The Church Wants You...For Your Soul or For Your Money...??

   So Jesus is credited with saying, "You cannot serve God and Money" and "Money is the root of all evil."*  These are cultural sayings that have done much to disassociate Christianity with Currency.  One big divider of people from 'organized religion' is the observation that churches are only obsessed with money.  In the era before every church could stream, how many 'big TV preachers' were lampooned for pushing on the fundraising even more than the soul-saving?

    There is this Christian technical term called 'tithing' that is at the basis of fund-raising, usually defined in a literal sense as 10%.  An amusing 'clarification' sought for this literal sense is 'pre' or 'post' tax?  It seems to be an adaptation of another saying credited to Jesus, "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's".  

   In my experience with the PCUSA, the more common technical term is 'stewardship'.  This one links back to the creation story in my understanding, where humans were made stewards of the whole creation (and an evaluation of our effectiveness would require a whole other set of posts).  We have worked out multiple 'campaigns' to achieve success in this thing called Stewardship.

    As if that is not enough, there is an entire way of thinking about Jesus that surrounds the idea of prosperity, that Jesus will give us more stuff if we are more faithful.  Is there a thread (cord) of greed in that way of thinking?  Is Jesus trying to buy our votes, our faith?  Does that mean if I don't have money, I am not a good and faithful believer?  It's messy, so very messy.

    As South Presbyterian Church, we begin in our self-identification 'as followers of the risen Lord..."  In our Seasons of Mission, we are in the time of Scholarships.  We have been SO blessed that we can give to support the academic dreams of kids at our area high schools and in our own congregation.  It is empowering and humbling that we can do this as a congregation.

    It is as though these scholarships were made for this church, something that allows us an 'in' to participate in the communities around us, it makes a difference in people's lives, and it is a demonstration of caring without regard to where a person comes from.  It is a joyful thing that we can participate in (a lot of work but a powerful witness).  

    There is the picture I want to capture for Stewardship.  That as followers of the Risen Lord, we have worked to create a place within the community, one that makes a positive difference, one that shows caring, one that we can take pride in, one that we can be excited about.  Can you picture the church, this piece of God's Kingdom, where it is our joy to give?  

    Would you share what that church looks like?

Peace,

Pastor Peter

* I am not going to verify or affirm the accuracy or inaccuracy of these quotes, we have bibles for that.