Allow me to share a personal word of encouragement with you. Many things claim your time and attention right now, but please do not forget your need to be financially faithful to God and to His church.
Financial faithfulness can slip rather easily, especially during the summer months. Vacations, family outings and numerous other things claim one’s attention. Frequently, disrupted schedules mean only essential things get done. We plan to do the others at a more convenient time.
That happened to me this year. Before leaving for vacation the end of June, I paid the bills that would be due before my return. The others could wait. After returning, I paid all the things normally paid in the middle of the month.
It was not until I balanced my checkbook at the end of the month that I realized I had not given my tithe. That oversight was remedied immediately.
What happened to me happens to others so often it has been given a name. It is called the summer slump. Regular participants are absent from services and offerings are down because the members are not there to give them. The result is a slump in church participation and support.
Few people decide not to give. It is just a careless oversight. The result is the same. Financial faithfulness is lost. Support for the Lord’s work through His church decreases, never to be regained.
Reviewing information furnished us by hundreds of Alabama Baptist churches indicates that many, if not most, are dealing with the results of a summer slump right now.
This year there may be an additional concern. For the first time in almost a decade, Alabamians are uneasy about their economic future. Business is lagging. Layoffs are a reality in many areas of the state. Some businesses have closed. Farm prices are down. Retirees are uneasy as they watch their financial nest eggs dwindle because of falling stock prices.
Alabama has not been as hard hit as some other areas of the nation, but that is little comfort to those who have lost jobs or have been hurt by the national financial downturn.
In the midst of uncertainty, it may be tempting to back away from a commitment to financial faithfulness to God and His church.
It is true that tithes and offerings pay the salaries of the pastor and all the church ministerial and support staff. It is true that what is placed in the offering plates pays for the lights, air conditioning, literature and all the other things one enjoys at church. It is true that all the programs, missions activities and evangelistic outreach all find themselves anchored in the money given through tithes and offerings.
All of these are important. Yet none is the main reason one brings tithes and offerings to the Lord. The primary reason one brings tithes and offerings to the Lord is because of a relationship with God.
Through His holy Word, the Bible, God commanded that tithes and offerings be brought into “the storehouse,” which Baptists understand as the church. Jesus commended tithes and offerings when he told a group of Pharisees, “These things (tithing) you should have done.”
That makes financial faithfulness more than paying the light bill. It is an act of obedience to God Himself. Not being financially faithful is an act of disobedience.
Financial faithfulness is also an act of worship. The Southern Baptist emphasis of channeling tithes and offerings through the Sunday School is effective organization, but it sometimes diminishes the worship aspect of giving. When one presents tithes and offerings to God, it is a demonstration of giving oneself. It reminds that God is first in one’s life. It is worship in a pure form.
Rather than pursue selfish goals with all that one has, one gives tithes and offerings to God through His church. This helps keep one focused on the Lord and on others. Giving is supposed to be a sacred moment, a moment filled with symbolism, with praise, with trust, with adoration, with hope, with holiness. Financial faithfulness can be one of the most poignant moments one will ever experience when giving is treated as worship.
Perhaps now the first paragraph of this column makes more sense. In reality, financial faithfulness is not the need of the church. It is your need and mine. Financial faithfulness is obedience to our Savior. It is worship of our God. It is concern for others evidenced.
That is why I say again, please do not forget your need to be financially faithful to God and to His church during these summer months.
Share with others: