Stewardship is a subject everyone in the church seems to think is extremely important, but in most churches it is the one aspect of ministry we do the poorest. All too frequently ministers blame the seminaries for failing to teach them how to develop a good stewardship program. Everyone tends to blame someone else–the seminaries, one of the governing bodies of the church, the ministers, members of the church–for being stingy.
Where does the blame belong?
If forty-one years in the ministry have taught me anything about stewardship it is this: people need to be taught the why, the how and the when of a healthy stewardship program.
The why: Everything a person does, once they confess that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior, is stewardship. It involves what we believe about our possessions and what we do with them, and what we believe about life and how we live.
The how: People give in different ways and in different amounts. People give not according to their ability, but according to their understanding of the needs. When a person discovers gratitude as a motive for giving, then heart and mind work together to develop good stewardship habits. Just as we learn how to pray by praying, so we learn how to give by giving.
The when: All too frequently churches have been taught and they believe that stewardship is something done for a few days each November to meet the budget needs of the church and then forgotten until November the next year.
But what if churches could learn that stewardship is what a person does every single day of life? What if ministers and church leaders would move from timidity to infectious courage? What if people could be taught what a grateful person does with their money so that they could experience the deep and profound joy of giving? What if, honestly and forthrightly, we helped people to discover the biblical truth that Paul taught his young colleague, Timothy: We brought nothing into the world, so we can take nothing out of it (I Timothy 5:7.)
What if we could get people in the pews of the churches to see that truth–we cannot take anything material out of this world, but we do take the record of how we have lived our life and what we have done with what God has permitted us to have and use as long as we live?
Contrary to what so many ministers believe, it is not true that church members resent being asked to give. The truth is people do want to give and they want to be asked to give, but they want the asker to be able to present the mission and ministry needs of the church clearly and with conviction.
From my observation over the years churches that have developed good giving habits have pastors who have a healthy understanding of being a pastor to all of a person’s life. If one can be a pastor to a person’s sins, then why not to a person’s stewardship development?
Today’s opportunities
Never before in all the history of the world has there been a generation of so many wealthy people. In 2004 charitable giving in the United States totaled $248 billion. Religious groups received $88 billion of that amount. Educational organizations were second with $33 billion. Sixty-five percent of all adults in America made a contribution to a church or a place of worship. People are willing to give.
Nelson Mandela, reflecting on life said: “We were born to manifest the glory of God within us, it is not just in some of us: it is in every one.” He also said: “It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us.” For most of us it is not what we do not know, but what we do know but fail to act upon that creates our biggest problems.
From the beginning of the human family, God has always chosen to do what God wants done through people, one human being telling another about the love and compassion God has for every single person on earth.
When we deal honestly with the record of the way we have lived and what we have done with what God has permitted us to have and use during our life time, then what we are talking about is the legacy we leave on earth, the record we give back to God.
Let me quote Mandela once more: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”
Just imagine if we took Jesus seriously and lived it out in life: Those to whom much has been given of them will much be required.
Money is either a gift or a burden, depending upon what we do with it. I have witnessed people who saw money as a gift and used it wisely, and I saw people for whom money was a burden. The gift people learned how to give money away, and the burden people foolishly tried to hoard it.
So what are the churches’ missed opportunities? There are many, but here are two very distinct opportunities. During the last twenty or so years of my service as a pastor I began to speak specifically and frequently to people about leaving a gift to the church at least large enough to endow their annual pledge. Many will do even more.
It seemed strange to me that a person would make a pledge for decades because the church was so important to them, but never gave any thought to endowing their pledge after their death. If a person made an annual pledge of $1,000, it could be endowed with a gift of $20,000 that at 7% interest would yield $1,400. Therefore, $1,000 could go to the church for the pledge and $400 would be available to increase the size of their endowment for their annual pledge. This additional amount would cover inflation in future years.
This endowed pledge could be funded in a variety of ways. It could be given as a part of a person’s estate through a will. It could be funded with a Charitable Gift Annuity with the income going to the person until death occurs. It could be funded with a life insurance policy or with the cash value of an existing life insurance policy. It could be funded from accumulated assets with a specific gift during a person’s life.
Every one of us will leave some kind of legacy. What will it reveal about our commitment to Jesus Christ?
Making a difference
The second stewardship opportunity may be the most exciting of all. This one the editor of the Outlook invited me to share with its readers.
For several years a group of very dedicated leaders in Village Church in Prairie Village, Kansas, where I was one of the pastors, worked diligently to create a charitable life insurance program. The church officers, after months of hearing about the program as it unfolded, voted to implement it by inviting church members between the ages of 25 and 69 to complete a one-page life insurance application.
In two weeks we had more than enough applications and 910 lives were insured with each policy having a face value of $125,000. The actuaries have estimated that in about fifty years the church will receive more than $55 million. Assuming that these funds will be placed in an endowment at five to six percent earnings, the fund will grow to more than $200 million in those fifty years. The church has designated that seventy five percent of the earnings will go to mission to others out side of Village Church.
Currently this program is being used in other churches and educational institutions. The insurance companies that provide this program all have the best of ratings in the business world. The companies are now suggesting that the program be used for people between ages 40 and 75. The policies are owned by the church and the church is the sole beneficiary of all of the proceeds from the program.
What this program offers to church members is the opportunity to leave a large gift to their church that they otherwise might not be able or willing to do. Individuals who lend their life for the insurance program do not pay any of the cost of the premiums. The premiums are funded through a variety of options such as investment of current endowment income; financing through a bank loan for some or all of the premiums; gifts from one or more individuals; an interest free loan from a third party; or a combination of the above.
Imagine what could happen to the mission and ministry of the church if we had those kinds of monetary funds available to go into all the world to meet the human and spiritual needs of people in the name of Jesus Christ!
Robert W. Bohl is past moderator of the PC(USA) General Assembly and now lives in Naples, Fla.
