For many congregations, it’s getting more and more difficult to fund ministry on tithes and offerings alone. The income and expense lines just don’t seem to match up anymore, and donations just aren’t enough to do the work God has called them to do.
For many Christians today, myself included, admitting this out loud feels akin to financial blasphemy. We have been taught that any good church should be able to live out its mission on tithes and offerings alone. The size of your donations equates to the size of your mission (and, let’s be honest, the size of your staff and property). If you aren’t bringing in enough tithes and offerings maybe you need a better fundraising strategy, better leadership, better coffee, etc.
But what if there’s more to the story?
While it might be easy for us to see this mismatch of income and expenses as a personal failing, maybe it’s OK that tithes and offerings are no longer enough.
Maybe this realization is one way the Spirit is ushering us into a new season of ministry.
This isn’t the first time the church has had to pivot to a new financial model. Contrary to popular belief, the offering plate isn’t the first and only model for church funding. Throughout biblical and church history a variety of different income sources have been used to fund God’s work. Here are a few examples from the Bible:
- Old Testament: There were a variety of different funding sources: particularly: tithes, taxes, and gifts. The funding didn’t just come from the Israelites, various political officials also supported the temple’s work. (Marty E. Stevens, Temples, Tithes, and Taxes: The Temple and the Economic Life of Ancient Israel, Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006, chapter 4.)
- The Gospels: Jesus and his disciples’ ministry was primarily funded by their secular work – they were bi-vocational. Jesus invited his followers to “take nothing” for their journey and rely on the hospitality of others – this generous offering of shelter, food, and more helped to enable the spread of the gospel.
- Acts: In Acts 2, we see a portrait of believers who hold all things in common, selling what they have to give to those in need. While some biblical scholars have debated the historical accuracy of this idealistic depiction of the early church, this text has inspired many throughout history to create intentional Christian communities where all possessions are held in common so that everyone in the community is provided for.
- The Epistles: Paul continues in the pattern of Jesus by serving as a bi-vocational minister, while also receiving money for his apostolic work using a particular pattern. He didn’t ask for or accept money from a community where he was currently establishing a church as he didn’t want these financial needs to hinder the spread of the gospel. But, after the church was established, he did invite them to financially support his next ministry in a new place.
Throughout history, the church has used government support, wealthy patronage, donation of land, sale of products, and more to fund its mission. The focus on the offering plate, as we know it today, didn’t emerge until the late 19th century. This only came about because American churches were no longer being funded by the state and needed to find a new way to fund their missions. Like today, this period was also a frightening turning point in the church’s ministry. Many wondered how churches could survive without governmental support. The church used a variety of different funding methods including “renting or selling pew space, subscription lists, church suppers, church socials, raffles and lotteries.” (William O. Avery, “A Brief History of Stewardship” Lutheran Laity Ministries for Stewardship) However as church leaders began to look for biblical support for their fundraising, they rediscovered the concept of tithes and offerings.
People began “to see giving as a biblical mandate, a spiritual matter, and an act of worship. Therefore, it made sense to incorporate the collection of offerings into Sunday morning worship alongside preaching, singing, and prayer. By 1900, most American churches took up weekly offerings.” (Mark Rogers, “Passing the Plate” Christianity Today, March 12, 2009) This was the beginning of the system of church finances that most of us know today. The boom in church finances and attendance following the Second World War only helped cement this model.
However, as church attendance has become less frequent and membership has declined this model is becoming less and less sustainable. Might this be an opportunity for us to find new ways to fund God’s work in the world that aren’t so closely tied to church attendance and individual generosity?
This isn’t to say that the offering plate should go away or generosity doesn’t matter, giving is an important spiritual practice. However, the current system, even as it has served us well, has at times confused our priorities around this practice:
- It has made the offering more about the church’s need to receive, than the giver’s need to give.
- This closed-circuit financial system where all of the funding comes from those inside has led many congregations to focus more and more inward on the people who are already there rather than looking out to those who aren’t there yet.
- It has also discouraged churches from forming partnerships and even encouraged competition with other churches, ministries, non-profit organizations, or businesses in their community.
Maybe by breaking this closed circuit, we will actually open ourselves up, not only to new sources of funding, but also new relationships outside of the walls of our congregations, new partnerships in our communities, and new promptings for us to join God’s work in the world in ways we would never have expected.
If you’re interested in seeing what the next era in church funding might look like, join us for the Funding Forward webinar on January 23rd at 1 pm (Central) or January 29th at 7 pm (Central) where we will take a closer look at why tithes and offerings may no longer be enough to fund your church’s mission and what the pathway to a more sustainable model might look like for your congregation.
