By Charlie Parker,
Firstly, let me cut to the chase. The Bear needs more money than we currently have coming in and I want to address that here. I need to ask everybody in the congregation to look again at their giving. It is a new situation that has emerged in the past months and we need to talk about it.
We don’t ask for more money very often, so I hope you know that we do not do so lightly.
As you know I chair the trustees at the Bear and am ultimately responsible for ensuring that we are able to pay our bills and look after our staff properly. I know you are all busy but if you can spare five minutes to hear my thoughts I would really appreciate it. If you haven’t got time for that then skip to the end for the details of the Bear’s money situation…but please try not to. When we consider money we go to the Bible, then the accountant.
GOD DIDN’T MARRY YOU FOR YOUR MONEY
There is a company I know well which when it launched received an investment of several million pounds from a billionaire entrepreneur. The entrepreneur is pretty ruthless in driving the business forward, demanding more from people, asking it to do better.
You could be forgiven for thinking he was somebody obsessed with wealth and full of greed. Yet ten years into this company’s life, after he has had back many times over his investment, I discovered that in fact he has given every single penny he has earned to charity.
Why is this impressive? Arguably he has lots of money so what does it matter to him if he gives it away? Surely his offering is much less valid than the widow who gives her penny, to quote Christ’s parable.
Well no actually. In truth both offerings are valid. Yes the widow deserves special respect for the fact that she has given in a deeply sacrificial way but both the widow and the billionaire have understood one central reality of Christian life.
Charles Spurgeon put it like this: ‘Economy is half the battle of life, it is not so hard to earn money as to spend it well’
If we put Spurgeon’s quotes in the context of the recent scripture that Iain spoke about: ‘For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.’
Getting to the right place about money is a spiritual battle. But it is also a side-show. If we spend our whole lives worrying about money then how on earth are we going to get on with the real fight for the kingdom of God? If we spend our lives fighting ourselves then we have no energy left to fight for God.
I know what you’re thinking. It feels pretty tough to earn money half the time. Yet the reality is that Christian life is much more about using what we have effectively, rather than simply trying to get more. We are not called to be successful (although we celebrate it when it comes) Much more we are called to be faithful. God has chosen you as his bride. He certainly did not choose you for your money, he has plenty of that already.
There is an old Yiddish joke. Izzy Shultz says to Yahwah: ‘Yahwah is it true to you that a thousand years is just a second,’ ‘yes Izzy’, says God, ‘it is true.’ ‘Then Yahwah, is it true that for you a million pounds is just a penny’ ‘yes Izzy it is true’. ‘Yahwah, lend us a penny’. God replies ‘Of course Izzy, it will only take a second’
At the Bear we all have a responsibility to ask ourselves whether we are spending our money well. Whether we make choices about our money out of fear or out of faith? Whether we spend out of habit or out of necessity?
It is hard to underestimate quite how crucial this is to our church life. I know there are many of us who struggle with money.
For me if I’m honest the struggle is not so much whether I physically have enough to get by, it’s much more about whether I will live my life with a sense of control and happiness with what I have got now, or whether I will constantly try to find more in the belief that I do not have enough yet.
I do not want that life. Economists have analysed the reality that almost everyone the world over believes that they need about 20% more money than they have now. Do the sum in your head now and you will probably come up with about that amount. This is true of the very rich and the very poor. What does that 20% represent? Basically it represents the amount that we think we would need so that we didn’t need to think about or worry about money. If we had 20% of purely discretionary spending we muse, then we could just relax and not worry about money.
But the bible teaches a radically different approach. It teaches that we should stop worrying about money NOW and start giving God authority over our wealth.
Does that sound a little too close to the bone? Maybe I don’t understand your financial problems and you are different?
Well maybe I don’t. But I do understand that if we can’t hand God our fears about money then we will never truly submit our life to him.
Martin Luther said: ‘There are three conversions necessary; the conversion of the heart, mind and the purse.’
I would like us to answer these questions, which I have been asking of myself in recent weeks.
1) How have I decided the percentage I give to The Bear of my income?
We are not pushing for everyone to tithe here at the Bear (that is to say give 10%) there is indeed a valid debate about whether the Bible really instructs us to do that in the new testament. Certainly it doesn’t explicitly, yet many give testimonies about how tithing has had a wonderful affect of many different aspects of their lives.
But we do believe that we are called to give our first and best to God. Have you decided how much you give out of a fear of not having enough yourself? Or out of a desire to give an appropriate sacrificial amount to God?
Oswald Chambers wrote: ‘Worship is giving God the best that He has given you. Be careful what you do with the best you have. Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to Him as a love gift. Take time to meditate before God and offer the blessing back to Him in a deliberate act of worship. If you hoard a thing for yourself, it will turn into spiritual dry rot, as the manna did when it was hoarded. God will never let you hold a spiritual thing for yourself; it has to be given back to Him that He may make it a blessing to others.’
He refers of course to this Bible verse at Proverbs 3:9 ‘Honour the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops.’
2) If you don’t give because of debt then have you got your approach right across your finances?
There are some who argue that we should not give if we have any debt. For the record I have my fair share. I understand this position. Clearly if you are currently in breach of a contract you have made with a creditor then it is your first priority to put that right. For example if you have exceeded your overdraft limit, become late paying your mortgage or are in arrears on a credit card.
However, debt is broadly a function of life in the Western world. Unless we are going to reject home ownership for Christians then we will probably have to live with it. If you are managing your debts effectively then you should consider giving again. Overwhelmingly, it has to be said that the testimonies we hear from Christians who have resolved debts include them saying that they found that when they got on top of their giving they also got on top of their spending and their debts. So often the problem is actually not income, but spending.
3) Your conscience is your guide.
The Apostle Paul advises us to use our Spirit-filled conscience as a guide for how much we should be giving. If you feel pangs of guilt when you think about how much you give, then you probably have a problem. It could be the Spirit reminding you that you have responsibilities to those Christians around you. But remember, the Bible does not teach us that our conscience is the arbiter of what is right and wrong. Rather our conscience is the mechanism that our brain uses to apply the standard or right and wrong that we have learned. If our attitudes about money come from places other than scripture then we will not be given an accurate gauge by our conscience. That is perhaps one reason why Jesus spoke so much about money.
Let’s be clear. God doesn’t need our money. He is not trying to secure his own financial status by asking us to give. He is trying to win our hearts.
Richard Halverson puts it like this: ‘Jesus Christ said more about money than about any other single thing because, when it comes to a man's real nature, money is of first importance. Money is an exact index to a man's true character. All through Scripture there is an intimate correlation between the development of a man's character and how he handles his money.’
When God asks for your money, what he really wants is you.
THE BEAR’S SITUATION
There are many people in the Bear who give generously but we need to recognise two current facts. One our giving has for a variety of unconnected reasons gone down in recent months. We are now about £1,000 a month below the budget. I absolutely do not want to have to make sacrifices on the staff we employ or the standards we set in the service we deliver to our community. That means we need more money. We are not wasting any that I can see and our other trustee Roberto and I went through the budget at the start of the year with a fine tooth comb to be sure of this. You are very welcome to see the budget yourself on request.
Secondly, at the moment a minority of people at The Bear are carrying out a majority of the giving. We want this situation to become a bit more balanced.
Why do we need this money you ask? Well we have lots of things we would like to do. As you know the evening service is in need of more support and it would be wonderful if one day we could have a pastor for that. Think of all the hope that would bring to people’s lives. We have a wonderful and growing group of youth and there is nothing that we take more seriously than how we are going to nurture them properly. It would be great to employ a youthworker for them.
The truth is though that in order to take a step up in terms of growth we need a step up in giving. So can I ask everyone to prayerfully consider their giving?
If you have any questions about how to give, how to ensure you give with the full use of gift-aid, or would like a more detailed breakdown of where the money goes then do get in touch with me.