We welcome Canon Brendan O’Sullivan Hale, treasurer of Forward Movement’s board, as our guest author this week.
Dear friends in Christ,
Over the last year or so, a minor controversy has erupted at my church. Like a lot of places, giving patterns have shifted in the congregation over the last few years, with electronic giving becoming increasingly prevalent, and not just among younger members.
The controversy involves the laminated cards we’ve placed in the pews reading “I give online,” and including a QR code to the giving page on the website. The cards are intended to make it easier for visitors to know how to give online, and to allow newcomers and longtime members alike to offer their gifts before God in worship, or, perhaps less high-minded but still meaningful, to avoid looking stingy when the offering plate goes by. But some members of the church worry – and with solid scriptural support! – that the cards fly in the face of Jesus’s admonitions against practicing your faith for an audience. Doesn’t this violate the spirit of the instruction not to “let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” (Matthew 6:3)?
Reminding people that using the cards was optional was enough to resolve most of the angst. But the questions the incident raised about faithfulness in giving, and the act of giving as a sort of social performance, remain.
As you think about your experience as a follower of Christ, whether that’s been for a lifetime or a path you’ve only recently started to tread, who taught you how to give? For Christ’s Jewish audience in Matthew’s Gospel, the answer would have been obvious. The Torah contains detailed instructions for appointed sacrifices, reinforced by social and religious customs, with the temple at the center of worship.
It would be easy to assume that the tithe – 10% of income – as the biblical standard of giving is well understood by Christians. But a 2022 survey by the Barna Group reveals that 44% of Christians cannot definitively say what the tithe is. That’s nearly half of us! So I suspect for a lot of Christians, maybe including you, the lessons of giving might not have come from the church, but from your family, or secular culture, or maybe you’ve developed an ethic on your own.
One of the jobs at the church is to be a “school for saints.” By being part of a church, you commit to daily becoming more and more like Christ through the practices of discipleship, including regular attendance at worship, scripture study, prayer, service, and generosity with the money entrusted to you for the common good and the greater purposes of God.
Are laminated “I give online“ cards an appropriate tool to help model what giving looks like in Christian community when fewer of us are dropping cash and checks in the plate? Your mileage may vary. But I pray that wherever the school for saints you make your spiritual home, your fellow students of discipleship continually and lovingly provoke you and one another to a generosity joyful and pure, a shimmering reflection of the generous grace of God.
Yours faithfully,
Brendan O’Sullivan-Hale
Treasurer of the Forward Movement Board
A message from our Director of Development:
There are many ways to give to Forward Movement, including stock and securities. A donor shares: “Years ago my wife and I bought stock in a fledgling computer company. It has appreciated in value and each year we give a block of it to Forward Movement. Giving appreciated stock both lowers our taxes and enables Forward Movement to continue to bless thousands of people with resources to guide them in listening for the subtle promptings of the Spirit.” Contact me (Lindsay Barrett-Adler) if you would like more information.
More from our ministry:
Reflect on faith and wealth: The Unjust Steward
Manage your church’s money wisely: Finance Resource Guide
Read Brendan’s reflection in The Way of Love: A Practical Guide
An accessible look at Matthew’s Gospel: A Journey with Matthew Bible Challenge