5 of 5

And if there is one thing better than pledges, it's automatic withdrawals. Giving would never again be dependent on having cash in your purse or remembering your checkbook on the way out the door. This approach would make obedience independent of our various charitable impulses. It makes sense. Financial planners encourage families over and over to have their savings and retirement investments taken right out of their paychecks.

But is obedience that requires no effort, no thought, really obedience? Spiritual formation occurs when we, week after week, grab the checkbook, write a check, and drop it in the offering plate. We remember God's goodness, his continual care, as we build up a habit of giving.

Giving should be a matter of intentional obedience, a joyful expression of returning thanks to God. And there seems to be something sacred about physically collecting the offerings and blessing them during worship. Isn't something lost if it's left to church administrators sorting the daily mail?

On the other hand, the Bible warns often enough about money that perhaps we should be mistrustful of our ability to be impulsively generous week after week. A man's pocketbook, Martin Luther said, is the last piece of him to be converted. Money has a strange power, as the current economic crisis illustrates, that suggests humility and prudence are the appropriate attitudes toward it, not exuberance and impulsiveness.

Rather than being impersonal and legalistic, a steady, habitual, even automatic approach to giving can do more to form us spiritually than the give-only-out-of-joy approach. The decision to give a percentage of our income automatically and "off the top" can affect everything from the house we live in to the groceries we buy to a pizza delivery. When we pass on a purchase because we know the check to church or a sponsored child is going out that week, it forces us to prioritize. It places supremacy with someone or something other than us. Most importantly, and formatively, it reorients our life.

Francis Chan, pastor of Cornerstone Church in California's Simi Valley, says churches are often theologically accurate when they teach about giving. But they haven't reoriented themselves.

Chan asks, "Do our actions show that we really believe that our money belongs to God?" Cornerstone gives away 55 percent of what it brings in. And staff members have tried to model financial generosity in a number of ways. Some raided their retirement accounts and gave the money to organizations serving the poor and needy. Some started businesses and donated the profits (and then their free time) back to the church.

The example spread to church members. A college student moved into his car, showered and shaved at friends' homes, and gave what had been his rent money to a Christian aid organization. A single professional moved in with his parents so he could give away a large percentage of his paycheck.

Cornerstone faced a difficult choice when its leadership looked into purchasing a new building. After five years of stagnant attendance, the church realized that its building limited growth. So Chan and the rest of the pastoral staff brought in consultants and architects who laid out a sweeping new campus for the church: an extended complex of buildings, brick streets, fountains, and gardens.

"I really felt it was repulsive," Chan says. "It showed us spending money for our own comfort."

Chan showed the designs to the congregation. When the gasps subsided, he told them it was off the table. Instead of a huge sanctuary, he explained, they were building an open-air amphitheater and saving millions of dollars. A few small buildings would suffice for offices. "There is greater joy in sacrifice," Chan says, "than when we give just out of our excess."

That greater joy comes from habitual, routine, and generous giving—even automated giving—and forms our lives. It's what teaches the giver to be cheerful.

Rob Moll is an editor at large for CT.

Copyright © 2008 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Passing the Plate , Soul Searching, and Divided By Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America can be purchased at ChristianBook.com and other book retailers.

Christianity Today has special sections on the economic crisis and money & business.

first page |  5 of 5

share this page

December 2008, Vol. 52, No. 12