I just got back from our Synod Assembly here in New England. I have
to tell you that what I was most impressed with in all of the three
days there were the young people who were there.
Often the preponderance of voting members are older. I assume in part
because retired people have the time to get away for three days to
attend. But there were young people there too. And they were
thoughtful and articulate. One got up and spoke to the fact that the
Gen-X-ers, as they are called, don't really get what some of us are
really wrestling with, and that is the questions before us this year
surrounding homosexuality.
One thing they do get better than we do however is giving. One young
man (and I have asked him to write a guest column for me. I hope he
will.) got up and spoke about tithing. He talked about the older
people in his church who had been generous and giving toward him when
he was growing up. He thinks that is why he tithes.
Yes, he said the "T" word. The main thing that struck me in all that
he said was that if the people who love the Lord and love this church
do not tithe, then who will? We are the ones who are here because we
care about God's work in this world.
Another thing he said was that most pastors suck at talking about
money. He is right. When I ran into him later he said that when
pastors ask him to come to their congregations to talk about giving,
his first question to them is, "Do you tithe?"
If we who love the Lord and want to further the work of the kingdom do
not take giving of our money seriously then who will? I think we
should extend that past pastors to everyone who works on stewardship
and everyone who serves on councils and everyone who is serious about
giving thanks for what God has given.
What we do as the church is our thanks made visible. The more we show
our thanks the more visible the kingdom of God becomes for others.
I keep thinking of what it would look like in our church if everyone
tithed. Instead of voting on deficits we would be trying to figure
out what new program we should start or what new direction we should
go. Who can we help better this year?
Lord, our prayer today is that you would open
our eyes to see that we are the people you have called, with all our
gifts including our money, to do you work. We pray that you would
open our hearts to give and to do and to be your people. Amen
