ARTICLE

Pastor, You Can Increase the Giving in Your Church

Harris W. Lee

From Action Information, Volume XVIII, No. 4, July/August, 1992, pp. 8–10.

"If I knew what to do, I'd do it," said the determined yet frustrated Pastor Andy Anderson after a meeting of the church board. Once again the meeting had been dominated by talk of money. "Let's face it," said Carl Schultz, a member of the board who had a way of getting to the bottom line, "we need more money to run this church!" Nobody disagreed, though Pastor Anderson wished someone would be as decisive about the need for Bible study or evangelism.

"If I knew what to do, I'd do it," he said to his wife later that evening as they got ready for bed. "This chronic money problem sours everything we do. Our board members are demoralized; I'm getting discouraged; and the whole congregation seems unhappy and turned in upon itself." After a few moments he continued, "I wish we could use our imagination on how to further the cause of Christ and use our time doing it--but we're so preoccupied with money problems that we never get to that." Then, still later and as if something was beginning to dawn on him, he said, "I've always thought the lay leaders should take care of stewardship, but maybe there's something I should be doing. Believe me, if I knew what to do, I'd do it!"

Pastor Andy, there is something you can do to increase the giving in your church. And I'm glad you're ready and willing. Too often pastors end up wringing their hands, feeling helpless, getting despondent--or disgusted and mad! When you say you're ready to do something, you're at a "kairotic" moment. Congratulations!

I suggest that you consider three things, three areas of your ministry that affect the level of giving in your church: (1) The quality of your pastoral ministry, (2) The way you lead, and (3) The way you relate to the stewardship committee.

First, your pastoral ministry as a whole: Is it faithful and is it effective? I know, that's two questions in one. I know, too, that it's very hard to measure both faithfulness and effectiveness. What seems faithful to one person may not seem the same to another. And what is effective to one person is ineffective to another. But how does it honestly look to you? Pastors tend to take refuge behind the cloak of faithfulness, in private if not in public. But I encourage you to ask about effectiveness too. I'm not asking you to abandon faithfulness; I'm asking you to consider additional ways of expressing your faithfulness, ways that could at the same time increase your effectiveness. To be specific, ask yourself such questions as the following:

Are my sermons interesting and vital as well as biblical and rooted in the text of the day? Are they carefully and thoughtfully prepared? And are they delivered with conviction and appropriate feelings? Is their message clear? Do I give people something to think about 'as well as something to do?

What is our worship like? Does the service have integrity, movement, and warmth? Or is it plodding and dull? What is the general tone? What can be done to improve the worship--making it more celebrative, more joyful, more spiritually satisfying?

What kind of Bible study or growth group opportunities do I provide? And do I make it a point to invite and encourage people to participate? We say the Bible is the "source and norm" of our faith and life; do I witness to that conviction in the way I carry out my ministry?

How is it with my pastoral care? Is it timely? Is it compassionate? Is it authentic? Some pastoral care is none of the above. Instead of timely, compassionate and honest, it's late, casual, and sentimental.

Do I tend to the little things--which for the people concerned are not so little? Things like returning phone calls? Like reading and answering my mail. Like being on time for appointments and meetings? If not, I may seem too busy or, worse, uncaring--the opposite of the conscientious, dependable pastor that people want. Maybe if I tend to the little things I'll have more credibility in the big things!

I wish I could promise, Pastor Andy, that if you sincerely do your best to provide a faithful and effective pastoral ministry along the lines that I've suggested, everything else, including the level of financial support, will come out all right. When I was a parish pastor how I wished that it was so! And how distressing it was to learn that it wasn't!

So consider, second, the matter of leadership in the congregation, your own as well as that of the laity. Some pastors opt for what I call a chaplaincy role in the congregation, doing the pastoral ministry discussed above and leaving the leadership tasks to the laity. I tended to do that myself at one time. But then I realized that it was both impractical and theologically unsound--impractical because the results weren't good, and theologically unsound because it was a tacit denial of the corporate expression of the Christian life, i.e., the church.

I encourage you to consciously assume a leadership role in the life of your congregation. You're not the only leader; and I hope you'll eschew a dictatorial style! But a leader you are, and a leader you must be. One of our seminaries sees itself as preparing "evangelical leaders engaged in mission." I encourage you to see yourself in that way. Yes, you're a pastor; but a pastor more specifically described as "an evangelical leader engaged in mission." You may prefer to see yourself as a minister of word and sacrament, as resident theologian, as enabler. Fine! You are also a leader. You are to help lead the congregation in its mission.

Your most important leadership task is to raise the vision of your people. "Where there is no vision the people perish," the Scripture reminds us. And since we believe that God's vision for the world is conveyed primarily through the Scripture, you have the vital responsibility of leading them into the Scripture, and to help them see life from the perspective of God's vision for the world. And in light of that vision, you have the responsibility of leading your congregation as it clarifies and pursues its mission.

The lay leadership of the congregation will be involved with you in this effort, of course. One of your responsibilities is to help select them; another is to help them fulfill their responsibilities. In your ongoing pastoral work be alert to the gifts of people. The New Testament assures us that God gives a variety of gifts to the church; it is essential that you work closely with the nominating committee to help identify people with the necessary gifts, including personality, for the particular ministry functions at hand. God forbid that this becomes a mere "political" game of power plays~ Insist that your congregation's nominating committee read and discuss Romans 12:3-8 and I Corinthians 12.

Once elected, your role will be to help train and guide them in their respective tasks. Help them understand and affirm God's vision and the church's mission. Help them understand their responsibilities and those of other leaders, including your own. Help them serve effectively on a committee, setting goals and working cooperatively together. Encourage them to work for consensus whenever possible--to strengthen unity and to avoid the disunity that often results from split votes.

By providing pastoral leadership along these lines your church will maintain a sense of mission. Instead of being turned in upon itself--a natural and sinful thing for both individuals and congregations to do--your congregation has another orientation, namely, the call and will of God. When a congregation is committed to know in mind and heart and express in word and deed the healing and reconciling Gospel of our Lord Christ, I believe numbers will want to support it with their treasure as well as with time and talents. Be a leader, an 'evangelical leader engaged in mission."

There's a third thing to consider, Pastor Andy: your relationship to the stewardship committee. In short, work closely with it! Stewardship has to do with our response to the call and blessings of God. Stewardship ministry increases the awareness of God's blessings and invites people to respond faithfully to God in the management and use of these blessings. Stewardship ministry furthers the cause of Christ. If you tend to shy away from stewardship--and unfortunately some pastors do--I encourage you to see it as pastoral care. Isn't helping people know the gifts and blessings of God pastoral care? Isn't helping people respond in thanksgiving to these gifts pastoral care? And isn't it pastoral care to help people get involved in the mission of Christ? Work closely with your lay leaders in this important ministry!

Stewardship obviously involves more than money. But it always includes money. Taking your cue from Jesus, talk to your people about money. He did so because he saw money as a rival god (for example, the rich young ruler) and because he saw it as a wonderful tool for serving people (for example, the Good Samaritan). The same is true today. Talk to your people about money. Remind them of the great things that can be done for God's kingdom and for people with money. Remind them, too, that it threatens to become a rival god in their lives.

I encourage you to work with your stewardship committee in planning an annual emphasis. In doing so, remember that in essence it comes down to two things: telling the story and asking for the response. But I prefer to think of three aspects instead of two, each of which begins with the letter "I"--inform, inspire, and invite.

Inform your people of what the Bible says about the gifts and blessings of God, about God's vision for the world, about our Lord's teachings about money and the mission of the church. Inform them, too, of the needs and opportunities of the church as it seeks to live out its life and mission.

Information, alone, is not sufficient, however. So inspire too. Use the Bible to inspire as well as inform. Highlight the call of God, the example and teachings of Jesus. Further, let Christians of days gone by and today give their witness. And don't forget to lift up the results of your people's gifts. Give examples of what is accomplished in the lives of others as a result of the offerings and witness of your people. Show how the life and ministry of your church, supported by the offerings of your people, is an extension of the life and ministry of Christ our Lord.

And then, third, invite the response. I know--some people are squeamish about this. Our Lord apparently was not: "Come, follow me . . . Feed my sheep . . . Go, make disciples of all nations." And doesn't his call and invitation continue to this day? Stewardship time is a wonderful time to sound that call and to invite and encourage a response. Work with the stewardship committee as it determines and sets the particular response method to use--whether an Every Member Visit (the most work but the most effective) or some other method. Help it organize, develop, and implement the plan, making a concerted effort to invite everyone to make a response.

Christ calls us to embark with him on a great mission, one that reaches out to all nations, and one that would make disciples of all peoples. Certainly one way of responding to his call is with our money. It's a response that both honors God in our personal lives and empowers the church for Christ's mission in our time. While our Lord doesn't specify any particular amount of money, I believe a tithe of our income is a reasonable and good benchmark. Affirm tithing as a way of life. Practice it yourself and encourage others to do the same.

You said, Pastor Andy, that if you knew what to do, you'd do it. Well, now you have some specific things to consider: Provide a faithful and effective pastoral ministry; be a leader; work closely with your stewardship committee. I believe that if you do these things you will increase the giving in your church. Better yet, if you do these things, you will advance the cause of Christ!

At the time this article was written, Harris W. Lee was a consultant with Kairos and Associates, Inc. He served as stewardship specialist for the ELCA and as a parish pastor. Lee is author of Effective Church Leadership (Augsburg Fortress, 1989).