Money in the Church

One might suspect that the chief issues of division in the modern Christian Church are equal marriage rights, ordination or acceptance of homosexuals, social service ministries, or a lack thereof, abortion, contraception, lyrics in popular music, or the evolution/creation debate. While each may have its claim on the spotlight, I firmly hold that it is none of these. I think that there are two, twin issues that divide the present Church of Jesus Christ. They are: Money and its use and  control.

Money divides us into haves and have-nots. It divides us by gender, by social strata, by economic power, by position and advantage, by age, by those who belong and those who remain on the outside, forever looking in. In the Church, money, and control over it, is a destructive and divisive matter of justice, equality and faithful stewardship.

Most congregations struggle with money these days. The great majority of those communities of faith claim that, since aggregate contributions have declined in direct proportion to the decades-long decline in membership and participation, dollars have become rarer and less available for the funding of ministries. As dollars have diminished, so have church staffs, church ministries, functional judicatories, support of denominations, benevolences, hands-on ministries and missions, and impact on communities and neighborhoods. Congregations have tended to close in on themselves financially, saving whatever money might me available for the inevitable "rainy day."

Ministry in and through congregations has diminished with the decreasing availability of dollars. Dollars have become rarer, in direct proportion to the decline in population. Money, and control of its use in congregations, has become a powerful means of division, argument, conflict and narrow-mindedness. Most churches have been affected. Some have fallen apart because of the tension. Many have argued over conflicting points of view.

What is the poor Church to do?

One cannot deny the patterns of the past fifty years. If those patterns continue, congregations will continue to shrink. Fewer and fewer people will be coming and participating. Fewer and fewer dollars will be available to fund the mission and ministry of the Church of Jesus Christ. The Church will become more and more irrelevant to and within culture.

As is nearly always the case, however, it is precisely where the greatest challenge is found that the Church finds the greatest potential and promise for change. If the Church of Jesus Christ is to stem the tide of social irrelevance, if it is to reverse the trend of shrinking dollars, diminishing membership and participation, disappearing ministries and missions, then it has got to begin by changing its mind about the use and control of money.

Money will not guarantee continuation of the Church of Jesus Christ. Endowments will not promise longevity. They may simply delay the inevitable. Unless, that is, if congregations invest dollars differently. Until a time when churches see the  funds entrusted to them as God's call to expanded ministries and missions, until churches use whatever dollars may be available for community and neighborhood ministries and missions, until churches risk, become vulnerable, dare to lay out their last cents, the tide of decline will continue to roll.

When churches learn the challenging lessons of excellence in stewardship, when they unlearn the worldly tendency of fear and worry, then the Church begins to invest in God's calling, in God's ministry, in God's ongoing mission.

Money, then, is both the church's greatest challenge today and its most promising potential. If the church is to work its way through decline and disappearance, then it is going to have to invest its dollars in a different way of being the Church of Jesus Christ. If organizational longevity and continuation remain the goal of the use and control of congregational monies, churches will continue to decline and disappear. The risk is amazingly difficult in congregations. The call to faithful stewardship is challenging. Upon that risky call, however, rests the very future of the Church of Jesus Christ.