Pastors Talk About Recession

It’s never a surprise when a pastor surrenders the pulpit to an outsider who agrees to tackle the subject of stewardship, money, or giving. And it’s rare that a pastor relishes the responsibility of Stewardship Sunday. However, at a time when money is on everyone’s mind, no one is better to deliver on the topic than the local pastor. The obvious recession we are in and the circumstances that got us here are reasons enough to convince some pastors that they should be talking about what’s in everyone’s wallet, their retirement accounts, and the offering plate.

One admirable pastor who is delivering on the topic is at the First Baptist Church in Minneapolis. Senior Pastor Matt Clausen shares how God allows difficulty and hardship in our lives as a way to increase our dependence upon Him. Near the end of his first message he describes how… as followers in the midst of prosperity we begin to rely upon what we have rather than upon Him and so one of the greatest goods that God can bring into our life is recession and hardship in order to produce the eternal good of dependence upon Him in us. Matt’s messages are available in mp3 format and I would highly recommend them.

Regardless of how the message is delivered, the pastor’s usual mistake is simply avoiding the topic. With people facing layoffs, reductions in wages and hours, and unemployment checks for the first time in their lives, it is especially important that the pastor get the conversation started. If not from the pulpit, try the Sunday school room, the small group, or even just the leadership gathering. Margaret Feinberg suggests… all too many leaders are shying away from talking to their congregations about cutbacks for fear of having to give “the money talk”. And rightly so, few people want to listen to the old-school “send-your-check” plea. When giving is talked about as an active, vibrant expression of our faith that ignites change not only in our hearts but in our communities… When giving is discussed in terms of specific needs within a congregation and local area…When giving is given a face, a name, a tangible expression, then people are not only willing to give but do it joyfully.

Mark Brooks, founder and president of The Charis Group, also advises… Don’t beg from the platform for money, but don’t go the other way and not say a thing. Use the time wisely each Sunday to update the members on where you are and the needs in front of you. Always remember: Good vision trumps bad economy. Give people a reason to give and they will give. Begging won’t fill the offering plate. Showing people the real needs and progress of your ministry and then asking them to financially support what you are doing will fill the plate.

In addition to getting the conversation started, I think pastors should consider this an opportunity to confront the topic openly and honestly unlike never before. We have become a culture driven by the acquisition of stuff which required the acquisition of debt to pay for that stuff. It wasn’t just Wall Street and the mortgage companies who were out of line. Without a doubt, the same people who are nervous about layoffs and gas prices are also experiencing the embarrassment of having over-extended themselves in order to keep up with the Jones, or the Johnsons, or whomever they envied with the latest $600 electronic gadget.

For me, it was Brian McLaren who said it best when he recently admonished many of us for our definition of “economic recovery” …Economic recovery means “getting back to where we were a few months or years ago.” That means recovering our consumptive, greedy, unrestrained, undisciplined, irresponsible, and ecologically and socially unsustainable way of life.

Accompanying his redefinition of economic recovery, McLaren outlines five addictions that we might consider confronting from the pulpit or from where ever else we have the opportunity; my personal favorite being our addiction to stuff. McLaren writes with his usual social-environmentalist spin… Jesus said that a person’s life doesn’t consist in the abundance of her possessions. An economy that measures growth by the number of durable goods (resources) extracted from the environment and turned into non-durable goods that are bought, used, and then thrown away into a landfill … that economy “succeeds” by turning goods into trash, and calling it success. That’s not success. We need to imagine moving beyond an extractive, consumptive economy to a sustainable economy, and beyond a sustainable economy to a regenerative economy. I believe that in God’s world, if billions can be made destroying the planet and exploiting people addictively, trillions can be made caring for the planet wisely and caring for people justly.

If the congregation doesn’t read McLaren, pastors might simply re-visit 2^nd Corinthians where we encounter the Macedonians being generous in the midst of difficult times. Using this New Testament text, we avoid tithe-talk and preferably encourage the people to experience generosity unlike never before. Realistically, those who are giving ten-percent will continue to do so; and those who are not, certainly are not going to start now.

To wrap this up, Dr. Steve McSwain, author of The Giving Myths, echoes my overall sentiment by saying… Generosity is never tied to your circumstances, but to your convictions. [The Macedonians] had every reason to quarantine the meager resources they did have. Instead, however–and this is what shocked Saint Paul–their generosity was outlandish…. Just as in Macedonia, this kind of outlandish generosity exists today… it isn’t because of sermons on tithing or the pulpit scolding of those who do not give. If you’re interest is in growing a spiritually healthy church, motivation for giving must come from somewhere other than guilt for not giving or shame for giving too little.