Pastor’s Corner

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” (Isaiah 2.2 First Sunday in Advent)

Advent and Christmas are times when church attendance peaks. The sights and sounds, the joyous emotions in our special services as well as the way the weekly texts build to the Christmas proclamation combine to pull on our heartstrings. Through it all, we do not lose sight of what it means to be taught the ways of God and walk in the path of Jesus, the Son of God.

Since it is well-publicized that our national and state economies are suffering reduced incomes and budget cuts, it’s also incumbent upon me and the Church Council to tell you that our congregation’s income is below our needed budget level for 2009. In addition, based on the pledge cards we have received so far, the initial forecast for 2011 indicates a significant shortfall. While we all give thanks to God for the many surprising, unsolicited generous extra gifts received in 2010 which were not part of our budget formula, we also need to ask ourselves how we are walking in the path of Jesus when it comes to money.

Among the many things Jesus challenged in his teaching was the handling and mishandling of money. Our Gospel passages for this church year from Luke have abundantly illustrated the point that Jesus was incredibly bold when it came to the topic of money. Such bold talk and action is also part of our lives today. I attended a funeral recently in a Catholic Church in Tacoma. On each pew was a grid explaining percentage giving. Along the vertical line was annual income, while along the horizontal line was what a percentage of annual income would mean for monthly giving to the parish. You’ve likely seen such a grid. What surprised me about the grid is that the range was from 1% to 5%. That was the “tithe,” even though “tithe” always means 10% in the Bible. (I was also surprised some years ago to learn that Islam’s “tithe” is 2.5% which is considered alms for the poor.)

Now for the further surprise: people who study these things say that Lutherans give to their church at less than 2% of their annual income. Let’s do the numbers in our congregation. In 2009, 47 of our giving units gave between $960 and $100 for the work of Christ through First Lutheran. The grid I saw would indicate that someone giving $960 is at the 2% level with a $48,000 annual income. The numbers decline rapidly after that.

Financial stewardship experts use all kinds of graphs and statistics to illustrate their points. I like to use the tried and true language of the Bible and the church more than charts and graphs. When it comes to supporting our church, we believe in “first fruits, tithing and sacrificial giving.” All of this comes under the cross of Christ where we see our “crowned king” who was rich yet became poor, so that by his poverty we might become rich.

Our call as we end the year and move into 2011 is to use the riches with which we have blessed for the sake of Christ’s ministry locally and globally. Money is always a sensitive topic, but in Christ our hearts are free, and we are delighted to serve our Lord with our wealth.

May the blessings of our Advent season of hope be with you.

Philip Nesvig, pastor