When I start talking about money, I have to admit I have questions I’d like to ask when we get beyond the valley of tears and into the promised land. By the time we get there, we’ll probably have such clarity that the questions will no longer exist, but one I’d like to ask is this: “Lord, why do you tie money and ministry together?”
I’ve watched many Christian workers try to separate them by saying, “I’m interested in the ministry and I’m willing to dedicate my life to it, but I don’t want to be in the money.”
I’ve had several wealthy friends, converted late in life who were asked to participate in prayer and counsel. They were very disillusioned when they learned prayer and counsel simply meant money.
I’ve also wondered why we have a tendency to use the best-known human methods to raise money for divine causes. I personally believe there is a scriptural way to raise and use money; but apparently our need for money is so intense we are loath to swap visible power for invisible power. God’s power is always invisible. Money is always visible. Money has temporal power; and if we have to choose between the two, we take money while we can get it and then count on being able to get the other later on. This usually creates some real problems in our Christian value system.
Perhaps money and ministry are combined because there’s no greater test of human ego than money. The gospel confronts our ego. The Scriptures say very clearly not to treat a wealthy man with more respect than a poor man, yet it’s a rare church that doesn’t treat a wealthy visitor entirely different from a poor man. I’ve been in church services where wealthy men were introduced from the pulpit but I’ve never been in one where some poor man was pointed out. Some of the worst prayers I’ve ever heard came from rich Christians because the preacher wanted to get them on the platform.
(On the other hand, there are counter-culture churches in which rich men are looked down upon. Hating the rich is no more Christian than preferring the rich, because you’re still controlled by money. Some poor people are more envious of the rich than the rich are greedy. Scripture says the love of money itself, is the root of all evil. You can be flat broke and commit that sin.)
We must not let people who give money believe they’re earning special favors from God. We often imply that if they give money, they’ll be excused from other responsibilities. Martin Luther criticized selling indulgences; but in a sense we sell indulgences to those who give large contributions.
I led a rather unusual seminar once in which the majority of those present were millionaires. Just for the sheer fun of it, I described tithing as using an Old Testament teaching to help the rich get out of giving. It was quite a shock to the participants, and they didn’t care to discuss it to any great length. I firmly believe that tithing for wealthy people is an escape from giving. Frankly, I’d be very happy if the Lord would tell me I’d fulfilled my responsibility if I gave ten percent. When I worked for six dollars a week and I dropped in sixty cents, I was giving something I felt was pleasing to the Lord. But I’m not sure the Lord is excited about my giving a tenth of a six-figure income.
There are other escapes from giving. For example, I find powerful executives of corporations who solicit gifts from people who are indebted to them, and they seem to feel they’re making the gift themselves. We put them on a gift committee because they can go over and lean on associates who have to give. Sometimes we use such human systems, but I don’t find anything in the Scriptures to condone the practice.
It’s also very easy to make people believe God needs our gift. God is sovereign; he doesn’t really need our money. Instead, we need to give in order to develop spirituality. Many of us are dwarfed in our spiritual lives by our refusal to give, because our money is where our ego is located. Giving is the drainplug for our greed.
A very wealthy man was approached by the United Way for a donation. He said, “Well, I’ve had my wealth for only a short time. Why don’t you let the old wealth give? Let me keep it for awhile and get used to it.” A lot of people mask their greed by saying, “I’ll wait.” One of my dear friends delayed giving because he said everything he had belonged to the Lord, and it was multiplying so fast he thought the Lord couldn’t put it anywhere else where it would grow like that, so he’d keep it and then eventually give it. Perhaps he’d wait until he died to give it, which would mean his heirs would be giving it.
There’s an advantage in teaching people to give when they have very little: generally they are the ones who keep giving when they have a great deal. A prerequisite to spiritual maturity is learning to give. When we ask people to give, we’re not asking them to do God a favor. I was solicited by an organization that indicated God would be so pleased if I gave that he would give me ten times what I gave them! I was tempted to write and tell them that since God does not have favorites, the same principle would work if they sent me a gift, and that God would then give them ten times as much- but that they should hurry before the principle was repealed!
I personally question developing large endowments to support Christian bureaucracy. I know of one organization that had been virile as long as they were lean financially. Then they struck upon a scheme for becoming rich, and they ruined several of their people. These persons had learned to depend on the Lord when they were poor; but when they became wealthy, they started taking care of themselves and lost that dependence on the Lord. Don’t misunderstand! I’m not saying we should keep Christian workers poor to keep them dependent on the Lord. Quite the opposite. I think when we steal from them, or when we create anxiety in their lives by refusing to pay them adequately, we’re persecuting the church, persecuting the body of Christ.
I was asked recently, “How can so many churches pay their pastors so poorly?” The statistics mentioned were very discouraging. Maybe outrageous would be a better word.
The only answer I could give came from my own experience. I grew up as the son of a minister who served with one board in which there was much dissension. As a child, I heard them say, “We will starve them out,” referring to my father and our family. No one will ever know how that affected my feelings toward the Christian body, and how it scarred me. Here were people talking about going to heaven and loving each other, yet they were saying they would starve the one man I knew in my heart was truly a Christian. I’d seen him walk the floor late into the night. In one depth of despondency, I heard him pray that the Lord would take him so that the insurance policy would support his family.
We should be able to say, “What better way to raise children than in a preacher’s home.” Yet I was almost turned away from the church by the way the board cheated my father. I saw him try to give way beyond his tithe, even though at times we came close to going hungry. You can just imagine the effect on a child.
Now I find no greater joy than giving to some young minister I know really needs it. I find nothing Christian in the attitude some people have toward ministers or staff that says, “Control them through poverty.” I never found it funny when people said, “Lord, you keep him humble and we’ll keep him poor.” Most ministers have generous hearts. If they have an abundance, you can count on their giving it away rather than piling it up. One of the most interesting experiences of my life was observing a dedicated minister who had served a church well. He’d lost his wife, whom he had loved very much, and then had married a wealthy widow and thereby became the richest man in the church. To see the change in the attitude of the board that had roughed him up was amazing. Now they treated him with great respect because he had more money than they did. In the church, spiritual treasure must rate above money.
I’d like to see ministers develop a holy boldness toward money. They should be able to say to the people, “I’m perfectly willing to invest my life here if the Lord and you are willing to support me. But I’m also just as willing to get out of this. In fact, I’d like to go out and compete with you in the marketplace to support my family. I’m not a charity object. I’m simply answering the call of God, to join with you in developing a Christian influence in this community.”
A preacher shouldn’t have the fear of being called materialistic if he’s simply being realistic about what it takes to live. We accuse pastors of loving money when they don’t have any money to love. Why should a preacher have to borrow money to educate his kids? I think he should say to the membership, “I believe I’ve been called to be the father of my kids and the husband of my wife and the head of my house equally with being the pastor of this church.”
Until pastors can develop this holy boldness and get away from a self-imposed martyrdom, they are doing their congregations a disservice. As long as they’re scared to death they’ll have to do something besides preach, people will not really believe they’re called.
Personally, I see nothing in the Scripture that says a person is called into the ministry for life. One of the most successful ministers I know has told me, “I’ve so wished the Lord would let me loose and let me go back into business, but so far he hasn’t.” I don’t think pastors should have this tremendous fear of leaving the ministry. Part of it is fear of others’ evaluations. I’ve often wondered why we look down on a person who leaves the ministry. Sometimes I think it’s like the draft; we dislike a draft-dodger because it means someone else had to take his place, and it could have been me.
I would have great respect for pastors who spend five or ten years and then say, “I believe my ministry has been fulfilled.” Unless God has a continuing call on a person, I doubt that he ought to stay in the ministry. We’ve made a big thing of a “time-and-place” call, often treating it almost superstitiously. Someone walks out of the pulpit, sticks his finger in someone else’s face, and says, “You could be a man of God.” And that fellow spends his life trying to be a man of God as a preacher. It never occurs to him to be a man of God as a businessman or a doctor.
A church needs not only to pay its pastoral staff, but also to provide for growth and stimulation of its leadership. Staff retreats, reading material, seminars-all are important. You show me a preacher who’s not growing and developing and being stimulated, and I’ll show you a church that is suffering. Any church should spend part of its budget to see that they promote the growth of their leadership. I’ve led several leadership conferences for churches, and I find that the capable leaders are those constantly reaching out for development; but those who are mediocre do little to develop themselves. We have to make money available so this development can happen.
Money is a tool; money is an option. God has chosen this as a method of developing maturity. I think we as Christians ought to establish in each other’s hearts a fear of the love of money-not a fear of money, but a fear of the power of money. Just as we caution people against immorality, we ought to caution them against the greed of the rich or the envy of the poor. Money is a trust, and we will be evaluated as trustees. We don’t get out from under our trusteeship by giving ten percent. We are obligated to be trustees of everything we have.
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