Normandale Lutheran Church Foundation

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How much money could be raised for God’s work each year if every Christian in the United States tithed to their Church?

I discovered the answer to this question at a conference I attended this month sponsored by Luther Seminary: “Rethinking Stewardship: Our Culture, Our Theology, Our Practices.” Conference organizers expected about 200 lay and religious leaders; they got 400 of us and had to close off reservations. The strong response shows the challenges and opportunities facing all Christian congregations dealing in these turbulent times with declining Church membership, attendance, and revenues.

Cultural anthropologist, author, and educator Angeles Arrien, in her book The Second Half of Life: Opening the Eight Gates of Wisdom, talks about the power of story in culture. “Stories are found in every culture of the world and are the oldest teaching tool we have. They are present at all rites of passage to provide a map of the tasks, challenges, tests and gifts we may face.” One of the themes that emerged from the conference was the power of our Christian story and what it means to live out that story in today’s society. All of the speakers were excellent and I could fill 3 newsletters with everything I learned. Instead, I will present here for your thought and reflection some pearls of wisdom that inspired me from two of the speakers at this conference, David Lose, chair in Biblical Teaching and assistant professor of Homiletics at Luther Seminary, and Mark Allen Powell, an internationally known biblical scholar and author of more than 25 books on the Bible and religion.

Professor Lose referenced studies on human happiness, saying that researchers have discovered two things everyone needs to be happy: a sense of belonging and a sense of purpose (which is the greatest motivator ever invented). He noted that the our Christian story offers these two things: justification—being drawn into the discipleship community (belonging) and vocation—invited to use all that you have and are in service to God (purpose). So why isn’t the story working anymore? According to Lose, it’s because our story is getting smaller in a world dominated by a culture of what he refers to as “digital pluralism.” In other words, our story is getting lost amongst other stories coming from a proliferation of new-age media (the exponential growth of the Internet and websites) that values consumption over generosity. We have moved from an age of obligation to give back our time, talent, and treasure into an age of the discretionary use of these gifts. But he also points out that the opposite of discretion is need, and if in fact people need belonging and purpose to truly be happy, Christians must tell God’s story so that it offers meaning, purpose, and identity, so that people “find themselves in God’s story… today.”

And what is God’s story, particularly as it relates to the concept of stewardship? Well, Mark Allen Powell inspired us with his storytelling entitled “Speaking the Language of Money within a Theological Context.” For Powell, stewardship is simply “an act of mission that moves the Church from Creed to Practice…the steward simply says ‘I belong to God’ and I will transform my life by living out my faith in observable ways.” In other words, stewardship is a way of life. Powell went on to describe the ELCA as a missional church with members who should consider themselves as stewards rather than owners. Everything belongs to God… we don’t own anything, including the mission(s) of our Church. According to Powell, God has a mission and we are fortunate enough to have a God who chooses US to fulfill that mission. Stewardship— the sharing of our time, talent, and treasure—is not what “we’re doing for God,” but rather what God is doing for us…through us. For Powell, the challenge we face is moving from “faithful giving” to “faithful living.” Good stewards throw their ARMS around God realizing that God cares about how we relate to our money. How we:

• Acquire it: Our vocation, whatever it may be, is something worthwhile that God has given us to do.
• Regard it: St. Paul reminds us in Philippians 4:11-12, “I have learned to be content with whatever I have.”
• Manage it: I manage my finances so that what matters to God can be accomplished.
• Spend it: How does God want me to spend my money in ways that will be pleasing to him?

We need to move from giving as a duty, says Powell, to giving as a delight. There is joy and happiness in giving out of love and gratitude for God. Transformed by the Holy Spirit, we can move from a culture that gives from obligation to a culture that gives out of grace. It is the grace of God that makes us gracious. Giving is not what we should do but rather what actually God is doing through us. A short-term view of stewardship is that it is a means to an end…a means to fund the ministries of the Church; a longer-term view is that it is the end itself, or as Powell put it, “Stewardship isn’t the means to salvation…it is salvation.”

Oh, by the way, the answer to that question I asked earlier, “How much money could be raised for God’s work each year if every Christian in the United States tithed to their Church?” $133 BILLION dollars Yours in Christ, William Marsella,

Yours in Christ,

William Marsella,
Director of Stewardship & Development

bill@normluth.org