CHRISTMAS

 

            It’s that time of year when we’re concentrating on the celebration of the birth of Jesus! Sometimes churches don’t receive an offering on Christmas Eve. I’ve heard one explanation that it’s not appropriate to ask guests to give to the church on Christmas Eve.

            I don’t agree. If you’ve read some of my blogs, you know that I’ve said offer to the church and generosity should have very little to do with the need of the church to receive and pay its bills but have everything to do with the need of people to give. Giving is a spiritual discipline.

            If we deprive folks from giving because they’re guests, what does that say about how we care for them. Celebrating Christmas isn’t about the Christmas Cantata, or the Children’s Christmas Pageant (although both of those things are wonderful!) What it should be about is worshiping God and celebrating Emmanuel – God With Us. And the greatest gift is Jesus, generosity is part of worshiping God.

            Let’s celebrate the birth of Jesus and what it means for us as disciples. What does it mean for us as we celebrate?

           

Please feel free to contact me at (315) 427-3668 or susanranous@unyumc.org if you’d like to talk about mission and money in your local church. I have some great ideas to help you understand where you are and where you’re going, and how to help your folks discuss and embrace generosity!

 

 

                                             ANNUAL CAMPAIGNS 

 

            I’ve talked about three important factors for donors, two important ideas about money, and the need to talk about money throughout the year.

            In reading an article the other day, it contained a perspective, written by Rev. Dr. Susan Buckson, which talked about how important it was to talk for her to about money in the church she served at least once each month, and citing studies that “rank money among the top five struggles facing individuals, couples, and families.”[1]

            I want to repeat something I’ve said before, and that’s “no church has money problems; problems with money are simply a symptom of a true problem.” When I’ve made that statement before, I often have gotten push back, because of course, churches have money problems. Some churches can’t make payroll, or can’t have full-time staff, or aren’t able to pay ministry shares in full, etc. etc.

            I think something “positive” that came out of COVID, was that problems that churches had, but had been able to ignore, suddenly came to the forefront and were no longer able to be ignored. Money, in these situations, often functioned as a giant neon finger that pointed to an issue or issues at the church. Thing is, those issues had been there awhile, but had either been ignored, or just didn’t have importance placed upon them.

            Now, fewer people coming to church, decreased giving, increased technology costs, increased utilities and other expenses! It all comes together in a vicious circle, and a church starts crying about financial problems.

            Thing is, we generally find it more comfortably to ask for money once a year, calling it a stewardship campaign, and we don’t talk about the spiritual side of generosity.

            So, again, I’m repeating: let’s talk about generosity, not money! Generosity is part of being a disciple, and if we ignore it, so our folks ignore it, then our disciples aren’t maturing in their discipleship! Our discipleship pathways aren’t going to be effective, and we’ll suffer “money problems” and people don’t have good relationships with their own money, because who’s going to talk to them about it?

            It should be us!

           

Please feel free to contact me at (315) 427-3668 or susanranous@unyumc.org if you’d like to talk about mission and money in your local church. I have some great ideas to help you understand where you are and were you’re going, and how to help your folks discuss and embrace generosity!

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[1] https://lakeinstitute.org/resource-library/august-issue1-2022/

 

                                            ANNUAL CAMPAIGNS #3

 

            I’ve talked about three important factors for donors, two important ideas about money, and talking about money throughout the year.

            It seems really difficult to talk about money, doesn’t it? Especially because church leaders asking for money seems closely related to the church leader’s income!

            While we are, of course, asking folks to pay the costs of the ministry and mission of the church, which often includes cost of staff and building, etc., making a fund-raising speech needs to be very different from preaching about generosity.  A fund-raising speech is aimed to boost contributions by convincing people to give money for a purpose, and while that sounds like what we do in church, it actually has to go much deeper than that.

            Preaching about generosity is “relating to others about God’s presence, purpose, and power in one’s life and in the life of the all of humanity!”[1] Giving shouldn’t be a response to whether someone likes the pastor or not, or whether the sermon is a “good one”, but needs to a liturgical response to God, not an up or down vote for the leader.

            The invitation is focused on the donor’s own generosity and the impact of what the contribution does. Giving and generosity is a spiritual practice, just like prayer and Scripture reading and worship.

            I’ve said it before; I’m going to say it again; and I’m sure I’ll say it again multiple times, but giving and generosity HAS to be focused on the need of the givers to give, not on the need of the church to receive!

            So, I’m going to repeat what I said last week: let’s talk about generosity, not money! Generosity is part of being a disciple, and if we ignore it, so our folks ignore it, then our disciples aren’t maturing in their discipleship!

            Giving and generosity is intertwined into our mission and who we are as Christians!

            Next week, I’ll share some additional thoughts on this same topic.

Please feel free to contact me at (315) 427-3668 or susanranous@unyumc.org if you’d like to talk about mission and money in your local church. I have some great ideas to help you understand where you are and where you’re going, and how to help your folks discuss and embrace generosity!

 

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[1] Rev. Dr. Teresa Fry Brown, Bandy Professor of Preaching at Emory University.