Getting Traineeships Going
By Pete Hughes
It’s June; we’re surrounded by voices telling us how to use our money. Our tax returns are looming and every shopfront has a ‘EOFY sale’. Yet we often find it uncomfortable to talk about money in our churches. Avoiding it means that we’re more likely to be discipled by the world than by the Word when it comes to our finances. Reach Australia’s end of year financial appeal is pushing into thinking biblically and practically about why and how we need to talk about gospel generosity more than ever. We recently chatted with Des Smith about his upcoming book and the thinking behind it to help shape the way you disciple your church in biblical generosity.
Des Smith, the senior pastor and planter of Trinity Church Lockleys, Adelaide, has a book coming out in August with Matthias Media, The Cheerful Giver.
I was raised in Tasmania by a Christian mum and a non-Christian dad, both of whom are very generous people. When I was about seven, I remember being in a supermarket with my mum, and there were some things that we needed which were on special. Mum took only two of them and I asked, “Why don’t we take all of them?” Her reply was, “We need to leave some for the poor people”. She was saying, in a way that a seven year old would understand, that other people exist, not everyone’s in the same position as us, and that we should give to them.
Like with all things, the really formative times are when you’re a kid – those are the years when people’s characters are formed. Teaching people about the importance of generosity and also the joy of generosity starts with kids. It’s important to start habits early, so that by the time they move out of home, they are in good habits of giving to their local church and to charities, because they care about others.
We’ve tried to encourage this in the way we do pocket money. In our house, pocket money starts at six years of age with $3 a week that goes into three jars: $1 to spend, $1 to save, and $1 to give. By the end of the year, they each have $50 to give away. We get together around the table with some options and ask them what they would like to give to, it’s fun!
I’m conscious that when Jesus talks about alternative ‘gods’ we can worship, money is the number one competitor. It’s not sex, it’s not family; it’s money. You can either serve God or money – I see that tussle in my own heart, and I know that tussle lives in other people’s hearts. Christians are constantly being discipled by the world 24/7 to use their money for themselves and the people that they love, which are really just extensions of themselves.
So we need a bit of pushback to remind people of the big picture of money, why God gives it to us, and why it’s good to give to people. There wasn’t a short book that a member of my church would read that I knew of; there are some good long books out there, but lots of people might not read them. So I wrote something that I hoped people could read in an hour, and find helpful.
The big passage about giving in the New Testament is 2 Corinthians 8-9. Paul is fundraising for church planting. He doesn’t use guilt, but consistently points people back to Jesus as the chief example of generosity, and also uses the example of other people’s generosity. He asks the Corinthians to look at the Macedonian churches, who are dirt poor, and at what they gave. He’s clever about it, but not manipulative. If you only had two chapters to read about gospel generosity, that’s where I’d go.
Another one is 1 Chronicles 29. It’s David’s big fundraising drive for the temple; his ‘capital campaign.’ David models generosity as he calls the Israelites to be generous. Then he says to God: ‘We’re so grateful for what you’ve given us. We don’t want to pretend that we’re giving you things you don’t already own – all of this is yours. How can we give anything to the owner of the universe?’ There’s something really humbling about that.
Like everything, it’s a discipleship issue. There’s no neutral space in the world, and that’s particularly true of money – there is so much pressure to spend money for selfish reasons. It’s important to be discipled as the pastor and the church not just to do the right thing grudgingly, but to allow God to change hearts into ones that love giving – to be cheerful givers.
Secondly, practically, there is so much ministry that doesn’t happen simply because people don’t give. Pastors haven’t been able to motivate their people by giving them a big vision that they could be investing in eternity rather than in worldly things. Those can be good things, but they’re very impermanent things. How do we lift people’s view to eternity and excite them to be investing in that and expanding ministry that we’re not currently doing?
As Christians, the precursor to giving is always what God has already done for us. All of creation is a gift; I didn’t do anything to earn it. Everything I have has been given to me; so that should drive me to want to give too.
People are constantly being asked for their money by people, so they can feel badgered. We’re worried that in church, they’ll paint us with the same brush. And unfortunately, there are some churches out there that are unscrupulous.We need to be honest when dealing with money.
Another reason is that lots of Christians have an artificial divide between what they see as their private and public relationship with God. They feel that there are certain things other Christians are allowed to talk to them about , and certain things they can’t. For many, money is very much in the private space. But we should be able to have trustworthy people who help to hold us accountable.
On the one hand, it’s a really good rule of thumb, to keep us from being tempted to ‘brag’ about how generous we are.
But on the other hand, Jesus’ words are clearly not an absolute prohibition on letting anyone know how much you give. In the same passage, he tells us to pray in secret, but no one thinks this means no one should ever pray publicly. We should only pray in secret if doing it in public will tempt us towards pride. It’s the same with giving: though generally we’ll do it in secret – and should always, if letting people know how much we give will puff us up with pride – there’s no absolute bar on letting people know. It’s a wisdom issue.
In fact, in some cases, there are actively good reasons to let people know how much you give. For example, King David in 1 Chronicles 29 tells the Israelites how much he’s giving toward the temple’s construction, so they know that he’s not asking them to do anything he’s not willing to do himself. It’s not hypocrisy: doing it to make himself look good. Rather, it’s the opposite: it’s to show he’s really genuine in what he’s saying, and willing to get ‘skin in the game’ in this building project, too.
I should say here, though I’ve written a book about it, I haven’t always done this well.
But being open and explaining why you’re being open about money can defuse a few bombs. You want to be really clear why you’re talking about money: it’s a discipleship issue, and you want to frame it in those terms. It’s not just about practicalities. We also want to tie it to vision, and most of all what God has done for us. Once we’ve laid that framework, we then talk relatively frankly about giving, because people then understand why we’re doing it.
We don’t pass around a plate at church. We ask people to give electronically.
To encourage people to give, every month we make two announcements: a general reminder for members once a fortnight, and a more detailed vision and finance update the next fortnight.
In the vision and finance update, we spend five minutes talking about a part of our vision – an update about something good that’s been happening at church, or something good coming up – and then talk about how people’s giving makes that possible. We show a graph of how our giving is going and then ask people to keep giving, or to start giving if they’re not already giving. We finish by letting people know that, if they need financial help in urgent situations – an urgent bill needing paying, for example – we might be able to help with that, so please come and talk to us. We think this is a good thing to do full-stop, but it also communicates that we’re not just here to ask for money, but also – in urgent cases – to give it, so the body of Christ can help each other.
Here are three things:
The joy individual Christians could feel. I know we don’t give primarily to make ourselves feel good, but Jesus does say, “God loves a cheerful giver,” and, “It’s better to give than to receive.” I want people to know the joy of giving.
The second thing that excites me is imagining the kind of gospel communities we could be if we genuinely shared our resources with each other in churches, especially with those in in need! Wouldn’t it be great if our churches were places where needy people could get help in urgent cases, and it not be a big deal.
Thirdly, I love the idea of our churches being known in our wider communities as places full of generous people, who want to help their neighbourhoods. I would love our church to be known in our suburb as a place of generous people; people who give their time, skill, and finances. I’d love it if someone in need could come to my church and be helped, even though we didn’t know them from a bar of soap, and that point them to Jesus.
Please join us in praying that this June God would be at work across Australian churches to bring a renewed joy in gospel generosity. Pray with us that Christian organisations and churches around the country will have partners in their ministry that give generously to enable them to keep doing their ministry and sharing the gospel.
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