Money!

The church shouldn't talk about money. The church shouldn't ask for money. I don't want to make a pledge/promise/commitment to the church. It's nobody's business what I give. I gave this much in 1952 and it was good enough then, so it's good enough now. All the church ever talks about is money.

I've heard all of these statements (and more) or variations of them throughout my years of ministry. I've been told that the church should stick to "spiritual" topics and not "business" and  that the pastor should "keep his nose out of" the business side of the church. All of it comes together to make me realize...

People are really touchy when it comes to money!

I usually preach one or two sermons a year about money and I will always be told that I shouldn't talk about it so much, or that talking about money "scares visitors," or that all I ever talk about is money. And I wonder if Jesus got the same reaction, because Jesus actually talked more about money than he did about prayer or Bible study or so-called "spiritual" topics. But Jesus didn't divide life into those sorts of convenient compartments because, for Jesus, money was a spiritual issue. It still is. It affects our spiritual lives. It affects our relationship with Jesus. Money is not the root of all evil, as some say. But the love of money is the root of all evil.

We all love money...usually way too much.

Which is why one of John Wesley's questions had to do with money: Do I pray about the money I spend?

It's a fascinating question, because I'm guessing that if we answered that question honestly, we'd have to say "no." I don't have any scientific evidence to back it up, but my guess is that most of us never or rarely pray about the money we spend. I know I don't do that as often as I should. But what do you think might happen if we did?

You're right—it's very likely our priorities would change in regards to how we spend and what we spend it on. The things we believe are "essential" would likely not matter as much as we thought they did.

I remember one of the earliest times I prayed about money. I was sitting in a worship service and the pastor was preaching about tithing. Ten percent. I had just spend the summer detassling corn and I had made $600. That was more money than I had ever had at one time, and it all belonged to me! Then I listened to the sermon, and I could sense God nudging me toward tithing. And, to this day, I remember the argument I had with God. "That's $60! I'm not giving that much! That will take away too much of MY money." And so, when the offering plate came, I didn't give a thing. I don't know that I gave away any of my earnings that summer. I spent it all on me.

Much, much later, when I was in seminary and had little-to-no money, I remember having that same conversation with God. And I remember sensing God telling me that if I was going to call others to give, I had to start having a generous heart as well. So we began tithing, really tithing, and then God called us to do more. We went to a (free) concert and one of the sponsors was World Vision, a child sponsorship agency. We had no money, but I felt God calling us to sponsor a child. Above and beyond our tithe. So Cathy and I talked about it, and we stepped out in faith. And we always had enough. We had very little, but we never went hungry and we always had enough. And so did a child somewhere in Africa. God changed our priorities. And he's still working on us in that regard.

I'm not trying to set my own experience as an example for anyone else. I'm really just trying to ask the question Wesley asked: do you pray about the money you spend? And if not, why not?