giving and guilt

it's a frustrating day at work.

this week, the church laid off two people: one young pastor and our tech director. both of these guys were only-breadwinner-fathers, so the emotional fallout on the people they led has been pretty intense. also, the emotional fallout on the congregation realising that the church organization is in a state where layoffs are the only option to keep going has been somewhat strong.

what we are also getting is a lot of people saying they feel guilty because they can't give more than they already are.

this is a problem.

our database tells us that at least 50% of the people that tell us they call this their church home do not give financially at all. these are not the people coming to us and saying they feel guilty. it's the people who already give.

part of the problem is that we have an un-theologically sophisticated senior pastor who has decided that everyone ought to give 10%, the end. arguments that the 10% number aren't held up by the new testament do not sway him. 10% is easy to say, easy to prooftext, and easy to calculate.

the other part of the problem, it seems to me, is our culture of "take care of yourself first." now, absolutely, pay your mortgage and feed your kids before you give. but keep in mind the macedonians in 2 corinthians 8-9, who gave out of their poverty, and even more than they could afford, Paul says.

why?

because giving for a christian should not come from a sense of guilt or obligation, and it especially shouldn't come from a sense of having to atone for sins. what it should be is a joyful, ecstatic outpouring of generousity in response to the generousity of the cross. if God died for us, how can we not give from our finances to his body? he gave it to us anyway. it's not our money to begin with.

some of it is trust. the macedonians and the poor widow are examples to us of the trust we need to have in material terms. we don't need to take care of ourselves first. we do, i'll say, need to take care of our families, our children. and one of the obvious early ethics of the church, which they inherted from the jews, was to take care of their poor. there should be no one in the church that can't get food or pay rent.

but the new testament is pretty clear, i think... give what you can, and give out of a sense of gratefulness and joy for what you gain from the cross.

if you know you should be doing this, and you're still not, then that's the only proper place for guilt.