Gospel.com Blog

I recently heard an interesting statement from a pastor regarding charitable giving. He explained that he only supported explicitly Christian ministries and charities with his charitable giving—no public radio, no Red Cross, and presumably no Girl Scout cookies.

He explained that there wasn’t anything wrong or immoral about those non-Christian organizations and charities. But he felt that the Great Commission obligated him to put his finite funds toward organizations that actively furthered the spread of the Gospel. Other charities might do valuable work, but they were a lower priority than evangelistic organizations. (And since there’s never going to be a shortage of evangelism needs or Christian organizations in need of help, that essentially means never supporting a non-Christian charity at all.)

This was a personal decision for him, and he didn’t try to argue that it was a rule for all Christians. But he clearly felt that this was a natural implication of the Great Commission in the modern world.

What do you think about that? Do you give higher (or sole) priority in your giving to evangelistic ministries?

Does “creation care” have a place in the Christian life? Evangelical Christians in particular have a reputation for neglecting environmental stewardship—a stereotype that has some truth to it, traceable perhaps to Christians’ belief that the Earth will pass away when the Lord returns. But today is Earth Day, and Mart De Haan has written a blog post specifically about this question of Christians and creation care:

I’ll admit that I used to argue that this earth is timed to self-destruct and that followers of Christ need to be far more concerned with things that last than those that will pass away.

I’d talk about what Paul said about worshiping the creation more than the Creator.

But Dean would quote the first part of the chapter where Paul talks about the way God uses the natural world to point to the wonder of his own existence and character.Then he’d talk about Psalm 19 that describes how God not only speaks to us through his written word, but through creation itself.

He’s referring to the Wonder of Creation blog, where Dean Ohlman writes diligently about how Christians can and should better understand the place of Creation in our spiritual lives. His post “Earth Day confessions” sums up much of his approach, and challenges the church to understand its general failure to promote Earth stewardship as a sin and a deviation from a Biblical worldview.

What’s your reaction to these posts? Have you or your church thought through the question of how environmental stewardship does (or doesn’t) fit into Christian theology? How might the church best approach this issue?

What does stewardship mean to you? Christians have long considered that part of being God-honoring stewards of our possessions is giving away a portion of those resources—to the poor and needy, to the church, to worthy organizations and ministries. But with the weight of the current economic crisis pressing down on jobs and personal finances, how are Christians to approach the idea of financial stewardship and giving? Are we under a spiritual obligation to give to the church or other causes? How much are we “supposed” to give? Is the whole concept of “tithing” even relevant to the modern church?

A series of articles about stewardship at Discipleship Tools raises these and many more questions—and dashes some of the misconceptions we have about what financial stewardship means. The series begins by asking you to consider what stewardship means to you and goes on to look at what financial stewardship should look like in our everyday lives.

Whether you’ve been faithfully putting money in the offering plate every week for years, or have never really thought about what God would have you do with your money, it’s well worth working through these questions. (And if you’re looking for more reading material on this topic, these essays tie in well with some of the resources about spirituality and money that we linked to late last year.)

A new year is right around the corner. The New Year holiday is the perfect time to take stock of your life and think about the year to come—with the hectic Christmas holiday is behind us, January 1 offers a chance to reflect on what you’d like to change in your life in 2009.

One of the most common resolutions that people make at the New Year is to get their finances in order. In the current economic climate, that makes more sense than ever. But spending money wisely isn’t just a good, practical idea; it’s an act of service to God! These articles walk through the spiritual aspect of money management, and offer some useful guidelines for making 2009 the year that you get your finances under control:

• Cindy Summer has a good short article at MOPS about making a financial fresh start. There are several other good articles on the topic of money as well, addressing topics like money management for couples and keeping careful track of your finances.
• If you want to jump right into the big topic of stewardship and what it looks like in everyday life, you can’t do better than Ray Porter’s essays about Christianity and personal finances. Porter explains the spiritual angle of financial stewardship, and then provides a lot of detailed and practical advice for creating a financial plan and using your resources wisely. (You might find the other articles about finances at the site useful, too.)

That’s a lot of information, but if you’re thinking about getting a grip on your finances in 2009, these are a good place to start.

While you may not find it interesting, one of the realities of doing church in the United States is the need to have some sort of administrative staff. Sometimes it falls to the Pastor, but if you’re lucky there’s a designated person for the job. If you happen to be in one of these church administration positions you know that it’s not exactly a piece of cake keeping all the legal, tax and money stuff straight and accounted for. And the last time you want to be asking questions like, “Does that income fall under Unrelated Business Income Tax?” is not when the IRS is asking the same thing.

Church Law & Tax Report “exists to provide church leaders, staff members, and volunteer workers with extensive legal, tax, and risk management resources and training at an affordable price.” They offer extremely practical advice and articles on everything from tax status to church safety. It is a pay site, but the resources are extensive.

Check out a few sample articles:

Negligent Supervision Part 2

Preparing For The Unthinkable: Violence in the Church

The Unrelated Business Income Tax and Publishing

How should a church treasurer respond to a donor who demands a refund?

And here’s some more about the services they offer.

For many Americans, this is one of the darkest weeks of the year: it’s the week that taxes are due. If you’ve spent a few hours lately slogging your way through your tax forms (and if you haven’t, you really should get on that), the odds are good that you’ve lamented a few financial decisions, or wondered where all your money went over the course of the year.

As you can well imagine, money concerns and worries top the list of stress-inducing topics for most everybody, rich or poor. Everyone worries about making ends meet—but for Christians, there’s an extra dimension to the whole issue of money and finances. Christians must face the question of how they are to spiritually view the pursuit of wealth, and how they are to manage their money.

The Bible has a lot to say about riches, wealth, and money management, and this week seems like the perfect time to take a look at what God teaches us about money. Whether you’re living from paycheck to paycheck or are swimming in cash, the Bible challenges you to adopt a Christlike attitude toward money. Here are some resources that explore what, exactly, that means:

• The Bible and money: resources for teaching personal money management.
• Jesus’ Parables about money: what does a man who lived 2000 years ago have to say about your money troubles today?
• A Christian view of personal finances: an in-depth Bible study to help you understand and gain control of your money.
• Teaching financial responsibility to Children: how can you help your kids develop sound financial habits in an age of materialism and debt?
• God’s gift of wealth: where does our wealth ultimately come from, and what are we supposed to do with it?
• Managing your money wisely: a short devotional about the place of wealth and money in our lives.

No Christ-follower, no matter how destitute or how rich, is exempt from this call to understand our wealth Biblically. So while finances are on your mind this week, take some time to consider how your financial life intersects with your spiritual life! We’ll be back tomorrow on Tax Day with a few more money-related items to get you thinking. Now, go forth and finish those tax forms!

It’s Black Friday! Thanksgiving is over, and Christmas is on the horizon—but unfortunately, it’s easy for us to let this time between Thanksgiving and Christmas become a celebration of materialism and not of the coming Christ child. For Christians, Christmas can be a delicate balance between giving and good stewardship. So how do we manage our spending in a way that honors God?

(more…)

Thanksgiving is coming. Do you feel thankful?

The Bible tells us to “always give thanks to God the Father for everything” (Ephesian 5:20). But what does that really mean—are we expected to literally say prayers of thanks to God as we go through the day? Prayer is a wonderful way to thank God… but what if there was a more tangible way to express our gratitude?

(more…)