When I was a lawyer handling personal injury claims, my boss gave me a helpful piece of advice. She said when someone says to you 'it's not about the money it's the principle' you can be pretty sure its about the money.
Her words were in my mind this week as we sat down to review our Church Constitution, looking at the standard Governing Document for BUGB churches. In the section on 'Belonging to the Church' it talks about members giving financial support to the Church and there is a footnote which says 'Although there may be encouragement to give financially this is a private matter.' Why is this a private matter? Why should a people called together under God keep this information from one another. Why should we shrink from being financially accountable to one another, to those we love adn who love us? I understand the fear of a church developing a 'richest members league table' and the jealousies that may ensue, but surely we are called to be better than that.
Surely we can be better than that.
Why is money to be kept as a private affair in today's churches?
What purpose is achieved by such secrecy?
The poet Alice Walker says:
We alone
can devalue gold
by not caring
if it falls or rises
in the market place
Wherever there is gold
there is a chain you know,
and if your chain is gold
so much the worse for you
Feathers, shells
and sea-shaped stones are all as rare
This could be our revolution:
To love what is plentiful
as much as
what's scarce.
This is not about the money ... but it is about the principle.
Her words were in my mind this week as we sat down to review our Church Constitution, looking at the standard Governing Document for BUGB churches. In the section on 'Belonging to the Church' it talks about members giving financial support to the Church and there is a footnote which says 'Although there may be encouragement to give financially this is a private matter.' Why is this a private matter? Why should a people called together under God keep this information from one another. Why should we shrink from being financially accountable to one another, to those we love adn who love us? I understand the fear of a church developing a 'richest members league table' and the jealousies that may ensue, but surely we are called to be better than that.
Surely we can be better than that.
Why is money to be kept as a private affair in today's churches?
What purpose is achieved by such secrecy?
The poet Alice Walker says:
We alone
can devalue gold
by not caring
if it falls or rises
in the market place
Wherever there is gold
there is a chain you know,
and if your chain is gold
so much the worse for you
Feathers, shells
and sea-shaped stones are all as rare
This could be our revolution:
To love what is plentiful
as much as
what's scarce.
This is not about the money ... but it is about the principle.
2 comments:
I listened to an interesting sermon on some of this stuff a few days ago, by a friend of ours ;)
http://www.tabspenarth.org.uk/downloads/sermons-online/singlesermon/10046.html
Reading your post made me think of Ananias and Sapphira... Hopefully people wouldn't die if their witholding was made public, but keeping it private avoids the risk of divine smiting!!!
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