Pastor's Pen - November 2019

One of the curious things about Presbyterians and stewardship is that those who have the least tend to give the most. Percentage-wise more people with incomes of less than $25,000 tithe (give 10 percent) than those with a greater income. The same is true of the way they give their time and talents to the church.

Perhaps it is because they have learned one of the great theological and Biblical truths that Malachi taught the Hebrew people about the reward of the faithful: “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, ..see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing” (3:10).

This is not a gospel of prosperity, but an illustration of who received the greater benefit, the giver or the receiver. We discover the joy of giving when we discover that stewardship is everything we do from the moment we enter into a relationship with Jesus. The Russian writer Nicholas Berdyaev once said: “If I am hungry it is a material problem. If someone else is hungry it is a spiritual problem.” Those who exhibit exemplary stewardship have made this an intensively spiritual matter.

A poor church is not one without money, but one without a vision. When people have a clear biblical and theological understanding of the mission of the church, healthy stewardship practices emerge. The New Testament church leaders discovered that stewardship did not come naturally; it was a learned discipline. Paul wrote to his young colleague Timothy to teach the people in Ephesus that “there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it” (I Timothy 6:6-7). We might say it this way; we make a living by what we get, but we made a life by what we give away.

On average, Presbyterians give 1.5 percent of their annual income to the church – an average of about $580 annually, which results in a total amount of $1.5 billion. If every Presbyterian tithed, together we would give $9.5 billion.

Where there is a vibrant, exciting church, that congregation has made stewardship a spiritual matter. For those Presbyterians, stewardship has to do with how they live and their daily commitments to Jesus Christ as their Lord. I once heard a pastor say, “When you give only your money, you give very little; it is when you give of yourself that you truly give.” I believe people who enjoy tithing do so, not out of a legalist biblical interpretation, but out of gratitude to God for God’s grace given to us in Jesus Christ.

In conclusion, “Giving has always been a mark of Christian commitment and discipleship. The ways in which a believer uses God’s gifts of material goods, personal abilities, and time should reflect a faithful response to God’s self-giving in Jesus Christ and Christ’s call to minister to and share with others in the world. Tithing is a primary expression of the Christian discipline of stewardship.”

Pastor Joanne