by Sean Mitchell
For years, I have been involved in a specific conversation on multiple occasions with multiple groups. The conversation unfolds very similarly to the following description:
Perspective/Person 1: “I have been a member of this church community for many years. Members simply don’t give dutifully like they used to. They’re not being educated enough that we have a budget — a budget enabling all of the ministries we lead and support. And, we are failing to communicate that if you are a member of this church, you are expected to give! We need to establish giving and pledging as an expectation for our membership!”
Perspective/Person 2: “I see what you are saying, however people today don’t give out of duty. They like to give to what moves their heart and mind, not to something in which they are instructed to give. They prefer to give from a place of freedom and joy, not compulsiveness.”
Perspective/Person 1: “But doesn’t Jesus call us all to follow him and give in response to his grace? Aren’t we all expected to give, to dutifully do our part as a response? Why should we be timid regarding higher giving expectations for members of our community of faith?”
Perspective/Person 2: “Yes, we are all invited to give. However, we are a welcoming congregation. We don’t want to run people out the door with a ‘Do your part’ message. We want them to experience the freedom that Jesus came to give us and give from a place of freedom. We want people to be welcomed into community. We should hope that, as a result of being a part of this community, they experience Jesus and respond to his call — not to our personal expectations of them.”
I have a great appreciation for both of these perspectives. In my mind, they are both right and need to coexist. The church community is to be an inviting and grace-giving people, and as we carry out those practices, we are to boldly encourage one another to live out the spiritual disciplines (like giving) that help our communities flourish. We have some work to do to improve in both of these areas, but both come when the kingdom comes. We have the responsibility, the call, the command (whatever you/I/we want to name it), to allow it and live within this coexistence.
What does this have to do with stewardship ministry and stewardship committee work? Everything. If being a more welcoming and spiritual disciplines-based community is the vision and mission, this needs to connect with the work of the stewardship ministry. Stewardship committees are encouraged to have the following as their focus statement: We are commissioned to invite others to share their financial resources to help the kingdom flourish in and beyond our walls.
I would then suggest committees take the two words, invite and share, and determine ways for fall stewardship campaigns and other stewardship ministries to become more linked in mission to the church’s greater focus of “inviting” others to come and see/experience and spur members of the community on to good deeds.
How can stewardship committees invite those on the committee to give and to see what God will do through personal giving? How can committees and all church leaders tell the running story of how money becomes ministry? No easy task.
But maybe this is where the refocused work of financial stewardship ministry needs to begin. Give yourself and the committee permission to start over from scratch. Begin with the mission we have been given. Go and invite. Go and encourage participation. Eliminate words and tactics that don’t accomplish the mission and dream of new methods that do.
SEAN MITCHELL directs the stewardship offices at Myers Park Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina and also provides speaking and consulting services at generositydevelopment.com.
