It can be argued, and perhaps with few objections, that there is never a good time to hear bad news.
Don KirklandIn fact, an article entitled “Scrooge Lives,” which appears in the December edition of Christianity Today, opens with this sobering statement: “This could be the worst moment in our lifetimes to discover that American Christians give away relatively little of their money.”
Worst moment indeed.
It is not, however, a new problem. It is made worse, however, by the current downturn in the American economy, considered by many to be the worst in nearly two decades.
The next few months, and perhaps the next several years, will test the generosity of all Americans and especially Christians. Our neighbors, defined by the New Testament as any who are in need, may require more help from us in the weeks and months to come than we have become accustomed to giving.
Lack of generosity among American Christians will have a profound impact on the financial health of our churches as well.
Three sociologists — Christian Smith, Michael Emerson and Patricia Snell — have completed a study published by Oxford University Press under the title of “Passing the Plate.”
Although they are not new, the findings still are discouraging. The researchers discovered that more than one in four American Protestants give away no money at all, “not even a token $5 per year,” according to the Christianity Today article.
It is somewhat uplifting to learn from their study that among all the Christian groups surveyed, evangelical Protestants scored highest. Only 10 percent of evangelicals, it turned out, give nothing away. Thirty-six percent of the evangelicals reported that they give away less than 2 percent of their yearly incomes, and only about 27 percent of them tithe.
Matters are made even worse by the finding published in “Passing the Plate” that those who consider themselves to be committed Christians — believers who say that faith is important in their lives, believers who attend church at least two times each month — earn more than $2.5 trillion annually.
The co-authors of the study estimated that if these Christians gave away 10 percent, a tithe, of their earnings after taxes, it would provide an additional $46 billion to support various ministries worldwide.
Results of the study are disturbing, disappointing and even alarming, but they should not be at all surprising to any who have followed the giving practices of church members within our denomination. In truth, “Passing the Plate” reveals what has been obvious for decades to those who have had their fingers on the pulse of our congregations, and it is this: Small groups of Christians who are generous are “covering” for the vast majority of Christians who give away nothing or very little of their earnings.
As a youth growing up in the home of a Baptist minister, I heard my father and other area pastors speak of a “20-80 principle” — meaning 20 percent of the members of a typical congregation contributed 80 percent of the money and did 80 percent of the work necessary to keep the church up and running in both good times and bad.
The “Passing the Plate” study confirms the general truth of that ratio, although there certainly are congregations in which members give and do more, just as there are churches where they give and do less.
This pattern of giving, which is both troubling and enlightening, represents nothing less than a deserved commendation of the few and a condemnation, just as deserved, of the many.
The study also revealed that the Americans who give away the most money, in terms of percentages of their incomes, are those who earn the least. Households of “committed Christian” who made less than $12,500 annually give away approximately 7 percent of their earnings. No other bracket topped that percentage until income climbed beyond $90,000. Persons in that category give away 8.8 percent of their earnings.
Difficult times, whether they stem from financial, emotional or physical problems, never fail to test our mettle. They help define “what we’re made of,” as the old expression goes.
This will be especially true for South Carolina Baptists, who will operate in months to come on trimmed-down personal budgets that will impact how much they can contribute to their churches and to charity.
The apostle Paul felt a responsibility for the churches he helped start and loved devotedly. “Besides everything else,” he said in 2 Corinthians 11:28, recalling his many sufferings for the sake of the gospel, “I am burdened down, worrying about all the churches”
It is to be expected that the primary concern for all of us is our own congregations, which probably without exception are looking ahead to, and planning for as best they can, a year of reduced resources for ministry. The more than 2,000 churches of our convention have by this time adopted budgets that are frugal and reflect the congregation’s sense of caution while expressing optimism and hope tempered by the times.
Every one of our churches will face its own fair share of uncertainties in 2009.
Our churches remain committed to the work of Christ within their own congregations, in the surrounding communities, throughout our state and nation, and around the world. Their faithful giving will attest to this dedication to our Lord’s work. But all church members must carry their own weight. It is wrong to continue to allow a small percentage of generous Christians to shoulder the load of the Lord’s work with little or no help from their fellow believers.
If all will contribute as they are able, the work of Christ can flourish even when the economy is down, and each church member will be blessed as the weight of the work — including financial support — is properly distributed among all of the fellowship, not just the faithful few.