« Church giving statistics | Main | Prevent conflict over church finances »
October 15, 2007
Ken Hemphill on pastors, preaching and money
Dr. Ken Hemphill [Ken] is not only a scholar (he has a Ph.D. from Cambridge University in England) but also a pastor. He most recently held the position of president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. His current role is national strategist for Empowering Kingdom Growth-a joint effort between LifeWay and the Convention. Ken is also the author of Making Change: A Transformational Guide to Christian Money Management.
After meeting at the Convention last summer, Ken graciously accepted my invitation to be interviewed for this blog. (If you missed it, you can read it here.) During that interview, he mentioned that many pastors believe if they talk about money, then people would leave. His position is that such is not the case. I asked him to comment further as this is an area of much discussion and directly impacts the conversation within many churches on the subjects of stewardship and giving.
EXPLODING A POPULAR MYTH
During the early phase of the emphasis on “marketing the church” it seemed to be a general consensus that many people would be kept from attending church because “all they talk about is my money.” It seems that many pastors bought into this myth and often avoided this clearly offensive topic. George Barna’s research indicated that 87% percent of pastors preach about stewardship during the course of the year, but nearly 39% only preach a single sermon on giving (pg. 92). In other words, the only sermon many people heard on finances was the annual “we-have-to-give-to-make-the-budget” sermon. Thus the aversion was not to the teaching on finances but to the financial appeal to give to “feed the organization.” In truth, I think such sermons offend believers and non-believers alike. No one wants to hear a “guilt laden appeal for funds to feed the organization.” If you doubt this statement, listen to this conclusion from Barna’s extensive research. “My reading of the situation is that many people sitting in the pews choose not to give to their church because they assume the pulpit pleas for money are simply human demands for resources, without a biblical underpinning” (pg. 51).
What is the pastor to do? We know that kingdom advancing ministry is impossible without sufficient resources. The lay leadership holds us accountable for “raising the budget” and yet we are told we can’t preach on money and continue to reach the community. Actually we can and we must preach on money if we are to be faithful to God’s Word and meet the needs of our congregants. The issue is we must avoid “human appeals, without biblical underpinning.” We must teach the fundamental principals of biblical money management and stewardship.
Once again Barna’s research indicated a wide-spread ignorance of the biblical teachings about stewardship. Yet a surprising finding of Barna’s research was the willingness and eagerness of people to learn about these principals. “The people, however, display an amazing level of ignorance about a topic on which they are supposedly well versed, and they are surprisingly open to learning more about their responsibilities before God” (pg. 77).
Thus we can come to three critical conclusions. First, we must agree that the suggestion that people are unwilling to attend church if we preach on money is a myth. Second, we must avoid guilt-laden appeals for money for the budget. Third, we must address all matters related to finances. We must talk about the source and purpose of material possessions. We must give biblical counsel on how to earn, spend, save, invest, and give money. Stewardship is not a matter of meeting a budget; it is a matter of our priestly duty as a royal priesthood. It is both responsibility and privilege. It is a matter of worship and ministry.
Note: All page references are from Barna's book, How to Increase Giving in Your Church.
Posted by bstroup at October 15, 2007 1:09 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://blogs.lifeway.com/cgi-bin/mt4.1/mt-tb.cgi/346
Comments
Bro. Ken:
Excellent article that tells the truth. It has been my experience, as we are developing a stewardship of estate assets emphasis, that our fellow Baptists are begging for this information. The one's complaining that there is too much preaching on money are probably not the one's giving. I have read more than 30 books on this subject, including yours, and talked with stewardship folks in about 8 different denominations, and conclude that we must address this matter. We have seen the results in 17 Alabama Baptist churches who are averaging just over $7.5 million per church once they instituted a planned giving ministry as one part of the total stewardship ministry. To break the old model of pledging the budget annually and a capital campaign every few years is not teaching God's people the spiritual blessing that comes form giving. People love doing it and when they understand the temporal benefits of reduced estate or gift taxes, that just makes it better. Keep telling the truth and we can see great things!
Randy Driggers
Vice President for Development
The Baptist Foundation of Alabama
Posted by: Randy Driggers at October 15, 2007 12:11 PM