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July 20, 2009
Guest Post: Accountability and giving
In days past, almost every Sunday morning worship service across our Southern Baptist Convention began as follows. The Sunday School Director would stand and give the Sunday School report saying, "Our Sunday School enrollment today is 86. We had an attendance today of 43. We had 25 people who studied the lesson, 15 contacts were made, and we had 1 visitor. Our Sunday School offering today was $105.64." Since those early days of reporting most churches have dropped that report. The two reporting boards that decorated each side of the sanctuary have been removed. They were two visible boards that reminded us of our accountability to God and each other.
Please do not think that I am praying we go back to that record of reporting or that I think the boards should once again be hung in the sanctuary. I understand that if we do all of the points of any record system, it may not make us a better Christian and that you can do all of them and still not even be a Christian. I do know that doing them cannot hurt us. I believe that a Christian should do all of those things and that we should be held accountable for them by the local church.
Could some of the problems we face today in the local church dealing with discipline and discipleship be traced back to a time when we stopped calling for accountability? Since I work in the area of stewardship, I want to talk about one aspect of discipleship, and that would be stewardship. I would like to be a little more specific in stewardship and ask you to think of the area of giving. There is no doubt we are in strange waters with money in the church. I see a time that I have never seen before in America. There have been times when local giving was down in churches that I have served, but lack of giving today is not a local, state, or national issue; it is a global problem.
Giving is the white elephant in the room that most pastors do not want to talk about. You should be aware that your church members are talking about it every Sunday. Many forget that when you have no money, you have no ministry. Some pastors believe that dealing with giving, and especially the tithe, is not what God called them to do.
Pastors should think of themselves as a CEO. All CEOs are concerned with for the revenue needed to operate the business. Pastor, you are responsible, and your congregation will hold you accountable. When funds shrink, you may be out of there faster than a lightning strike. So let's talk about the stewardship of giving, accountability, and the tithe.
There is no doubt that over the years the tithe took on the idea of being a tax. In our Mother country stories were told of clergy who would knock on your door and if need be, knock on your head until you paid the tithe. I often hear people today say, "Are you prayed up and paid up?" I remember the day my father said he was going to name my dog Tax. When I asked why he said, "'Cause when I open the door, it's in come tax."
We had a revolution in this country over taxes from England, and I wonder if the tax attitude slowly drifted into the church. I believe when we discarded the Sunday School point record system on our envelopes, we lost accountability. Almost all of us today measure everything from our behavior to our bank account, and we count calories and cholesterol.
I remember one man in our country church was called into accountability for dancing on his front porch. When the deacons investigated, they discovered a lizard had run up his pants leg, and he was not dancing but jumping up and down.
We live in a time of multiple choices in everything from the color of our automobiles to the 360 channels on cable television. I believe many carry that over into giving. Many do not feel the church is the first choice for giving, and some believe they have the right to designate the tithe not only in the church but outside the church. There are thousands of ministries crying for us to support outside of our local church.
It is true that many leaders have not asked the congregations for their input into the ministry budget. Many have failed to share results of member giving. We have not celebrated ministry. Many, if not all, are not pleased with how their money has been used, thus find other ministries to support.
There are some today who believe they have the right to give where they feel it does the most good. When we lost accountability, it affected our giving. We need a better accountability of our leaders to the congregation and a way to hold the congregation accountable for their giving.
In bad economies we can hope things get better, but remember, hope is not a strategy. We need to develop a conversation about giving with church members and staff. The Pareto Principle is active today, which is 80/20. Simply put that means 20% of our membership financially support the ministry and mission of the church. We have a need to remind the 80% of their accountability in giving rather than programs that ask the 20% to give more. In an age when we hold ourselves accountable for everything from losing weight to losing hair, we have to find a way to reach all of our members to support the work of the church first. We track our heart rate, take inventory at the end of the year, and monitor growth of weeds in our yard as well as cracks in our driveway. We hold politicians, teachers, and coaches accountable, but not our church members in the area of giving.
Accountability is important in families, schools, businesses, sports, and all walks of life. So what about the church? When are we accountable for Bible reading, witnessing, praying, giving, or anything else for that matter? I do not have all the answers, but I know we need to start this conversation on accountability, or we will be like the man who lived on a mountain of blessings. He threw dirt at all who tried to climb his mountain. After years of throwing, one day he found he was at the bottom of the mountain and the valley people were living on the mountain he threw away.
Jerry Mixon is the Director of Stewardship and Cooperative Program Development for the Mississippi Baptist Convention. He's managed to balance being a pastor, husband, father, and stewardship consultant with his love and passion for writing books and the occassional country music song. You may contact him directly via e-mail or by calling 601.292.3347.
Posted by bstroup at July 20, 2009 3:31 AM
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