Offers for the coffers
[Warning: Theology post.]
We picked up our box of offering envelopes from church last week. The very first thing I did was go through it and separate all the tares from the wheat. There were the 52 weekly offering envelopes, and those I left in (because our church hasn't heard of EFT yet, I've asked - personally I wish they had). What I then pulled out to be consumed by fire consisted of:
- 12 Building Fund envelopes
- 6 Mission Offering envelopes
- 5
denomination elidedHigh School envelopes - 1
denomination elidedmagazine subscription envelope - 1
denomination elidedradio outreach envelope - 1
denomination elidedcharity envelope - 5 Lenten Offering envelopes
- 1 Ash Wednesday Offering envelope
- 1 Maundy Thursday Offering envelope
- 1 Good Friday Offering envelope
- 1 Thanksgiving Offering envelope
- 3 Advent Offering envelopes
- 1 Christmas Eve Offering envelope
- 1 Christmas Offering envelope
- 1 New Year's Eve Offering envelope
I guess my real complaint is twofold. First, I consider money I give to the church, i.e., "my" church - the building and its mortgage, the paid staff, the parochial school assistance, the denomination and oh, yeah, somewhere less than 4% to actual outreach, mission and whatnot - should already be allocated to things like mission and the building. I shouldn't have to then add a special envelope in the plate just to "make sure" they're doing something for missionary work. When I am paid by my employer they don't put part of it into a special envelope marked "housing fund" and pin it to my sweater on my way home to make sure I pay my mortgage. They just expect me to take care of that. So why should I put extra money every month into a "building fund", whatever the fuck that means?
Barna studies consistently show Christians outgive non-Christians. Of course we do, we're conditioned to it. But those same studies show Christians come nowhere near tithing. Some of that is pure selfishness (it certainly is on my part). Some of it is giving to other charities, and not necessarily faith-based ones (gasp!). And some of it, I think, is from getting subtle and not-so-subtle hands-thrust-out messages from our church every four days. Sort of like the kids' school's "fun fair" with its "mandatory volunteers" (which is happening again this spring - grrr).
"Sorry. I gave at the office."
It's not fair, it's not accurate, and Bono himself shuffles around asking for cash for various causes now days, but I'll close with it, anyway:"Well the God I believe in isn't short of cash, mister!"
- U2, Bullet the Blue Sky
Peace.
10 comments:
I've never seen or heard of anything like this. I've encountered boxes that have ONE extra envelope designated towards the cost of the envelopes themselves. Suggested donation: $5.00
But it's your second paragraph that really rocks:
"I guess my real complaint is twofold. First, I consider money I give to the church, i.e., "my" church ... should already be allocated to things like mission and the building. I shouldn't have to then add a special envelope in the plate just to 'make sure' they're doing something for missionary work."
Okay, good point; but there's another side to this. If people designate TOO MUCH to these causes that are outside the budget, it can create a serious imbalance. It would be like allowing people to designate how much of their tax dollars are used for infrastructure, how much for education, how much for defense, etc. It also second-guesses the leadership, who have already estimated the proportion of annual giving should impact various departments of the church, community needs, and missions commitments.
Too many designated gifts and the lowly "general fund" also suffers.
On the other hand, my wife and I have always thought it would be interesting to make a large donation to a particular church that would be designated towards the purchase of a 500-gallon aquarium in the front lobby; as well as its maintenance. Fish have long been a symbol of the early church...
Paul,
1) I agree, church has to run, money has to go to that.
But...
2) Go stare long and hard at the pie chart, taken from our church budget for 2008, mentioned in the post here. You see anything wrong with it? I do. And part of it is my hypocrisy for why I continue to participate. But that's a subject for another post.
Thanks for the comment. As always, even when we don't agree, I find discussion with you here and on your blog interesting, educating and worthwhile.
Paul:
Oh, and I looked up the price of a box of envelopes from our denomination as part of researching this post - you're getting ripped off, because a box for the year only costs $1.50.
Yeah our church didn't support EFT but I did it anyway... my credit union just mails it on in and I talked to the financial guy and confirmed that he did indeed receive and process it... :)
Chris,
That's a good idea. I may have Les just set it up on auto bill pay with our online banking and be done.
And I don't want to sound totally curmudgeonly here. We've had missionaries and Gideons and others come and talk during a service and if I've had cash in my wallet (a rare occurrence, actually) then I will always try and give into the special offering basket. But that isn't what I am talking about, anyway. It is all these special, "planned" extra giving events the burn me. And looking through the denomination's catalog of special offering envelopes we don't even use the whole slew available (in fact, both of the envelope pictures were from that catalog and neither of them are used by our church - I used them as examples because I found both to be ludicrous).
This post frustrated me, and when I looked back at your chart of where the money goes, I was frustrated even more. I just don't get it I guess. Granted, I'm not the pastor of a large church with a really nice building, but I'm pretty sure the kingdom isn't built on carpeting and gold plated offering bowls. Then again, the temple in the old testament was quite elaborate. But
I feel like we are following an old testament model with this type of expectation, rather than Jesus' mandate of looking after widows and orphans. I'm not saying we shouldn't give to our local church... but when our local church isn't turning around and funneling a good amount of that money to people who are in need, I just can't see giving them more.
This year with the money being so tight I've seen countless ministries begging for money to keep afloat, and the ones I want to give to are the ones who are out in the trenches, offering hope (food, medicine) to a world that is hurting and starving, rather than the ministries that need to keep their nice building warm, and their sound system tweaked.
I guess I'm pretty cynical, huh?
Heidi,
Don't even get me started about sound systems! :o)
Back online after nearly 24 hours of internet withdrawl!
Ok., I checked out the pie chart. This is a different matter altogether Sorry, I had no idea. So I'm about to do a 180.
If this were my home church?
I'd stuff the "charity" and "radio outreach" envelopes full of cash and checks as well as the six "mission" envelopes, and I'd actually throw away the weekly envelopes.
Jim - I think you know it, but in case you didn't, I've stopped attending "church" altogether, at least the big Sunday morning kind. We meet at least weekly, often much more, with our small group, and that is where our expression of corporate prayer, worship, teaching, Communion, baptism, etc. occurs.
I have zero interest in attempting to promote this for anyone else. I have no idea if this is theologically sound. I read a lot of things by people who still insist on a traditional church model. I've got no bone to pick.
Anyway, all that's the yadda-yadda part to get to the real point here, the giving. I'd rather not mention any specifics, but by giving directly as we see needs in our friends and neighbors, and to specifically selected organizations that I know are doing the Lord's work, we've more than doubled the amount we're giving as a percentage of our income. I will acknowledge that it's a much higher amount than a "tithe", even based on total gross income.
And at times it even seems a little crazy, and I don't know where it comes from to be able to give away. I've had months where it seemed like it really did work like the "prosperity preachers" claim it does, where the more we give away, the more mysteriously comes in. (But please trust me when I say that I hate that whole line of theology, and am using it only to illustrate my point here).
We may end up poor and destitute within a few years, and I'm still feeling extremely selfish and inadequate overall, but I do think I'll be able to look back at some point and feel like I was making an honest effort to be a good steward with what the Lord has given me.
At this point, I could not in good conscience give like this to an organized brick and mortar church. If I'm completely wrong about this, I hope God will straighten me out.
Paul,
That's a good idea - I actually pulled the special envelopes out of the trash and may do just that!
CH,
I have some things to talk about but will probably pull them out-of-band and send you an email.
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