Keep Your "Faith" out of my pocket!

Keep your “faith” out of my pocket!

Recently I attended a service and felt like I was being berated for my lack of faith in God and the church simply because I did not “double up” on my offering to sow a seed into the ministry. I had a prophet for profit tell me in front of a congregation of people the ministry God gave me would not grow because I refused to give a certain set amount of money that night – regardless to how much I had already given that week and leading up to the services. Of course this was after he declared great things for my ministry. He neglected to tell me and all assembled that the blessing he prophesied over the ministry God had entrusted to me was contingent on a lay away plan with a payment due that night. I have been shaken down in the church because they needed a certain amount of money to make budget and because I was pastoring and working I had to have it. If I feel this way I wonder how the people in the pews who had hitched rides to get to church; who had taken the bus and some who may have even walked may have felt about the constant pull for money that they did not have.

Once only relegated to non-denominational or certain Pentecostal ministries this if you do not give, you don’t have faith or you don’t trust God” mindset has penetrated even the most traditional churches. Many children of God have their faith attacked each week over money.  Those that give are always pressed to give even more. Those that don’t have it to give are reprimanded for their lack of faith. It is not always a lack of faith thing, even though ultimately it is how it is presented. The thing that always crosses my mind as these appeals are made is “poor planning on your part does not constitute and emergency on my part.”

Raising funds for any ministry has always been a challenging proposition. No matter what type or denomination church it takes money to do ministry. This will never change.  Even though we technically make way more money than we ever have it seems like less and less reaches the church. The appeals for funds are getting out of hand and downright scandalous. In the words of a former deacon “God is not pleased.” Why is that?

Failure to tithe - This to me is an obedience issue not a faith issue. We do it because we are told to do so. My blessing comes because I obeyed God, not because I had faith to believe He would do what He said or because I trusted Him even if I did not believe He would do what He said. The amazing thing about tithing that there are ungodly people across this world that recognize the wisdom of tithing and do it – giving to charitable organizations of their choice instead of the church. Yet for many in the body of Christ we have to be convinced that it is still relevant for today. In my book on tithing and stewardship in the local church written in 2002 I stated that even if one did not tithe, if they gave truly as the Lord blessed them they would be giving way above 10 percent, not way under 10 percent. Many people who make the argument not to tithe, make it to give less than 10 percent not more than.

Stewardship – as I get older this is truly the major issue. We are not trained to be proper stewards of what God has already entrusted us with. We don’t manage our household finances well and then we are chafed when the church that we say we love asks for money. We spend as much as we can to feel like we or our family is not missing out and then have little to nothing left for the work of God. At the least give to God first and not last. Put Him at the top of your spending list and not the bottom.  Make God your priority and then budget the rest to save, treat yourself, pay your bills, etc.

Accountability – If people in leadership are not accountable to what they say and to what they do then there will be a failure to trust those in leadership. Once that trust is dissolved, the finances will dry up. This issue cannot be swept under the carpet. People will come hear you preach, teach and minister but that does not mean they really believe in you. If they believe in you, even if they are not there every Sunday you know they are committed to the vision in many other tangible ways.

People don’t give like they used to - This is because back then even though they did not have much money they truly believed in the minister and the ministry. They believed in the vision. They believed in the goals set before them.  Many now are super skeptical. Whether it is due to previous mismanagement of funds, a building fund that never seems to have money in it to build, or the repeated give or we won’t leave this part of the service, people withhold their hands and their wallet.

Tired of the incessant appeals for money - When every time you go to church you constantly hear how much the church is struggling you begin to wonder why. Many churches and ministers are guilty of spending for the big vision before they have the money to support it. This mindset claims that if the people don’t see the physical manifestation of the vision quickly they won’t give. So they stretch out on God, get into debt and difficult places and then challenge you to do the same and watch God move in your life. Then claim you have no faith if you do not respond. While I have no doubt on the stretch of faith, we are called to be faithful stewards and to plan well; that our plans do not come to naught and we are brought to an open shame as one preacher is fond of saying..

During my pastorate at one church in North Carolina I was led to begin raising funds for a church steeple. In reading the history and minutes of that church, the steeple was a major issue. Numerous attempts had been made to get a steeple on the church, but had ultimately failed. This seemed to me to be an issue that we all could agree on and give cheerfully towards.  I believed it would unite warring factions in the church for a common positive purpose. Although that was not the case as there were those who wanted to see me fail so they could not support anything I did, by the grace of God we were able to raise the funds for the steeple in under ten months and place it on the church.  God gave us victory to raise between $6,000.00 to $7,000.00 in a very short time period and accomplish something that was a sore point in the life of that church. How did that happen among people who had no money as I was told?

•   A simple plan was laid out and communicated that as many as possible could embrace that vision. 
• We shared with them the exact price and pictures of what we would be getting.
•  We continued to feed the vision to all, even though there were those trying to stop it.
• As a leader I gave and let the entire membership see me give to the project without taking away from my regular tithe and offerings.
• We used faithful members of that congregation who believed in my leadership and the vision to be in charge of the steeple fund and report every week to the church treasurer – so that there was no mixing of funds and when we needed the funds they would be gone.
• We received gifts even from those who publicly stood against us but said privately they wanted to see the steeple up even if they didn’t want to see me get credit for it. One of those checks was $1500.00 from someone who didn’t support me!
• We gave constant updates as to our progress in raising the funds. As much as I detest fund raising especially in church, I got out of my comfortable zone to ask people to give to this project.
• We stated wholeheartedly that we would not finance the steeple project.  We would only get it when we could pay cash in full. The only thing we would be in debt to was our dream.
• When the steeple was paid for and put up we gave all credit and glory to God and thanked all, even those who chose not to give a dime. 

      While I do not think that this is the only way, it definitely worked for us. The blessing was not getting in debt until we had the money to pay for it. If many more ministries took this approach they would find out they could still stretch out on faith in their appeals yet be faithful stewards of what God has already entrusted them with. This is a balance that is worth striving for.