Site
Contents
 |
General Information about the Area Office
North Indiana Conference Office
South Indiana Conference Office
Prayer Guides
(Courtesy of the NIC Prayer Team)
Area United Methodist
Foundation
For resources to assist your congregation in welcoming guests,
click here
Seashore District Volunteer Center VIM project -- Completed
Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodists together |
March 2006 |
Pastors must set pace to boost church giving
By Dwight S. Busacca
Special Contributor
The tithing program gave them confidence in themselves and what they could accomplish. |
After serving as a pastor in two churches, and then serving as a denominational agency staff member, I am convinced there is no shortage of money in United Methodist churches.
Some pastors and congregations may say, "We only have 100 to 200 members, and we are unable to pay our World Service or Conference Benevolence apportionments, to say nothing of giving to General Advance Specials." Then a new pastor is assigned to that parish and the same church suddenly pays all of its apportionments and gives to Advance Specials. Let me share with you my personal experience.
The first church that I served after graduating from seminary had about 100 members when I was assigned there. They had serious financial problems:
The church received - in today's currency - $10,000 a year as a "mission church."
It had a furnace that leaked gas. (If the city had known this, they would have closed our doors).
There was no organ for worship, only an old piano.
The church tower had serious water leaks which ruined the inside plaster.
Tithing program
Obviously, something had to be done. So I designed a program that told what the congregation could do if many of the members would consider tithing (give 10 percent of income). I asked a college friend who was a commercial artist if she would paint large 20-by-30-inch charts for me which I could use to present the tithing program to the families in the parish. The class leader and I then went to every home in the parish and presented the tithing program.
The results were amazing. In the first year we paid for a new furnace. The second year we purchased an electronic organ. The third year we had the bricks "tuck pointed" to stop the leaks in the church tower. And each year, we cut down on the money we received from the conference as a mission church.
Later, this congregation bought a new parsonage, and went on to construct a new church building. Most important, the tithing program gave them confidence in themselves and what they could accomplish.
Some persons will say, "If you challenge people to give, you will lose members." As a matter of fact, we grew in size from 100 to 150 members in this same period.
Speak effectively
After four years the conference moved me to another parish with about 325 members. The congregation greatly needed an educational unit. I spoke periodically in sermons of the role of giving and the challenge of tithing. Soon we built a new educational unit and paid for it in full. Since we needed more seating capacity for worship, on the same day we burned the mortgage for the educational unit, we broke ground for a major expansion of our sanctuary and the installation of a new organ.
Again, this was done without any help from outside fund-raising agencies, but with periodic sermon comments and illustrations of stewardship and tithing. Emphasis on giving did not hurt us, for we grew from 325 members to 750.
In order to set the pace, the pastor must be a tither and speak effectively about tithing to the congregation.
After serving these two churches as pastor, I worked as a general church agency staff member and observed pastors coming into parishes that had not paid World Service and Conference Benevolence apportionments or given to General Advance Specials in years. Suddenly, under the dynamic and creative leadership of a new pastor, the churches paid all of their World Service funds and moved on to give to Advance Special programs as well.
What made the change? The congregations remained the same; the difference was in the pastoral leadership.
I am convinced. There is no shortage of money in United Methodist churches. There may be a shortage of leadership or a shortage of challenge, but not a shortage of money.
Dr. Dwight S. Busacca serves as a former mission-development staffer of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries. He lives in Lebanon, Ohio.
This article was reprinted from the January 27, 2006 issue of the United Methodist Reporter and was used by permission of the United Methodist Reporter © 2006.
Last updated on 25 Apr 2008