A Theology of Giving |
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Churches pay their bills and keep their doors open through the generosity of their communities. The people are the church, but the building gives a place to gather and participate in the life of the church and its mission.
We give to our shared faith community with our time, talents, and treasures, and God calls us to be generous with all three. Giving is both a spiritual discipline and a spiritual gift, so it's important to occasionally revisit why and how you give to our church.
Talking about money makes many people squirm. Some of us were taught that money is a private topic, and some have been financially abused by the church. But next to the Kingdom of God, Jesus talked about money more than anything else. He knew that people would come to worship money as a false god, turning it into a source of manipulation, power, and control.
When it comes to being a good steward of our financial resources, money is a good servant but a poor master. Jesus said, “You can't worship God and Money both” (Matthew 6:24, The Message). In his two greatest commands—"Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence" and "Love others as well as you love yourself" (Matthew 22:37, The Message)—he make clear our priorities as people of faith. If we allow money to become our God, we end up seeing our neighbors as competition. Then fear of scarcity sets in and God takes a back seat.
Everything that we have came from and belongs to God. The psalmist declared, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” God trusts us to be faithful stewards of what we have been given, in service to the first and second greatest commands.
We give to our shared faith community with our time, talents, and treasures, and God calls us to be generous with all three. Giving is both a spiritual discipline and a spiritual gift, so it's important to occasionally revisit why and how you give to our church.
Talking about money makes many people squirm. Some of us were taught that money is a private topic, and some have been financially abused by the church. But next to the Kingdom of God, Jesus talked about money more than anything else. He knew that people would come to worship money as a false god, turning it into a source of manipulation, power, and control.
When it comes to being a good steward of our financial resources, money is a good servant but a poor master. Jesus said, “You can't worship God and Money both” (Matthew 6:24, The Message). In his two greatest commands—"Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence" and "Love others as well as you love yourself" (Matthew 22:37, The Message)—he make clear our priorities as people of faith. If we allow money to become our God, we end up seeing our neighbors as competition. Then fear of scarcity sets in and God takes a back seat.
Everything that we have came from and belongs to God. The psalmist declared, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” God trusts us to be faithful stewards of what we have been given, in service to the first and second greatest commands.
