A Modest Counterproposal to The New Tithe

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Pastor Foley

You perhaps have seen by now the winner of the 2011 Project Reason video contest, a piece entitled The New Tithe:

Mega-churches have used religion as fund-raising tool for too long. They shower their followers in sanctimonious platitudes, then clamor for their cash. This video encourages a new definition of tithing by giving to causes with accountability.

A few thoughts, and then a modest counterproposal:

  1. I admit it. I like the video. I think much of it is absolutely true. (Up to about the 2:08 mark, anyway.) As Generous Church notes, 97% of the money donated to churches is spent on those who give it. That’s not good, and we Christians should be publicly spanked for that. The New Tithe video is a well-done spanking. (Well, up to 2:08, anyway.)
  2. At the 2:08 mark, the video begins to tumble unceremoniously off a cliff with its assertion, “You don’t need church to give.” Instead, the video suggests, give to “causes with accountability.” As those of us who have worked with “causes” for many years try to stifle our amusement at the idea of nonprofits being regarded as bastions of programmatic and financial accountability, the video proceeds to list of representative causes. One of these is “Yoga”. Yoga?
  3. Questions of religion aside, what the video overlooks is that causes have historically made very poor accountability agents (see “fox guarding henhouse”). This is why giving circles continue to soar in popularity. And churches have the potential to become the best giving circles–and accountability agents–of all. Well, once we stop spending 97% of our money on ourselves.

So we offer a modest counterproposal to The New Tithe–one we practice in the .W church plant we started in January in Colorado Springs and Seoul. We wrote about our own “New Tithe” earlier this year in a post entitled Don’t Wait for the Government to Repeal the Charitable Tax Deduction; Instead, Repeal it Personally:

Rather than taking an offering each Sunday, we as a congregation prepare to make our offering once a month, on the last Sunday of each month. A month’s preparation has a way of keeping the offering from being a tip for services rendered (literally).

But what I’m most excited about with regard to our offering is that each member commits to offering a tithe, of which 30 percent is given to the church (with a third going to the church, a third going to our denomination’s regional conference, and a third going to the denomination) and 70 percent is consecrated at the altar…and then immediately received back again by each member, to be disbursed personally by that member as the church’s minister within his or her own sphere of influence.

70 percent of the tithe, in other words, is not tax deductible because it doesn’t go through the church. It’s consecrated at the altar and then given directly by the church member to those to whom the members learn to personally minister. (Training in giving embedded in service is a key part of what the church program is all about, even for the congregation’s children. Giving and serving should be done by the family jointly, after all.)

Forget giving to causes with accountability. Instead, distribute your philanthropy directly and personally, and meet monthly to be held accountable by others doing the same thing, in order to ensure that your giving really is making a difference.

For Christian and non, that is truly The New Tithe.

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Barna’s New Book is the Perfect Research Companion to My New Whole Life Offering Book. Better Get Both.

Posted on April 15, 2011 by Pastor Foley

I was pleasantly surprised to see the announcement of George Barna’s new book, Maximum Faith: Live Like Jesus, on the Barna Group website. I say pleasantly surprised not because I expect George to call me every time before he publishes a book (an advance copy and a box of chocolates is certainly sufficient), but rather because the topic of George’s book and the topic of my new book, The Whole Life Offering: Christianity as Philanthropy overlap so delightfully:

Six years after beginning what he assumed would be a relatively typical research process that sought to better understand how God transforms people’s lives, researcher George Barna discovered that he had tackled a deeply challenging and amazingly revealing journey. The product of his effort was the ability to identify some of the developmental processes, experiences, and obstacles that are common across the lives of Americans of all backgrounds. He contends that while the details of people’s developmental story differ, everyone is on a spiritual journey and there is sufficient similarity in those journeys that we can describe a normative life path – a map that can help people make greater progress if their goal is to become more Christ-like.

There are even some similarities to my first book, Coach Your Champions, that are worth noting–like the “normative life path” part. In Coach Your Champions we lay out the idea of a “champion map,” laying out a trajectory enabling the champion to grow to fullness in Christ in the cause, by the power of the Holy Spirit. (And check out these two previous blog posts from our site here and here, since they nicely cinch up this topic.)

In the “I couldn’t agree with you more, George” Department, I like this quote in particular from the book announcement on the Barna site:

Every person is on a spiritual journey of some sort. The value of the new research, according to Barna, is that most people who consider themselves to be Christian, regardless of their level of spiritual maturity, are entangled in more of a circular journey than a consistently progressive route. While the journey orchestrated by God is not always strictly linear, it has discernible destination points along the way, and a clearly identifiable end point that followers of Christ may partner with the Holy Spirit to reach before they die.

The “more of a circular journey” reminds me of my April 2009 post entitled Who Needs a Map, where I wrote:

I’m reminded of a line of questioning I receive frequently from ministries:

Do I really need to use a coaching plan form when I meet with a champion? Isn’t it less mechanistic if I just wing it and rely on the Holy Spirit’s direction?

My reply:

Only use a coaching plan form with champions you actually want to see grow. For champions you don’t mind seeing go around and around in circles beeping their horns and chasing their taillights like Shriners in a parade, no coaching plan is necessary.

It appears from the info on the book on Barna’s site (I didn’t yet receive my advance copy with the box of chocolates, sadly, so I’ve had to plunk down the $15.20 plus shipping from all the way over here in Korea) that George and I prescribe quite different–though I suspect hardly incompatible–paths forward for folks responding to the call to fullness in Christ.

So I think we all just better order both books, here and here. (Isn’t it sporting and very mature in a Christian way that I listed George’s first?)

And toss in a copy of Coach Your Champions, too, just to be safe. (Oops. So much for mature.)

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The Worst–and Most Common–Fundraising Ask From Missionaries, and How to Fix It

Posted on April 13, 2011 by Pastor Foley

It’s always a beautiful day in the neighborhood when my favorite guest blogger, Todd Eckhardt from World Gospel Mission, drops by. Todd’s topic today: The worst (and, not coincidentally, most transactional) ask a missionary can make, and how to transform it into something, you know, transformational.

Take it away, Todd “TG” Eckhardt!

Be careful not to slip into transaction when the pressure is on to get to the field.  The method of “10 more donors at $10 a month” can end up being just about YOU. This old method can become stale and ‘me’ focused quickly if we are not careful because by itself it does not move folks to transformation.  A few simple tweaks of this appeal can move this to transformation.

But before we tweak it let’s look at the dangers of it without looking for transformation.

Dangers using this appeal in your newsletters:

•             Keep in mind that the majority of the ones getting the letters (email) already give monthly so this type of appeal may be preaching to the choir.

•             This appeal tends to be all about the missionary and not about the champion.

•             This appeal fosters no involvement outside of cash.

So we need to move this appeal to transformation…

1.            The time has come for the “O’s” [Editor’s note: Owners; if this term is new to you, just search on “Owner” in the search box on this here blog page] on the mailing list to get different info than the rest of the list. For example the “O” can receive an email the week before the general email saying something like, “Next week we will be sending an update to the team.  In this update we will be asking the team to rally together for the last bit of the financial part needed for the ministry in ..wherever.. Let’s join together in prayer this week as God prepares the hearts of those who will receive the coming update.”  This now gets the “O’s” mobilized.  Then they can also receive the general letter to so they can see it firsthand.

2.            When the general letter goes out it needs to move people to action greater than giving. For example it could state, “For those already assisting in the financial goal of the team, ask God what may be next for you. If the Lord shows other ways you can help the cause we would love to hear what God is doing in your journey.”

3.            When the general letter goes out it needs to focus on the team and the champion rather than language like “We need or I need only 25 more donors”  The “I need” once again makes the champion a spectator not a player.

Example of the tweaks to the “We need only 25 more donors at $40 per month and we can get to the field.” appeal.

“As we all have been working these past few months to mobilize the Gospel for the country, here is an update on how we are doing.  To have the ministry extend to the country, $$$$ is needed to reach the financial portion of the outreach goal. So as a team let’s trust God as we work together to see Him provide. One way God can provide is for this need to be shared. For example, the need would be met by 25 new champions at $40.  Pray about what God would have you do or whom God would have you talk to about being part of the outreach in the country.”

This is just an example.  There are several ways this could be presented.  Maybe you could even attach to an email a coupon the champion could print and use to recruit others.

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