Your Giving May Be in Trouble

As a child I remember sitting in church and looking at the attendance board.  Each week a deacon would dutifully fill in the numbers by each category.  Each week we could see how this Sunday contrasted with last week’s or last year’s numbers. 

If you have been keeping track recently, the numbers for the church are in general decline.  Over all, charitable giving in the United States increased by 4.6% in 2014, but church giving declined by 1.6%.  We cannot say that church giving is down simply because we are living in a selfish society.  American’s are still very generous and are giving more; they’re just not giving to the church.

Why is the church loosing its ability to motivate people to give?

Psychologist Abraham Maslow took a different approach to the issue of mental health.  Rather than study the mentally ill and attempting to figure out what was wrong, he found those who were successful, happy or well adjusted and attempted to figure out what was right.  This approach has, by and large, been the road less traveled.  The result of Maslow’s study was what he called the Hierarchy of Human Needs.  This was essentially a three-layer pyramid with a broad base and a peak at the top.  The three levels Maslow postulated were:

1.     Survival: the broadest and lowest level of human need was the need for food, shelter, or clothing. 

2.     Success: the middle level was the need for accomplishment, friendship, and recognition. 

3.     Significance: the highest level is Significance.  This is where we find meaning, purpose, or calling.  It is the area where our lives intersect with the eternal. 

Maslow concluded that those people who lived and worked at the highest level were the ones who were most likely to be happy, mentally healthy, and well adjusted.   Certainly we need the survival aspects of our lives and success can be beneficial, but it is at the level of significance that life has real power and zest.

When it comes to developing healthy and generous giving habits the lower on the pyramid you are the less motivated you will be to give.

Maslow’s pyramid can help us explain what motivates people to give to a congregation.   First, let’s look at the possibility of motivations in your congregation using Maslow’s pyramid.  

1.     Survival giving: The broadest and lowest level of congregational giving. This is the area of paying the bills, paying salaries and buying the essentials.

In any organization, if the bills are not paid the organization will soon cease operations.  Some churches tend to focus on these survival issues and to be honest these are not especially motivating.  This is especially true in difficult moments.  When the numbers are not looking very good we stare at them with obsessively fixed gazes.  It is as if nothing else matters.  The longer we focus on these the less likely we will be able to think about anything else.  The result is lowered motivation, leading to more fear inspiring numbers, causing our thoughts to be consumed by the bad numbers.  It becomes a vicious cycle.  If giving is down, it is hard to think about anything except giving. 

When we tell the congregation, “We have got bills that have to be paid.”  Each member can sit there and say, “So do I”.  When we tell people, “We have to take care of business.”  They can think to themselves and say, “My business needs my attention too.”  If the bills can’t be paid because of a short offering I guarantee you that most church members don’t lose a moment of sleep thinking about it.  You will not develop heroic giving by focusing on survival issues. 

2.     Mid level: Success:  The second and middle level of giving is the area of Success.  This is the area of accomplishment, goal reaching, and measurable success. 

In times of success giving tends to be stronger, and that is not just because there are more givers.  When the measurable factors are good, people are more apt to give.  If this year’s attendance is better than last year’s, if over the last few weeks new families are joining the church, if we are celebrating baptisms, youth events, and other visible and tangible indicators of success it is easy to motivate giving.  When we see things are going well we tend to have confidence that all is well, and things will continue to go well.  We find the success emotionally rewarding, which causes us to attach positive emotional tags to giving and that makes it easy to give. 

An example of success giving was the fad of the “Ice Bucket Challenge”.  It generated a lot of excitement and energy in spite of its goofiness.  But, honestly, do you think folks will pour a bucket of ice water over their heads on a weekly basis?   In my opinion, any giving that depends on faddishness, celebrity participation, or self- aggrandizement ought to be avoided like a rabid pit bulldog.

The sword of success cuts two ways.  If there is a major bump in the road and progress is slowed or thrown off track, you will find that giving can slip.  Giving that was motivated by success and positive emotional tags will have negative emotional tags associated with it.  Sacrifice isn’t joy filled anymore.   Every gift is a reminder that something is wrong.   Even if the dollar amount doesn’t drop immediately the groundwork is set for a giving down turn.  We can find that the numbers that represent success take on an inordinate power.   The numbers can become so important that they can overshadow our real purpose. 

3.     Significance giving:  The highest level of giving. It is the area where our lives intersect with the eternal and holy.  This is where heroic and sacrificial giving occurs.

The ultimate motivation for giving comes from the apex of the giving pyramid.  This giving is the result of our identity in Christ, and our role as a local congregation to fulfill His purpose.  With significance giving there is a profound understanding that my giving is an act of worship that the gift is making a real and holy difference in the lives of others and this giving is a calling on my life.  This giving is about the significance of the organization and nothing is more significant than the Body of Christ.  This giving is also about the significance of our calling and our part of that calling. 

Secular fund raising has been capitalizing on significance giving for a very long time.  Charities dealing with children’s medical issues rarely, if ever, talked about the cost of the test tubes, lab coats, doctor’s salaries, or electric bills.  They talked about the children.  From medical research to orphan care we are taught that our giving changes the lives of those in dire need.  Our gift makes a difference; it has significance. 

We will never develop generous, that is heroic, sacrificial and joyful giving, if we are content to pay the bills and have a reasonable number of people in their pews.  Often times generous giving is absent because we do not have a strong understanding of our calling as a congregation.  We must know why God called us into existence and what we are supposed to be doing.   If we can’t answer the questions of “Why has God called us into existence?” and “What are we doing about it?” we will never move beyond the area of survival and success giving.  The real motivation for giving must be the significant transcendent calling of God on the congregation.

To develop significance giving we must first carefully articulate why we exist.  Decline in or un-motivated giving is most likely a symptom of a lukewarm attitude about the church’s existence.  Test mission, vision, or purpose statements.  Ask if all the high sounding declarations you have on paper are being lived out.  Here is how to tell what your mission statement is worth.  Ask the people of your congregation, “Will you make sacrifices in your lifestyle to see us fulfill this mission?”  If the answer is “No” then there is a good chance your mission statement isn’t worth the paper it is written on.    

While it is tempting to start the conversation by talking about tithes, giving, budgets, and money that is not where the conversation needs to begin.  In a society, and often a church, where there is great distrust for institutions, thanks to televangelist scandals, we must provide a better reason for giving than to just say, “We need you to give.”

In the weeks ahead I will share 12 factors that will either drain or fuel your giving patterns.  This will be by no means an exhaustive discussion but it is an attempt to provide examples of what can motivate giving and what can de-motivate it as well.  It is also an attempt to point you toward apex or top tier motivations.  It will help you avoid those things that may seem to motivate generosity but are actually counter productive.

Beware the short cuts: cannibalism, racism and prohibition, learning from past mistakes. Part 2

 Last week I used the contrast of Abraham Lincoln and William Wilberforce as examples of two different approaches to dealing with a societal evil.  This week I will ramble into some conclusions.

The Old Testament Hebrew word translated ‘righteous’ includes the meaning of “one who by their suffering brings those in conflict into fellowship”.  Hence the crucified Lord is the ultimate expression of righteousness.  The church abrogated its righteous role to the courts and the legislatures.  For example, Christians should have looked at the conditions of black schools as contrasted with white schools and said, “Separate but equal is not working, it is foolish and it must end”.  Instead the white church in the South did little or nothing to bring about justice.  We had to wait for “Brown vs. The Board of Education”.   And when segregation ended, Christians, Bibles in hand, protested at the schoolhouses.  While the decisions of the courts and the laws to end the effects of racism are to be celebrated they never change the heart; law cannot change the heart.  This, by the way, is one of the core messages of the Gospel.  In fact, it appears that rather than change hearts, those with hard hearts become more hard hearted in response to the court rulings and the new laws. 

I am not attempting to justify the behavior of rioters in Baltimore or Ferguson, MO.  But for multiple generations, black men, women, and children have been subject to a system that has a façade of equality, but hides an inner distrust, resentment, and in some cases hostility, in both directions across the divide.  Some rioters were simply thugs and criminals using an opportunity to pillage and plunder.  But even that godlessness mindset is the result of the church not being salt and light, of abandoning a generation of black ministers to liberation theology, or other expression of liberal theology, of Christians running from the inner city in white flight to enjoy the security of the suburbs, and a white’s only community and worship hour. 

This is the legacy of a top down solution to moral ills. Let us consider, briefly, other cases where there has been an attempt to accomplish a top down approach to our society’s problems.  Prohibition was a grand success, if you were a bootlegger or a smuggler.  The War on Poverty has certainly elevated a whole class of people into the ranks of the wealthy; unfortunately, it is the tax-fattened bureaucrats that administer government entitlement programs.  The plight of the poor has not improved; but rather, it has, in many cases, grown worse.  We could again look at the success of the war on drugs.  How many millions of dollars have been poured into halting the importation, distribution, manufacturing, and consumption of illegal drugs?  How effective has it been?  Looking out of the window at this moment I can see a home that is widely known as a place to purchase pharmaceuticals you can’t get at CVS.

Here is the point: social ills reflect a spiritual and moral failure, a.k.a. sin.  There is no law solution to sin.  Yes, we need laws; they serve as wonderful moral teachers, and hopefully protect the innocent.  But for too long Christians have wanted to take the short cut of getting law to do the heavy lifting that is the responsibility of the church.  We have called for a Moral Majority and a Christian Coalition to come together and vote in God Fearing leaders that will pass laws that will make the U.S. a moral nation.  We have wanted the government to make abortion illegal, without our doing the heavy lifting of teaching about the holiness before God of sexual purity.  We have wanted the government to make sure the widows and orphans are visited in their suffering, without our doing the heavy lifting of serving the “least of these”. 

I want laws that will protect the unborn.  I want a basic social safety net.  I want to see the police working to protect innocents from the ravages of drug and alcohol addiction.  But I know there is no short cut to these ends.  Only the Gospel can change the heart.  I have two fears.  The first is that Christians are beginning to believe that if we could get the laws we want, we can make America Heaven on earth.  Please, by all means, get involved in the political process; write letters to congress, run for office if you will.  But for the love of real change, let’s stop believing in top down solutions.  Moral revival will never come from Washington, or the state capitol building, or the county courthouse.  My second fear is that Christians and politicians alike, will attempt to use Christianity as a useful means to the ends of a fair, just, and equitable society.  We must not hope for a revival for the safety or preservation of our nation. We must seek revival for the glory of God and any civil blessings are simply a joyful by-product.

Only the Lord changing the hearts of men has any real and lasting effect.  If we don’t see Christ change the hearts of our people, the blame does not fall on the world, nor in heaven, but squarely on the people of God’s church. 

Beware the short cuts: cannibalism, racism and prohibition, learning from past mistakes. Part #1

The Donnor Expedition is infamous in American history as an expedition that was caught in the high Sierra Nevada Mountains in the midst of a terribly harsh winter.   Many of the members of the expedition died in the frigid cold.  Some of those that survived did so by eating those that died.  In an act of compassion, the bundles of human flesh were labeled in such a way that no one would eat a family member.  Ironically, one of the survivors of the ill-fated expedition, after being rescued, opened a motel and restaurant.   The events of the Donner Expedition are infamous; what is perhaps less well known, is that this tragic suffering was the result of trying a short cut, the Hastings’ Cutoff. 

Short cuts can be dangerous and take us to places that we do not want to go.  Unfortunately, the allure of short cuts is often times so great that it seems impossible for us to say “no”, especially when faced with the hard work of going the long way.  I have spent countless gallons of gas, all wasted, because I was looking for a short cut.  It is not only true in issues of transportation, but also in issues of behavior and ethics.

The allure of a short cut is powerful.  They seem to promise a much anticipated and much desired reward and with less effort.  They seem to offer fulfillment much sooner than we would other wise experience.  The harder and the longer the ordeal we face, the more alluring a short cut seems.  Just the other side of the mountain is the Promised Land.  But crossing the mountain will leave us stranded, dying, and doing things we don’t want to imagine.

I believe this is true in our efforts to see a Christian ethic and morality in our society.  The current racial tension we have in the U.S. can serve as an example.  By contrast, the tension and relationship between the decedents of slaves and the general white population in Great Britain is less volatile than is the case in the U.S.  I would argue that this is the result of a short cut in U.S. history. 

Slavery in the British Empire ended as the result of the life long work of abolitionists, personified and led by William Wilberforce.  Wilberforce and the abolitionists ended the slave trade after a long battle fought for the hearts and the minds of the people.  The realization of the gross immorality of slavery was faithfully and consistently presented to a Christian nation, and ultimately the moral character of the people and the immoral character of slavery could no longer coexist.  After many years and struggles that took an emotional, physical, and mental toll on Wilberforce and the other abolitionists, the slave trade was ended in the Empire.  The battle was won in the battlefield of the heart; as the hearts changed the nation changed.  While Great Britain is not a racial paradise, it can teach significant lessons to those of us on this side of the Atlantic.

In contrast, slavery in the U.S. ended, not because of a moral revival, but because of a bloody war and a political move.  The “War to Preserve the Union”, more commonly known as the American Civil War was the end of slavery in the U.S.  But unlike the end of slavery in Great Britain it was a by-product of a political decision. 

Let me interject here a few words of rebuke for the American church.  I am not attempting to justify the position of southern states on slavery.  In fact, I believe that the greatest moral failure of American Christianity may be the failure of the American church, especially in the south, to speak out passionately concerning the evils of slavery.  The failure of the church in America to end slavery means that, not only does the church carry much of the guilt of the institution of slavery, but also the church has blood stained hands.  The war to preserve the Union might have been avoided were it not for the one issue about which there was no room for compromise-slavery.  The church, especially in the south, did not address the moral transgression of American Slavery and American’s killed each other in unimaginable numbers. 

Since the war, the church’s history in the south has been little more than abysmal.  Instead of the civil rights movement finding a passionate ally in the Evangelical church more often than not it found an obstruction.   If you want to know why 11:00 on a Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week, it is because when black Christians needed help, white Christians, especially in the south (with few exceptions), rejected their brothers in need.

Nor, am I trying to determine the political machinations of the Union.  Only President Lincoln knew the heart conviction of Abraham Lincoln concerning slavery and this is a question that is better answered by historians.  While I believe the emancipation proclamation was a carefully calculated political instrument, it was for many in the Union the deeper stirrings of conscience.  I will not try to divine the demarcation between political contrivance and impassioned moral conviction.

What I am saying is that the ending of slavery by force of arms was a short cut toward racial equality.  With the emancipation proclamation, the end of the War, and the 13^th Amendment to the Constitution, blacks and white were legally equal.  But it was an equality that came not from the heart nor did it come by godly men and women under moral persuasion.  It was an equality that came at the point of a bayonet and was recognized only in public, while rejected in secret.  The generation that lived through Reconstruction saw the rise of legalized prejudice in the form of Jim Crow laws, and the expansion of only slightly secret hate from the Ku Klux Klan.

As freed slaves moved to northern states seeking a better life they found that prejudice did not have geographic boundaries.  In fact, the Ku Klux Klan had its largest membership in Indiana in the 1920’s.  The KKK infiltrated every level of government with noted figures such as Sen. Robert Byrd, Chief Justice Edward White, Associate Justice Hugo Black, Sen. Theodore Bilbo, and Gov. Edward Jackson etc.  Both major political parties are well represented in the KKK.  The KKK even infiltrated the church.  It would even have cornerstone-setting ceremonies for new church construction, show up unexpectedly at a church for the worship service, and make denotations to the church.  On some occasions congregations would burst into applause for the KKK.  When a Klansmen was naturalized into his order he swore loyalty to his nation and Christianity.  The founder of the second Klan was a former minister.  Rather than the evils of slavery ending by the power of a moral church a short cut in some cases, by no means all or even most, turned the church over to the powers of evil.

To be continued……

In the presence of a hero

Heroes almost never self identify as such.  No one that has done something heroic says, “Yes, I am a hero and I know it.”  It is almost as if whatever causes the heroic behavior also causes the hero to be un-self-conscience that what they did is something special.  Typically they say something to the effect of “I just did what needed to be done.”  That is part of the beauty of someone being heroic.  They would defer to someone else; police officers, fire fighters or military personnel as the real heroes.  It does not change the fact that they are heroes, but they would consider himself or herself just an everyday kind of person.  They are everyday heroes.

So when I tell you that I have been in the presence of the heroic, the person I am referring to would be embarrassed by that statement, and would certainly offer denials of their role as hero.  But I will say it all the same; “I have been in the presence of a hero”.  To understand this everyday hero, let me offer a little history.

When our daughter Abby was in kindergarten, she had the kind of teacher every parent dreams of, but her first grade teacher was a nightmare.  I will spare you the details.  By Christmas break of first grade, Abby had actually digressed in her academics.  At this point, my wife and I decided to homeschool Abby for the rest of first grade.  Her progress and improvement was almost immediate.  It was not easy but it was very fulfilling.  However, her older sister began taking some grief at her school.  It seems that our decision to home school was seen as a sort of disloyalty to the school.   The result was that the next year we homeschooled both of these girls and added a kindergartener.

For a moment let me set the larger context.  In the course of five months, we started homeschooling, we planted a church and to make matters more engaging, we added a fourth child to our family.  And in the midst of this my wife made our little house a home.  As a bi-vocational church planter, I didn’t make much money.  That year our gross income was $16,000 of which we paid $4,000 in medical bills, and she kept us together without welfare.  If babies came when you can afford them earth’s population would be zero.  Undaunted by all this, my wife kept the family fed by frugality and God’s provision.  That is when she developed the mantra “God is good and beans are cheap”. 

Our four children and our son-in-law.

What brings this to mind is that this past Sunday May 3rd, 2015) she graduated her youngest child from “The Crowe Family Home School”.  In the last 18 years she has taught two children from K-5, one child from First grade, and one child from Fifth grade all the way through to graduation.  Take the elementary, middle and high school subjects,  put them together and my wife as taught them, sometimes studying late into the night before teaching it the next day.  I can’t count the times I have fallen asleep while my wife reviewed a chemistry textbook.  She taught everything from advanced mathematics to Spanish, from constitutional law and history to religion and Bible.  She also made sure the kids were ‘socialized’ (what ever that means) by having them in co-op classes and involved in extra curricular activities.  Far from cocooning in the house the kids were, at various times, in choir, band, karate, kick boxing, Krav Maga, weight lifting, flag football, track and field, Navy Sea Cadets, and church.  Let’s never forget church.  She often, with only a little help on Sunday mornings, made sure that the whole brood was in Sunday School, and made sure they were active in youth group ministries, including overseas mission trips.

Some will say, “But can the homeschool child do well in the real world?”  Let’s see; our oldest graduated with honors from a university having attended the Honors College.  With her lowest college grades coming in physical education, after classes in Greek philosophy, she tended to over think P.E. written test.  Our second child, the one who help prompt this grand adventure is a highly decorated sailor, having been award, among other citations, Junior Sailor of the Year for all U.S. Navel personnel in the European Command.  The third daughter advanced to be the head teller for her section of a bank and is now pursuing a degree in anthropology.  And our son who graduated from high school last Sunday is duel enrolled in a local community college and will graduate in a year from college as an automotive tech.  He plans on working as a mechanic while pursing his faith’s calling.  Not bad for homeschoolers. 

I could go on and on but I won’t.  Just let me offer one more description of my hero.  Before we had children we decided that my wife would be a stay at home mom.  At the time, she worked as a R.N. in labor and delivery.  She loved the work, found it very satisfying, and was very good at it, based on her evaluation.  It was also pretty lucrative.  But in a decision of self-sacrifice she committed to be a stay at home mom, to raise and educate children and make our home a sanctuary for me.  I tease her by telling her that she has been on maternity leave for 28 years.  I did a calculation of just the financial cost of her decision.  If we assume a consistent rate of pay increase and inflation her decision to stay at home has meant she turned down between $750,000 and $1,200,000 in today’s pay to be a stay at home mom.  (Assuming she worked as an RN from when maternity leave started till now)

A couple of days ago we were talking about all that has transpired in the last 18 to 28 years and I asked her if she had any regrets.  “No, not a one.  I remember one day when…”  She mentioned a specific time when she was home schooling 10^th grade, 7^th grade, 4^th grade, and 1^st grade, oh and she was helping lead the children’s ministry at church and part of the music ministry. “…I was feeling overwhelmed and I thought about work but I thought when the kids are all gone I don’t want to look back and say, ‘I wish I would have spent more time with my children.’  No I have no regrets.  If I had it to do over I would do the same thing, just try to do it better.”

My beloved Lorie I must tell you, “It would be very hard to do it better”!

Charlie Crowe