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.
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