Ministry and Money
At this past Sunday night's worship gathering we were joined by Troy Bronsink. We reflected on the parable of the great dinner and the cost of discipleship (Luke 14), in particular as it relates to ministry and money.
One issue that came up for me Sunday night was the language I used when I spoke about ministry and money. It seemed so "traditional". As many of you are aware, up until two years ago I had been working in traditional churches. I have heard (as I'm sure you have) my fair share of "stewardship" pitches. Compound that with the problems of corrupt TV evangelists, CEO Pastors living the good life, and the propensity of a theologically bankrupt prosperity gospel and what are you left with? For me, it's left me not wanting to talk about money and ministry.
NEW: IN RESPONSE TO POSTINGS WE HAVE ADDED A "MAKE A DONATION" BUTTON TO THIS SITE. All money that is donated is administered by the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta in coordination with the steering committee for The Living Room (we're legit - no funny stuff going on here!). Give with confidence!
posted by Tom at
11:00 AM
8 Comments:
It's a difficult subject every time we talk about it at Common Table - and we've been talking about it quite a bit over the past couple of years, as we saw our giving shrink to the point where our two part-time staff members both voluntarily took half a paycheck one month. At that point, we had some difficult money conversations, and tried to figure out (through anonymous polling) what kind of monthly income we could *probably* expect from members of our community.
Then we tried for the better part of a year (during which several families left our community) to get by month to month and pay our staff, rent, phone bill, and the giving we'd committed to some friends of ours (while pinching pennies and relying on individuals giving out-of-pocket for absolutely everything else, from worship supplies to musical talent to service project raw materials).
Eventually, we faced reality and very reluctantly worked out a plan for one of our two staff members to transition off of staff, and went deeply in debt to our remaining staff person during the transition period, since we just didn't have enough income to pay both salaries, and our transitioning staff person absolutely needed the paycheck during the transition to pay for her housing each month.
Finally, at the beginning of this year, an anonymous donor offered to match up to half of our $5000 debt to our remaining staff member, if we Commoners gave the other $25K toward debt elimination by the end of February. I'm happy to say we met that challenge, and we're now facing another conversation about money: we have a new freedom in our budget, and we're down to one woefully underpaid staff person (which is not me, BTW!) How are we being called to use our resources in this new situation?
So this is just by way of saying: we've had many difficult conversations about money, and I'm sure we'll have many more. I'm not sure there's another kind in a church context, even if you are in a "traditional" context where laying on the guilt trip about stewardship is just an expected annual-or-more event.
Not much help, I guess, except to say that it's bound to be difficult, it's unavoidable anyway, and maybe "how will we talk about money?" and "what do we discern to be our community values around money?" are important conversations to have as a community before too many specific, practical issues around the actual filthy stuff, and details of its inflow and outflow, occur.
I very much enjoyed the open discussion on the most prickly of topics.
Traditional churches tend to be “attractional” based, very much on the business model of marketing to a “customer” – discovering their needs and filling those needs. And having been in sales and marketing my entire 30 career (last 18 in business for myself), it was very natural for me to buy into this model. It is interesting, but significant, that the last three traditional churches I’ve been part of have all had divisive arguments over buildings, budgets, programs, and staffing trying to meet those self-serving “needs”. Often, less than 10% of the budget would actually be spent on outside missional activities. Things that we thought necessary for “building God’s Kingdom where actually building our OWN kingdom, and it ended up chaining us to our buildings. We had, in essence, shrunk the definition of God’s Kingdom to what would fit into our building and had abandoned the REAL work outside it!
As I started learning about emergent/missional churches, what intrigued me most (besides the theology) was the rethinking and jettisoning of many of the “albatrosses” of the institutional church. I see the value in rediscovering the simple ways of the early house church and its more effective way of reaching “the end-user of the gospel” (to quote Troy) – not US but those outside our framing stories. I’m thrilled to be part of a movement that places high value on the missional work OUTSIDE and de-emphasizing inward-focused activities. I’m so excited about how The Living Room is becoming an established PART of the neighborhood at an existing hangout (Troy’s workshop is another example of this interlacing).
As we start to reach out and build relationships with those in this neighborhood, I think we will discover a large number of postmodern un-churched and de-churched people. Because of this, I think we need to be sensitive in the language we use regarding money and how and why we will resource it. I like being forthright and open with costs and expenses and I like everyone being part of the process on what that entails. It is a little delicate to be a welcoming worship environment while at the same time being honest that there ARE costs involved. But what is making me smile is that this last Sunday night was the FIRST time I’ve been part of an open, loving discussion about money in a church! And as long as this conversation is on-going, much like it is in many families, we will be fine. Maybe we could even post the budget on the web page, and have Pay-Pal online contributions!
I was just thinking that Jeff. With some elbow grease we could set up PayPal donations on this webpage.
So sorry we keep missing the jam session. I'm really hard at work on some film projects that seem to eat my Sunday Nights whole.
Happy to hear TLR is thriving!
The conversation we had on Sunday night brought up two of my enduring problems as a citizen and person of faith. The first is the realization that no matter our personal stances on capitalism and the rejection of it we are forced to engage with it. When I came home I wrote in my journal about several things that I have had to come to terms with. On the topic of money I wrote: "Capitalism has happened to me. I have participated in it." Though Jesus preached about honoring and serving the poor and disenfranchised the reality is that we must also contend with what the gospel means in light of the world in which we live. We live in a world that requires money. As much as I hate it I cannot even begin to help and serve others, including myself, without the exchange of money. To put it succinctly, nothing is free.
This reality, in my opinion, complicates our relationship with church, God, and giving. The second question that I feel we must deal with in the face of this reality is how sustainable it is for churches to continue to operate as businesses with employees and budgets. From an idealistic point of view, if we are in fact to reject the acquisition of money and material possessions as part of a walk with Christ then naturally ministry is not a job but a vocation. Reality, the onset of a new world structure, tells us otherwise.
This conundrum is not easy to understand. Perhaps our discomfort can lead us to some truly radical re-imagining of how we should approach this idea of managing the antithetical relationship between church and capitalism. We are, no matter our ideals, a part of it.
Dispatch 20: Emergents believe that church should be just as beautiful and messy as life.
(from Tony Jones' new book)
I've been thinking of money in the greater context of life a lot lately. Money's a funny thing...
I just graduated from college last summer, so I'm financially self-dependant for the first time in my life, really.
I have this friend with a wife and a couple kids and a VERY well-paying job. He hates this job, and has for years. He wants to be a full-time minister.....and, again, has for years. But he hasn't made any progress towards that goal, and I think the reason for that is that he has this mind-set that the best thing he can do for his children is make oodles of money...
I love this guy, and we've known each other for about 10 years now, but I've always thought of him as "the guy I didn't wanna grow up to be like" because he seems so trapped by his concepts of wealth = happiness...
Conversely, my mom is just plain bad with money. Always has been. I never knew a time of financial security growing up......but I was still always HAPPY growing up, and God always provided for us, often in ridiculously improbable ways and despite my mom's poor planning.
.....more happy than I have been lately, as I've been constantly stressing about money. And it's not because I don't make enough of it. Or that I hate what I do (I'm a musician). It just seems that when money becomes the FOCUS of what I do that it taints everything else.......including (if not especially) my music.
Great responses!! I wanted to share a couple things: First, by next week we will have a PayPal button to make donations. All donations will go to the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta to our account - thus all donations will be tax-deductible and properly managed.
Second, it is my hope and expectation that the conversation we began last Sunday night will continue. It has struck a nerve within our community - we all need a space to talk about how we relate to money. Your ideas are more then welcomed.
Last, I was personally very touched to have Mike Crogan post a response to this blog entry. The issue of ministry and money is something that is at the heart of so many conversations among emergent-minded communities. Friends, we are part of a larger conversation going on in the church today and we have a lot to offer - through our creativity, resistance and faithfulness!
Update:
Haddon and I just added the "Make a Donation" button to this site. This is a PayPal account and ALL charitable donations go directly to the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta - which administers the funds on behalf of The Living Room (i.e. we're legit!).
Make a donation today!
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