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offerings

The Asset-based Church Is the Church of the Future

In our previous post we talked about the demise of the offering-based church. We wonder if it was ever a good idea!

The church will never be able to do more than patch the ills of society if it relies on the offerings of the needy to sustain a comfortable lifestyle for the parish.

Programs and outreach will then be created to benefit the affluent with a nod to the needs of the poor. Rich kids will travel to poor areas for a short-term mission project and then return to their comfortable lives.

The poor? We address their needs once or twice a year at holiday time.

Consequently, the model of the church relies on a caste system. We, the givers, serve the unfortunate takers. The takers are excluded from full participation in church because they cannot contribute.

Today’s difficult times have pushed this faulty model to the limits.

Without substantial gifts, the local ministry cannot provide outreach even within its own community.

The problem trickles up. The local ministries cannot sustain the regional bodies and the regional bodies cannot sustain the national church.

There is a stick in the spokes of this treadmill.

The offering-based church may survive, but it is unlikely to thrive or grow. Church statistics support this conclusion.

A new model must be found.

Local congregations must assess their ministries as if offerings do not exist.

They must begin to operate their outreach endeavors in a way that will sustain them in increasing mission and fund future initiatives.

Property assets are first. How can property be used in a way that the costs of maintaining the property will be covered through use.

This has led many churches to operate day schools. Good start.

Second are the talents of the people. Congregations can probably get far more value from their memberships by utilizing the vast range of lay skills and knowledge beyond the offering plate.

Most churches attempt to involve lay people in approved roles — lectors, choir members, Sunday School teachers, etc. They rarely consider if those willing to volunteer are really any good at these skills. Their most valuable gifts may be in areas the Church has never considered allowing lay people to influence.

Redeemer found among its new members a professional architect, property manager and mortgage broker.  The three got together and began to donate their expertise to form a ministry that would help our growing immigrant population identify and purchase first homes. Their efforts would guide immigrants through the purchase of a starter home. The projected annual income from their volunteer services would have created a recurring income of about $10,000 per month. (An entire annual offering plate income.)

Two other Redeemer members had worked in child care for several years and worked to earn a day care license. Redeemer was helping them start a daycare on Redeemer’s property that would have created an immediate benefit to the congregation of $3000 per month, growing to upwards of $6000 per month.

Another member was interested in social media.

Since the Synod decided (against church law) that they should control Redeemer’s property, all the plans of Redeemer were scuttled and resulted in a five-year legal battle. The only project to survive Synod’s interference was the social media project.

As this project begins its third year, it is poised to begin creating a significant return on the two years invested.

In each case, Redeemer was working with its own resources to forge new ministry. There was no support from the regional or national church.

Our resources/Our ministry.

The regional church (in our case the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America or SEPA / ELCA) promotes such initiatives and encourages congregations to do new things.

Then it destroys innovation to meet its immediate needs.

If small congregations are to ever again thrive, the vision of small churches like Redeemer should be encouraged and fostered. Innovation has a price. Without it every congregation will face slow demise.

 

25 Jan 2013

The Death of the Offering-based Church

The church has always relied on offerings from followers for survival. That reliance has meant different things in different ages. In Jesus’ time we know that there were followers, many of them women, bank-rolling the disciples and later the apostles.

As the Early Christian Church grew, the contributions became expected. Failure to contribute whole-heartedly was even a death sentence in one Bible passage.

As the church grew across different cultures, contributions took on different forms. Some contributed by going off to war to fight the infidels. (If successful, they might be rewarded with land and title!) Farmers and tradesmen contributed to feeding the large number of clergy and maintaining property. (If successful, their standing in the community would grow.) Artisans donated their talents. (If successful, they might find a patron and their art would preserve their names forever.) 

Monetary tithes were never enough to keep church leaders comfortable and hence by the fifteenth and sixteenth century, church leaders had instituted a turnkey financial model. Pay to play or pay to pray. Indulgences. That incensed one young monk and the Reformation was on!

This was happening at about the same time as a bountiful mass of new land was discovered across the ocean. For the first time, there was someplace to go to escape the oppression of the church. Protestants began leaving in droves. Fresh start.

For years, many American churches copied the same model and congregations contributed their skills and work product to the maintenance of a parsonage and clergy. Monetary offerings were only part of the typical church budget.

Today’s clergy often laugh at these days, although there are few alive who actually remember them! They seem to forget that the contributions were made with love and sacrifice. A chicken given to the pastor was a chicken not available to feed the family.

In the most recent decades, clergy have been less likely to accept parsonage-based or non-monetary pay. Small congregations which thrived on non-monetary model through economically lean times were fairly suddenly priced out of existence. We are still experiencing the fallout from this shift in economic model of the modern church.

This doesn’t mean that things cannot change again.

2×2 believes that any church that relies solely on monetary offerings is scheduling failure. It may not happen for ten or twenty years but the path is fairly certain.

We have studied the statistics of congregations in our own denomination and regional body. Failure is the norm. It is almost universal. Large churches are in decline. Medium-sized churches are in decline. Small churches are the first to feel the pain. The others will follow. Survival is so tenuous that it outranks mission in budget priorities.

Redeemer—the congregation Bishop Burkat decided to close to make up for declining contributions to the regional body—was one of the very few congregations with positive numbers. The numbers presented to the Synod Assembly in 2008 and 2009 were fudged. And no one questioned them. No one.

In our next post, we will tell you how Redeemer had positioned itself to meet the economic challenges of this new ecclesiastic age.

24 Jan 2013

Adult Object Lesson: Mark 12:38-44, November 11, 2012

1 Kings 17:8-16 • Psalm 146 •
Hebrews 9:24-28 • Mark 12:38-44

Developing Spiritual Habits

Today’s object is a skill game — paddle ball (a paddle with a rubber ball attached with an elastic string) or a cup and ball toy (bilbo catcher) pictured here.

This lesson can be adapted for use with children or adults.

The lessons in today’s lectionary reference things that are habits in our lives. Habits are a demonstration of an acquired skill. There are good habits and bad habits. Everyone has them!

Practice whichever game you choose until you can paddle a good series or catch the ball with ease. You’ll want to show your skill as you start your sermon — perhaps missing and improving as you talk.

The widow in the Old Testament story is going about her daily routine, knowing that this may be the last time she ever prepares a meal for her son. Along comes Elijah and claims her last morsel. Habits can have predictable results and can be alarming.

The Psalm today is part of a series of psalms that repeat the theme of praising the Lord, beginning with the psalmist’s own voice of praise and ultimately including everything that has breath. Habits can gain momentum.

The tables are turned in the Epistle, where Jesus’ one-time sacrifice is contrasted to the habits of priests who carry the sacrificial animal blood into the temple again and again. Good habits once, but now they are unnecessary. Habits can become useless.

And finally we come to the Gospel story of the widow’s mite. Here, Jesus is watching a ritual take place. One after another, the faithful come to the temple with their offerings. The rich make quite a spectacle of their giving and they are probably accustomed to making their offerings when there is a good audience. The widow is also part of the habit of giving. It is so ingrained that she gives from the little she has with no Elijah promising her an endless supply of oil and bread. Habits can define character.

The point of the object is to demonstrate how with practice the challenges we undertake get easier and easier. Actions that we undertake as challenging become habits. It’s tough to hit or catch the ball at first. Eventually the game is conquered. Muscle memory and balance are imprinted on the brain. Like riding a bicycle, it’s not forgotten. (You could use a bicycle as your object!) Point out that the motivations for the habits also become embedded in our minds. Watch you don’t get too adept at your challenge game! You’ll risk looking like the rich givers—showing off!

You don’t have a reason for hitting or catching the ball except the satisfaction of achieving the goal. What are the motives behind your worship habits? The motives mattered more than the gift to Jesus.

Our faith lives are built on habits—habits of prayer, praise, thanksgiving, attendance and giving. We don’t even stop to think.

If this is your church’s stewardship Sunday, you might point out that the habits of giving need to be reexamined now and then—new talents and skills discovered, new obstacles overcome.

You could point out that habits in giving need updating. $5 in the offering plate in 1970 doesn’t go as far as $5 in the offering plate today.

But mostly, today’s lesson is about the overall value of practicing faith skills until they are part of our lives and we are willing to give to God without measuring the cost to ourselves.

05 Nov 2012