The Listening Ear

Companion Congregation Team Moves Ahead

Our Companion Congregation team met this evening. I am always energized when we get to talking about our planned trip to Kidugala, scheduled for next June.

Tonight we heard that the Walk to Kidugala has raised over $2500 so far. Much of that came from the Ice Cream social. The overall goal is to raise $12,000. About $4000 of that amount will be used to bring electricity to the clinic at Kidugala. The rest will help send pilgrims from our congregation to Kidugala next year.

Not many people have turned in miles they have walked or pledges and gifts that have been offered. We hope to hear about that in the near future. The Walk to Kidugala team is looking for 100 families to give $100 each. That would help us reach our goal.

Our companion congregation team discussed three scenarios for our trip next year. If we are successful in receiving the Lilly grant that we have applied for, we will have money to help with the trip, to pay expenses for my sabbatical including pastoral coverage while I am gone and also to fund the purchase video equipment that will be used while we are on the trip.

If we don’t receive the Lilly grant, we are in the process of applying for another grant from the Louisville Institute. Since that grant isn’t as generous, we wouldn’t be able to buy the video equipment, but there would still be enough money to pay my expenses for the trip and for my sabbatical.

Even if we don’t receive either grant, the team is committed to taking the trip next year. There won’t be funds available for my sabbatical, but we will at least be able to visit Kidugala. I am glad that we will at least be able to do that much and I am praying that we will receive one of the grants. I’d appreciate your prayers, too.

Short-Term Mission Trips: Is The Cost Too High?

Carlene Embree, the chair of the Western Iowa Synod Companion Synod Committee gave me a copy of an article that asks some questions that I have been wondering about myself. Written by Joann Van Engen, it appeared in a publication called Catapult. The entire article, titled “The Cost Of Short-Term Missions can be found here.

Van Engen asks whether the huge amount of money spent on short-term mission trips abroad is really justified. She tells the story of a group of 18 students who raised $25,000 to fly to Honduras for spring break. They painted an orphanage, cleaned the playground, and played with the children. Students found the trip to be inspiring for them.

Nevertheless, a worker at the orphanage noted that the money the students spent on the trip was more than half the orphanage’s yearly budget of $45,000. That budget was the total spent in a year on staff, maintenance, food and clothing for the children. The worker wonder how much good the ministry could have accomplished if group had given them the money rather than spending it on their trip.

Van Engen points out that people who take foreign mission trips often do work that local people are capable of doing themselves. These trips are expensive. Local people could be hired to do much of the work that mission trip participants do with lots left over to be used for other good purposes.

Evangelism is another task that is almost always done better by local people rather than short-term visitors who don’t know the language or the culture.

Does this mean that such trips have no value. Not necessarily, says Van Engen, but she suggests that if we take such a trip that we change our focus. Van Engen says, “Are we going through the motions of helping the poor so we can congratulate ourselves afterwards? Or are we seeking to understand the lives of third world people, to recognize and support their strengths and to try to understand the problems they face and our role in them?”

The author recommends that we learn something about the culture and the language of where we plan to visit before we go. While we are the the emphasis should be on learning not doing. We need to spend time with the people. She also challenges groups to spend as much money to support the mission they visit as they spend on their trip. And when we come back, we need to get involved as global Christians.

Tomorrow I’ll try to reflect on how I see these elements fitting in with the trip to Tanzania that I hope to make next year as part of my sabbatical.

Current Research On Who Gives In America

Recently, a new book came out reporting on research that has been done regarding charitable giving among Christians. Christian Smith, Michael Emerson and Patricia Snell draw on numerous sources of data to produce their book, Passing The Plate: Why American Christians Don’t Give Away More Money.

Highlights from the book recently appeared in a Christian Century (October 7, 2008) article written by the authors. In it they lift up six crucial facts.

1) Twenty percent of all U. S. Christians give nothing to church, parachurch or nonreligious charities. The fact that 1 out of 5 Christian don’t even give a $1 per year to charity, whether religious or secular causes is disturbing. By comparison, 50% of nonreligious Americans do not give anything. Only 9% of non-Christian religious believers such as Jews, Mormans, Hindus, Muslims and Buddhits give nothing to charity.

2) The vast majority of American Christians give very little to religious or nonreligious charities. The mean average of American Christian giving is 2.9% of income. Christians who attend church regularly (at least 2-3 times a month) give considerably more—an average of 6.9%. Yet the authors suggest that this data is somewhat misleading. Averages are calculated by adding and dividing. If the median for giving is used (a median is determined by dividing a range of numbers in half and looking at the number the is exactly in the middle) the median U. S. Christian giver gave $200 per year from a median income of $32,500. That means that the median giver gave only 0.62 % of annual income.

3) Only a small minority of generous givers contribute most of the total dollars given by Christians. The most generous 5% of givers contribute nearly 60 % (59.6) of all the money contributed by Christians.

4) American Christians earning higher incomes give a smaller percentage of their income compared to lower-income Christians. That sounds counter-intuitive, but it remains true. For instance, Americans who earned lees than $10,000 gave 2.3% of their income to religious organizations; those earning $70,000 or more only gave 1.2%.

5) Even though real per capita income has grown dramatically over the last century, the average percentage of income given by American Christians has not grown, but has declined slightly. In the 1920s, members of 11 major Protestant denominations showed giving of 3.0-3.5%. By 2003, despite a four-fold increase in real personal income, per capita giving to those same church had dropped to 2.5% of personal income.

6) Most of the money that American Christians give is spent on their local community of faith. Little is spent on things like missions, development and poverty relief, especially outside the U. S.  More than 70% of congregational income is spent on local operations and another 13% goes for acquiring and improving local church buildings and 4 % is put into savings. What’s left goes to support denominations (8%), other organizations (3%) and to help individuals (1%).

In my view, all of this is symptomatic of a spiritual problem. The vast majority of Christians don’t take to heart what St. Paul says, that God loves a cheerful giver, one who has learned to practice generosity.

Sometimes we seem to think that if we ask people to give, we are asking them to do the church a favor. In reality, when we ask people to give we are doing them a favor. We are creating an opportunity for spiritual growth and the develop spiritual depth through learning to give generously. Apparently that’s an opportunity that many of today’s Christians really need.

A Great Day Yesterday!

We had a great day in our congregation yesterday. It was Consecration Sunday, the culmination of our stewardship emphasis. I really want to complement our stewardship team. They did a great job executing this year’s stewardship emphasis and the results show it.

The team worked hard to encourage members of our congregation to participate in Consecration Sunday. They planned a Celebration meal for all who could attend and worked with our church council members to contact every house hold to make sure they were invited.

Here are the results: 235 persons attended which is about 20% higher than our normal worship attendance. There were 88 households the made a financial commitment to support the congregation’s ministries. Of those households, 57 increased their commitment over the previous year.

Based on those commitments and the giving patterns of those who were not present for Consecration, St. Paul’s projected income for 2009 is over $317,000.00 which represents a $50,000.00+ increase over the congregation’s income received in the last 12 months. It almost goes without saying that congregational leaders are very encouraged by such results.

I am gratified by what such an increase in giving will mean for the ministry of our congregation. It will allow us to do more and to give more for the benefit of others. But for me, that’s not the most important outcome. For me, the results are much more a measure of spiritual growth in our congregation because giving is primarily a spiritual matter.

A dramatic increase in commitments means that our members are learning to be generous with their giving. Such generosity is an indication of a spiritual deepening. We are learning to trust God to provide for our needs as individuals and as a congregation. I am so grateful for what God is doing among us.

 

Heading For Storm Lake

In less than an hour I am planning to head to Storm Lake, Iowa for the Western Iowa Synod Assembly. This year's assembly will conduct a minimum of business, focusing rather on Bible studies,  informational forums and a ministry fair.

I will be helping with an auction (both live and silent) sponsored by the WIS Companion Synod Committee. People from around the synod have been invited to donate hand made or locally produced items that will be sold at the auctions. I am planning to bring some Christmas cards that I have made for the auctions. The money from the auctions will help pay for Companion Synod projects in the Southern Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania.

The idea is based on a Tanzanian practice. At worship, Tanzanian churches will often receive garden produce, handmade items or even live animals as a part of the offering. Some church members have little cash to offer, but can offer something they produce. The items received at the worship service are then auctioned off after worship with the proceeds going to the congregation.

Since the auctions are in support of Tanzanian ministry, I have dressed appropriately for the event. Here I am in one of my Tanzanian shirts.

Money Leadership Retreat-2

Here’s our leader for the “Money Leadership for Thriving Congregations” retreat, Michel Meier. What I have appreciated about this event is that while it did focus on giving, it has also included an exploration of the origins of each person’s attitudes regarding money as well as making the connection between our Christian faith and saving, spending debt reduction and financial planning. It has turned out to be a much more comprehensive group.

Good New From Tanzania

I traveled to Storm Lake yesterday to attend the Western Iowa Synod Companion Synod Committee. Western Iowa has a special relationship with the Southern Diocese of The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania as our companion synod.

One encouraging piece of news we just received is that the renovated Continued Treatment Center (CTC) at Ilembula Lutheran Hospital was inaugurated April 22 by Bishop Lukilo of the Southern Diocese. This center treats people with HIV/AIDS by utilizing a CD-4 Count machine, biochemistry machines, and other equipment, and by providing antiretroviral drugs. Currently 1,750 are enrolled at the CTC. The overall goal is to reduce the percentage of people affected by HIV/AIDS from 13% currently to 10% by 2010.

This is great news because until the CD-4 count machine arrived, the medications that have been donated to treat HIV could not be used. Without monitoring that the machine makes possible, it was dangerous to give the drugs to patients. I am thankful that this treatment is now available because is sorely needed.

Giving As Sacrifice

Christian Century has always been on of my favorite pieces of print media. I have been a subscriber for decades.

In the most recent issue (April 22, 2008) the magazine referred to an interview of Bill Goss, a very successful bond fund manager that appeared in Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. What the editors of Kiplinger’s discovered is that Goss is more excited about giving money away than making it.

Goss credits his wife for doing the research for the philanthropic work. Goss, who is 63, says: “When you’re 80 years old and about to kick it, anybody can give away money. It’s important to give away a piece when it really matters and it really hurts. The Gosses practice such generosity giving, having given away a third of their fortune.