds a bit like Jesus doesn’t it?
In fact, Hill’s definition of riches has a lot in common with
Jesus’ own definition of riches.
In fact, I’d like to touch on two of these this
evening. I think you’ll
soon see the stewardship connection.
And yes, never fear, I’m going to get around to tithing in a
bit. ·
The first one he mentioned: A positive mental attitude. I obviously get to a lot of congregations in my ministry. In the nearly 14 years of my stewardship ministry, I’ve been in somewhere between half and two thirds of the churches in Ohio, and a few others that are elsewhere. I’ve heard many stories about stewardship (and especially the money side of it) in all of them. All to often those stories play the scarcity game…and the scarcity game is a lie. You may have heard comments like these somewhere. I hear things like, “Oh pastor, if we don’t get more members our little church is going to have to close its doors.” I’ve heard this in congregations with 200 in attendance every Sunday. Let me share a reality. For every person over the age of 60 your church loses, either to death or moving away for retirement, it takes an average of 17 new members to replace the giving of that one member. More people “ain’t-a-gonna” cut it. Or, I hear, pastor, most of our members are on a fixed income; we’re giving the best we can. ‘Course, when I run a giving analysis, I find that they’re giving an average of 2% of their collective incomes. That, my friends, is one-fifth of a tithe. And more often than not, the best givers in the congregation are over the age of 50. Yes, there are some genuine poor among us; no one can deny that. But poverty is more often a state of mind than a reality in most of our ELCA congregations. And, we’re getting richer. In the year 1933, the depth of the Great Depression, Protestants were giving an average of 3.2% of their income. By 1998, when Americans were over 400% richer, after taxes and inflation, than in the Great Depression, Protestants were giving 2.4% of their incomes to their churches. In 1950, a person was considered wealthy if they had a household income of $17,000. One in 50000 homes were rich. In 1990, one was considered rich with a household income of 100,000, but by then 1 in every 25 households fit that description. Last year, Y2K, a person was considered rich with an income of $135,000 and one in every 17 households could boast that kind of income. You say, “Yes, but they’re not here in “Smallville”. Many are. It’s a fact; the average family income of this community is just over $56,000. A tithe of that would be $5600 per year or roughly $108.00 per week. How many families here give over that amount? I'm not asking for a show hands! But back to my point, a positive mental attitude
is necessary for one to experience true riches. I’d like to point out that nowhere in the Bible is there
ever a reference to Jesus being negative about anything. Jesus was a “can do” sort of guy. But notice. Most
of the things that impress us about other people, things that make us
want to emulate them, are attitudes that they hold dear.
Every time I hear a Christian say they can’t do anything, I’m
always inclined to say, “Oh, where’s that in the Bible?” Fact is, the Bible is an exercise in doing the impossible.
Indeed, if you think about it, that goes along with Hill’s
fourth point, Freedom from Fear. Christians of all people should face
the future with optimism and hope of future achievement (number 5).
And, come to think of it, it includes number 6, the capacity for
applied Faith. ·
Willingness to share one’s blessings with others. That brings us to the seventh of Hill’s points, willingness to share one’s blessings with others. I took a course at Gettysburg Seminary a few years ago along with several other members of our staff. It was a good time to get together to chat about stewardship and study together for a week or so. The course was the history of stewardship (and philanthropy) in America. It was fascinating to take some time to look at not only some of the great preachers of stewardship, but also some of the great benefactors of the last couple of centuries. One thing I noticed about all of them.
Hill points it out too. Nearly
every one of them was a philanthropist.
Yes, they were a bit egotistical.
They sometimes felt that they were especially chosen for riches
because they had the capacity to manage them, and the willingness to
give them. We all hear
negative stories about them, but I’m inclined to think many of these
originate due to a couple of reasons.
One is jealousy. The
other is that these men were driven. That was due to point number 10; they had a
Complete and Total Self-Discipline.
Yes, sometimes that included self–absorption, but mostly it
meant they were focused. But
perhaps more important, they needed to share.
Yes, they maintained control, and that was in part due to ego,
but they gave. I read an
article last year in Time Magazine that said that Bill
Gates has given away over $60 billion, and plans to give most of his
fortune away during his lifetime. Jesus talked a lot about giving too.
He talked about giving more than any other subject except the
Kingdom of God itself. But
did Jesus talk about the tithe? Yes, one just one occasion.
Remember when he was dressing down the Scribes and Pharisees?
“Woe to you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites; you tithe your
mint, and dill and cumin, but have neglected the weightier matters of
the law.” Often we stop there, but what did he say next?
“These you ought to have done, without neglecting
the others.” That last
phrase, “without neglecting the others” is Jesus only reference to
tithing, but I think we can see from it that he never suggested any
standard less than a tithe. I
was speaking with a colleague last weekend in Baltimore.
Roger Smith, my colleague who covers that synods, mentioned a man
on his stewardship committee that didn’t believe in tithing.
Even as my eyebrows started to rise, he added, “Naw, he says
that’s a good place to begin.” I know we pastors are tempted never to go much beyond
suggesting a tithe. Rarely
do we point out the passage that says, “To whom much has been given is
much expected.” Some of
us have been blessed with so much earthly wealth that we should be doing
more than a tithe. Last Christmas our church lost a champion.
When at retirement he discovered he was rich, he began a campaign
to give away as much as he could. When
Mr. Arthur Larson died at the age of 93, he was giving away 70% of his
income. Imagine, seven
tithes; are you still growing? A closing true story. A pastor told of a man in his congregation who was a dentist.
His name was Steve. He
had watched Steve grow as a Christian over a number of years, and one
day decided to ask him to serve on the stewardship committee.
Now mind you, in that church there was an unwritten law that if
you were going to serve on the stewardship committee you were expected
to be a tither. You can’t
legitimately ask someone to do something that you’re unwilling to do
yourself. When the pastor approached him he said, “Well, gee pastor, I’d like to you, but I’m not
yet a tither. I guess I
can’t afford to be a tither.” “Gosh Steve,” said the pastor, “I’m
surprised. What would a tithe amount to for you, about $35,000?” “Well, yes, I suppose that’s about right,”
responded Steve. “Well then Steve,” commented the pastor, “maybe
I should pray that the Lord will lower your income to a point where you
can afford to tithe.” Three days later Steve walked into the pastor’s
office with a new commitment card (with $35,000 on it) and said, “Your
right pastor, I can’t afford not to tithe.
I’ll serve.” Good point Steve!
Can any of us afford not to tithe?
|
