I'm not sure why I'm going to continue other than the fact that I said I would. So here's #6.
Distrust & Misallocation of Resources
At first glance this one seems kind of ridiculous. Clearly anyone who donates to any organization wants the resources used wisely and to trust that the leadership is making good decisions. This is why there are organizations who exist for the purpose of rating non profits on how well they responsibly manage their finances.
Perhaps, like the other resources he's missed, he's unaware of this also.
"Over and over we’ve been told to “tithe” and give 10 percent of our
incomes to the church, but where does that money actually go?
Millennials, more than any other generation, don’t trust institutions, for we have witnessed over and over how corrupt and self-serving they can be."
This one sentence contains enough problems to make me question how much this guy actually knows.
1. From a NT (Church) perspective the tithe is not a requirement, but a guide. While I'm sure there are folks who "tell" people that the tithe is required, more and more this is not the case. Clearly there is a Biblical warrant for supporting the church financially running through both the OT and the NT, but the NT is much more about attitude than about percentage. It's also more about acknowledging that God owns it all anyway and that we should give out of gratitude not compulsion.
2. Virtually every church in the U.S. publishes a yearly report that actually tracks what and where they spend money on. Most denominations require this and it's something that is readily available for the asking. I'm a little shocked he didn't know this.
3. Maybe if "millennials" were a little more discerning about how they looked at things this wouldn't be a problem. Maybe if they'd take the time to discern that not all "institutions" are the same and with a bit of research it's possible to determine which ones do better than others. Of course, it's shallow to lump all millenials together as a monolithic bloc, further it's shallow to lump all "institutions" together as a monolithic bloc, even further it's a bit arrogant for the author to presume to speak for either of the two blocs. Isn't it possible that this is as much the fault of a misguided worldview as it is any actual misbehavior by the church?
"We want pain-staking transparency. We want to see on the church homepage a document where we can track every dollar."
Again, while it might require a bit more work to ask questions and get the printed copy, it's available. It's usually called the Annual Report.
One has to wonder if the author expects the same standards of transparency from other organizations.
"Why should thousands of our hard-earned dollars go toward a mortgage on a
multi-million dollar building that isn’t being utilized to serve the
community, or to pay for another celebratory bouncy castle when that
same cash-money could provide food, clean water and shelter for someone
in need?"
Once again, if were going to judge every church in America by the perceived failures of the worst of them, this might make sense. Fortunately there are thousands of churches out there with a variety of views on how best to spend money. It's just a matter of finding one whose values in this area align with yours. Clearly there are churches who make poor decisions, but to judge all other churches based on that doesn't seem like an intellectually honest approach.
Solutions
- Go out of your way to make all financial records readily accessible. Earn our trust so we can give with confidence.
- Create an environment of frugality.
- Move to zero-based budgeting where departments aren’t allocated certain dollar amounts but are asked to justify each purchase.
- Challenge church staff to think about the opportunity cost. Could these dollars be used to better serve the kingdom?
I have no argument with any of the proposed solutions, they all seem to make a fair amount of sense. My problem is with the underlying assumption that these things are not happening and the intellectually lazy approach that doesn't recognize that fact. If God own everything, and we are using those resources for His kingdom, then of course we should be responsible in how we do so. Just because there are some TV preacher charlatans out there, doesn't mean that those kinds of things are the norm.
4 comments:
This one is especially galling. It demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of the point of giving to the church. Let's assume the 10% tithe is in effect as a rule. What is this money? It is money to support the place of worship and the ministers therein. I'd say it includes all who actually work for the congregation's house of worship...church secretaries, grounds keepers, etc. More to the point, it is that portion of our personal profits that go to God. It replaces giving over the best calf or sheep from one's herd or flock, from which the priest would take a cut for his own sustenance. From the perspective of the giver, however, it's going to God. In any case once given, the giver has no right or authority to demand how it is used. He doesn't get to approve of how it's used. It would be as if one is holding God to account for that which He requires of us.
In every church with which I've been affiliated, anything aside from supporting the church is extra. It might be for mission trips, or directed to a special charity, but it never is the same money as the tithe. Again, the tithe is God's and it has nothing to do with whether or not God has any personal need for some scratch.
Then there's the issue of congregation size. A large church will naturally have more tithe money coming in. It can then indeed be a church that is flush with cash. So what? Again...God's money. It is not the church (the priest and other employees of the church) that has as its duty the feeding of the poor (for example). That's OUR job...that is, money we donate for the purpose apart from the tithing.
Now for any and all charitable efforts the church oversees on behalf of the faithful, yes, THAT money needs to go where it is intended to go by those who are doing the giving. It is reasonable to expect accountability there. But unless I missed it, I don't believe the author differentiated between tithing and charitable donations. Those are only of the same category on his tax forms, not in practice.
Personally I get the desire for transparency and good stewardship of resources, I agree that it's a good thing. My problem is that what he wants already exists and that it's not just a millennial thing.
It boils down to the fact that he seems unaware of the reality of the situation and unwilling to put in the effort to investigate individual churches as opposed to simply brought brushing every church and lumping them all together. As with many of his points he seems determined to identify the worst characteristics of the worst churches and to impute those characteristics to all churches.
This assumes that his efforts, such as they may be, to get answers are done in a reasonable way that actually gets answers. It assumes he's accepting the answers at all should he get any. Since on every point you expose the reality that he "seems" to miss, I don't know that I can trust anything he says about his own behaviors regarding the issue he brought up.
I think that his biggest problem in this whole piece is his willingness to treat both "millennials" and "the church" as if they are monolithic. The fact that virtually everything he's asking for is happening makes me really wonder how serious he is about actually finding answers.
IMO, problem #2 is his assumption that these concerns apply only to millennials and not to other generations as well.
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