Generous Giving

The Rev. Dr. James Forbes will be the featured speaker at the Symposium on Preaching and Stewardship June 12-14 at Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis.

Forbes is a noted author, scholar and preacher. He was voted one of the 12 most effective preachers in the English speaking world in 1996. He has twice been named by Ebony magazine as one of the US’s greatest Black preachers. After 13 years of teaching homiletics at Union Theological Seminary he was called to be the first African American to serve the Riverside Church in New York City. He currently serves as the president of the Healing of the Nations Foundation, a national ministry of healing and spiritual revitalization.

Click here for registration and more information.

Kathryn Tanner, Professor of Theology at the Divinity School, University of Chicago, published Economy of Grace in 2005 (Fortress Press).  In it she attempts to develop the argument “that Christianity does have an economic vision for the whole of life”, and that it provides a platform from which to critique the economic orthodoxy that prevails in most of the world.

This vision is organized around the concept of gift.  She draws clear lines between giving on the one hand and all other forms of transfer on the other.

“The sense of gift or grace that organizes our reading of the Christian story should fundamentally undercut principles of exchange of all these sorts.  Notions of debt, contractual obligation, loan, even stewardship, should be written out of the story about God’s relations to the world and our relations with God and one another, in light of an understanding of grace that is fundamentally incompatible with them.”

Kathryn Tanner, Economy of Grace, pp. 56-7

She also provides a connection between generosity and social justice.

“God’s purpose in giving is to benefit creatures, and therefore the proper return of God’s giving is not so much directed back to God as directed to those creatures.  A proper return here is one in which God’s gifts both do the creatures who receive them good and are used for the good of others.”

Tanner, pp. 68-9

Gratitude is the simply the natural response to a gift, to grace:

“The gift’s goodness is what inclines one to affirm that fact, to thank the one who brought it, to praise and honour the giver for her kindness and generosity.  One doesn’t usually make a return like that to the giver because one has to, but out of a free and joyful testimony to what one has received from another’s hands.”

Tanner, p. 69

The book is organized into three sections.  The first section is a rigorous analysis of different ways of comparing two autonomous “fields”.  Even with an advanced degree in philosophy, I found it tough going and not very rewarding to a non-academic reader.

The second section, “Imagining Alternatives to the Present Economic System”, was of the greatest interest, although not without some challenges.

The final section, “Putting a Theological Economy to Work”, is a long critique of contemporary capitalism from the perspective developed earlier in the book.  A degree in economics would help here, although anyone who is following the current economic crisis in Europe and the debate over growth vs.  austerity will find many points of relevance.

The economy that we are accustomed to, the one we take for granted when we use the word, runs on money.  There are two main types of transaction: buying and selling is one; lending and borrowing is the other.  Money has come to have other kinds of significance in this economy.  It confers power, prestige, social status and self esteem, among other things.

We may forget that “economy” comes from the Greek oikonomia, meaning administration, management, or housekeeping.  If we return to the original meaning of the word we can speak of different types of economy, since there are different ways of administering or managing.

It would be foolish to attempt a comprehensive theological exposition of grace, although the commonly accepted definition is “undeserved favour”.  A few linguistic references are in order.

The Latin source of “grace” is gratia, whose meaning includes thankfulness (from which we get our words “grateful” and “gratitude”).  The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary says that “grace” is the English translation of a Greek word meaning “that which brings delight, joy, happiness, or good fortune” — in short, a gift.  Grace is connected with our concepts of both giving and gratitude.

This gives me the courage to suggest that we might imagine an economy of grace, a social system organized around giving and thanking, where the currency is generosity and gratitude.

How might this differ from the economy we are used to?  The idea of gratitude suggests appreciating what we have, as opposed to wanting what we don’t have.  Of course if this were applied universally it might lead to the end of civilization as we know it.   Come to think of it, there are some days when that prospect is not entirely  without appeal.

On a less apocalyptic level, an economy of grace might cause us to plan differently.

The traditional form of strategic planning identifies what we need but do not have, and finds a way to get what we need.   Asset-based planning first takes an inventory of what we already have, then finds  creative ways of using what we have to create something new.  One is based on scarcity, the other on abundance.

For a very accessible introduction to asset-based planning, I recommend The Power of Asset Mapping: How Your Congregation Can Act on Its Gifts by Luther K. Snow.  The book contains step-by-step instructions on how to do an asset mapping workshop with a small group in a church setting.

Next time, a look at a scholarly attempt to construct an economy of grace.

Can you spare 10 minutes to watch something that will open and warm your heart?

This is a visual essay about being thankful for simple pleasures.  A filmmaker captures beautiful images and the wise words of a young girl and an old man.    Watch, listen and enjoy.

Happiness Revealed

“Let the gratefulness overflow into blessing all around you.  Then it will really be a good day.”

Unidentified man in film

[In my humble opinion, these TED talks are the best thing on the internet.  If you haven't already found them, visit www.ted.com and have a peek at what's available.  But be warned, TED can be addictive.]

From time to time, in my more pessimistic moments, I’ve thought that our church maintains a conspiracy of silence on money and giving.  “Conspiracy” is probably too strong a word, so let’s call it an unconscious collusion not to talk about those things.

Bishop Michael Pryse has spoken about what he calls a middle-class taboo against discussing money.  People who have little money aren’t reluctant to tell others how much they earn, or how they struggle to pay the bills.  And people who have a lot of money are happy to flaunt their wealth through conspicuous consumption or (seemingly) casual conversations about their large homes or their vacation trips.  But those of us in the middle are pretty tight-lipped when it comes to revealing any information about our personal financial circumstances.  We don’t want to be thought of as having too much money or too little, so we maintain a discreet, uptight embargo on the subject.

When you were growing up, were you privy to the specifics of household income and spending?  Have you let your own kids in on these sorts of details?  Me neither.

In my experience this taboo extends to the subject of charitable giving, including giving to the church.  I’ve encountered people who aren’t even sure how much they put on the offering plate, often because their spouse makes that decision and they never discuss it between them.

The process of creating a culture of generous giving may need to begin with breaking the silence.  We all should know how much we’re giving now and the reasons behind it.  Wouldn’t it be great if we understood the attitudes and habits formed in childhood that now direct our behaviour as adults?  What would happen if we could identify the ways our faith interacts with cultural norms to shape our practices?

Imagine what it would be like to explore these questions with others, in a context that is safe and supportive.

A couple of years ago, under the personal leadership of Bishop Susan Johnson, the ELCIC created and distributed a resource called “Conversation on Gratitude and Generosity“.  It is an outline for a 30-minute dialogue on our personal theology, attitudes and practices that has been used at meetings of National Church Council, Synod Councils and congregational councils across the church.

If you haven’t already done so, why not download the file and consider using it with a group in your congregation?  If we can’t talk about this stuff, how will we ever be able to change?

Spotted on the back cover of my recent copy of Sports Illustrated, a full-page ad for Embassy Suites Hotels™ with this tag-line:

“The more MORE [sic] you have the more you have to have more.”

The point of the ad is that this particular hotel chain offers more of what people want, or need.  The specific benefit offered is “complimentary drinks every evening”.

It seems to me that, apart from the commercial message, there are at least two other ways of reading the copy-writer’s line:

• You (me, all of us) are right to want more, in fact we deserve it.  Wanting more is completely normal, and it should be rewarded appropriately.  It’s not even optional; we have to have more.  So get out of our way, all you nay-sayers, foreign environmentalist radicals and enemies of the North American way of life.
• The unfortunate thing about affluence is that it creates insatiable desire.  Getting what we want does not produce satisfaction, it merely produces more wanting.  We are addicts always in search of a fix, always needing a higher dose.

What are your thoughts about having more?

Should the pastor know, in full detail, who gives what in his/her congregation?

Many of the pastors I’ve talked with say they don’t know, and they don’t want to know.  Their reasons include the following:

• Anything to do with money is best left to the laity, who have greater expertise.  It’s not a pastor’s job to get involved in financial matters.  Often that has been made clear by lay leaders in the congregation.
• Salaries make up a very large chunk of most congregational budgets.  If clergy show an interest in what people give, it may appear that they are only interested in feathering their own nest.
• They don’t want their pastoral ministry to be influenced by the knowledge of who gives what.  They might treat people differently as a result, and that would be wrong.  It is important to treat everyone the same when it comes to pastoral care.

Some pastors are proud of their utter indifference to, or ignorance of, financial matters in their congregation.  They appear to think that it somehow marks them as more virtuous or at least more spiritual.  (Notice the dualism that creeps into the conversation as we make distinctions between pastoral ministry and lay ministry, or things that are spiritual and things that are material.)

Last May I posted a review in this space of a a book by J. Clif Christopher, Not Your Parents’ Offering Plate (you can find it if you scroll back to the earliest posts here).  He devotes several chapters to a consideration of the pastor’s role in church fundraising.

In a chapter entitled “All Members Are Not Equal”, he argues that it would be folly to treat wealthy members the same as middle-class or lower-class members.  “The argument that I hope you hear being made is that the rich need the attention of their pastor to know how to handle the burden of money.”

In the next chapter, “The Pastor Must Be A Fund-Raiser”, he suggests that it is ridiculous that churches do not demand leadership from their pastors in this area.  Senior leaders of every other type of non-profit organization are expected to be fund-raisers, so why not pastors?

“It is because people grumble.  And why do people grumble? . . . It is because most of them are not giving as they know the Bible commands, and they do not want light shed on that fact.”

J. Clif Christopher

Not Your Parents’ Offering Plate

Christopher offers four reasons why it is important for a pastor to know who gives what (paraphrased here):

1. It will help the pastor raise more money.
2. It will help to assess the effectiveness of church programs.
3. It will let the pastor give thanks for people’s gifts.
4. It will help the pastor “capture their real gift: their soul”.

To this list I’ll add a fifth: it will allow a pastor to recognize pastoral issues that may be signalled by changes in the pattern of giving.  Has someone in the household lost a job, incurred unusual medical expenses or had to provide financial support to a family member?  Did someone get a big raise or come into an inheritance?  Is someone mad at the pastor, the church or God and wants to send a message about it?  Many different things could be happening, good things or bad things, but the member might hesitate to tell the pastor directly.  Knowing who gives what is like having an early warning system for other issues.

I am a strong proponent of pastors being in the know.  What is your view?

In the last posting we considered what gratitude can do for us — that is the experience of gratitude when we are on the receiving end of a gift.  But there is a different experience of gratitude that occurs when we are on the giving end.  To put it another way, in the first case it is our own gratitude we experience but in the second case it is another’s.

What is it like to be thanked for a gift we have given?  I’d say it’s . . . gratifying.  It feels good to be thanked, to be acknowledged, to be recognized for what we have done.  We don’t always give a gift with the expectation of being thanked (for example, anonymous gifts).  But in the majority of cases there is a normal and entirely legitimate expectation that the recipient of our gift will say “thank you”.  When thanks are not expressed, there is something incomplete about the experience of giving.

As children we are taught to say “please” and “thank you”.  My mother tried valiantly to train me to sit down immediately after Christmas and my birthday and write thank-you notes to my distant aunts and uncles who had sent me a gift.  It was simply good manners, she would say (even if I didn’t care much for the gift).

Cygnus Applied Research Inc., founded by an Ontario woman named Penelope Burk, has developed a philosophy it calls Donor-Centered Fundraising®.  In the company’s landmark study on donor motivation, they found that “87% of Cygnus’ study respondents said they would give again the next time they were asked, 64% would make a larger gift, and 74% would continue to give indefinitely, if they received the following every time they made a gift:

1. prompt, meaningful acknowledgment of their gifts
2. reassurance that their gifts will be directed as donors intend
3. meaningful results on their gifts at work, before they are asked for another contribution”

“This basic gesture automatically transforms fundraising from transactional, which values only the narrow activity of asking for money, to relational which expresses how much you appreciate your donors and demonstrates your willingness to be accountable to them for the contributions they have made.”

http://www.cygresearch.com/about/dcfphil.php

How often do we thank people in the church for their gifts of money, or service, or even their presence?

In my experience, it is a minority of congregations that even include a thank-you letter with the annual donation receipt handed out or mailed to donors each February.  We should be looking for opportunities to thank people, beyond this bare minimum, for what they give .  How many different ways could we find to express our gratitude to them if we started looking?

There are two barriers that might account for our reluctance to thank church members for their giving.

One is possibly a deep-seated attitude, resulting from years of exposure to the stewardship paradigm, that when people give they are just doing their job as stewards.  Why should we thank people for doing what they have an obligation to do?

The other is a conundrum about who should do the thanking.  It can feel awkward to thank each other, particularly in a small congregation.

In my view thanking donors is one of the responsibilities of the formal leadership — and that means Council chair and pastor(s).  Why not have both of them sign letters, or jointly make public expressions of appreciation?

I know an Anglican priest, rector of a fairly large parish, who hand-writes a personal note on every thank-you letter that accompanies the annual donation receipt.  The larger the donation, the longer the note (of course, he knows who gives how much).  It takes time, yes, but he considers it a crucial part of his job.

Is there someone at your church who has made thanking people an important part of their job?

This book appeared a few years ago in a reading list published by the Globe and Mail on the Saturday before Thanksgiving Day.  The author is a professor of psychology at the University of California Davis and a leading scholar in the positive psychology movement.  More than that, he is probably a Lutheran — after all, who else would quote from the LBW in a book on psychology?

Emmons reports on a series of experiments designed to measure whether the experience of gratitude had any observable effects.

“We discovered scientific proof that when people regularly engage in the systematic cultivation of gratitude, they experience a variety of measurable benefits: psychological, physical and interpersonal.”

Robert A Emmons, Thanks!

Remarkably, the experimental group still enjoyed the benefits of their directed behaviour six months after the experiment ended.

What was it that the scientists had the subjects do?  Once a week, for ten weeks, they kept a gratitude journal in which they listed five things they were grateful for that had happened the previous week.

The author lists a number of other techniques we can use to help us experience a sense of gratitude for what we have.  One of them is called “going through the motions”.

“By living the gratefulness we don’t feel, we begin to feel the gratefulness we live.”

Brother David Steindl-Rast

What would people be willing to pay for a drug that made them feel happier and more optimistic; that reduced their health complaints and helped them sleep longer and awake more refreshed; that improved their relationships and made them feel less lonely?  Those are the experimental results Dr. Emmons attributed to a few minutes of drug-free gratitude journalling per week.

After reading the book, I conducted an experiment of my own.

A congregation had invited me to speak during sermon time at the 8:15 a.m. service on a cold, snowy January morning in Northern Ontario.  The group that faced me as I stood in the pulpit consisted of about 25 hardy souls scattered throughout a sanctuary that could hold several times that number.  Few people made eye contact with me as I began to speak; many people had tightly folded arms and wore the characteristic scowl of “God’s frozen people”.  With some trepidation I invited them to turn to their neighbour and take turns describing one thing in their life that they were grateful for.

Within moments the sanctuary came alive with the buzz of conversation.  When I called “time” to end the exercise, the people who turned back to face me had been transformed.  Their eyes were bright and attentive, smiles had replaced frowns and bodies were relaxed.  It was a minor miracle.  Just to be sure that it wasn’t a fluke, I tried the same experiment at the 10:30 service and observed similar results.

If people knew that gratitude was good for them – in body, mind and soul – would they pursue it out of sheer self-interest?  How might we be changed by cultivating an attitude of gratitude?  How might our congregations be transformed if a growing number of members started experiencing gratitude and enjoying its benefits?

My guess is that cultivating gratitude is a way of beginning to nurture a culture of generosity in our congregations.

Outside of churchland, the word “thanksgiving” is primarily used as the name of an autumn holiday.  Most people in Canadian society probably associate Thanksgiving with a meal of turkey, root vegetables and pumpkin pie.  If they bother to think of its origin and meaning, the best they might come up with is a hazy image of our country’s agrarian past.

In the context of how we can nurture generous giving, I draw your attention to two separate, but related, senses of thanksgiving:

• being thankful for what we have;
• thanking people for what they give.

Each of the next two posts will treat one of those aspects of thanksgiving.  In this post I will begin a general exploration of the relationship between gratitude and generosity.

My general hypothesis is that generosity can be influenced by the experience of gratitude.   In one case it is the gratitude we experience for what we have received, while in the other case it is the gratitude we experience for what we have given.  In the next post I will lay out the scientific case for what gratitude can do for people, but as yet I have not seen any empirical evidence connecting increased gratitude with increased generosity.  So it will have to remain a hunch for now.

“Gratitude” comes from the Latin word gratia meaning “favour”.  Gratia is the root of our words “grace” and its relatives (gracious, graceful), as well as “gratis”, “gratuity” and “gratuitous”.  The Latin gratus means “pleasing”, and gives us our words “gratify” and “congratulate”.

“Gratitude as a discipline involves conscious choice.  I can choose to be grateful even when my emotions and feelings are steep and hurt and resentful.”

Henri Nouwen

While “gratitude” shows up only twice in the NRSV translation of the Bible, “thank” and its derivatives appear more than 150 times.  The imperative “give thanks” occurs 33 times.

In the next two posts we will look at what it might mean to give thanks in a more deliberate and mindful way.