Everything Up in (Holy) Smoke
September 12, 2007
“I wonder what would happen,” reflects author Mark Alan Powell, “if we collected the offering on Sunday morning, set the plates on the altar, and then tossed in a match, burning up everyone’s money.”
In his book Giving to God: The Bible’s Good News about Living a Generous Life (Eerdmans, 2006), Powell reminds us that most of the sacrifices in the Old Testament were consumed by fire, rather than being used to sustain the priests, or help the poor, or accomplish some other practical purpose. Like the costly perfume that could have been sold to benefit the poor, the giving to God was itself the point.
This has been a hard lesson for me to learn, and I’m still learning it.
By Their Honoraria Ye Shall Know Them
February 13, 2007
(A number of friends have asked me to make this article–published originally in the Canadian journal ChristianWeek–available in this form. So here it is.)
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The way some Christian churches and other organizations pay their speakers, it makes me embarrassed to be a member of the same faith.
A friend of mine is a gifted staff worker with a well-known Christian organization on a university campus. He is married, with three young children, and works hard and long at his job. Frequently he is asked to speak at churches’ youth retreats or special events sponsored by other groups. Rarely is he paid well for what is in fact overtime work–for audiences other than the one that pays his regular salary.
One weekend, he left his family to speak at a retreat for more than 100 young people, each of whom paid to go away to a well-furnished camp for three days. My friend gave four talks and participated in a question-and-answer session—a typical, and demanding, schedule. But his work didn’t end there, of course. Retreat speakers are “on call” all weekend: for impromptu counseling, offering advice over mealtimes, and modeling what they preach on the volleyball court or around the campfire. Make no mistake: There is very little relaxing in that role, however restful the retreat might be for everyone else.
So at the end of this tiring weekend, at the close of the Sunday luncheon, the leader of the group thanked him profusely at the front of the dining hall (he had gone over very well). Then he tossed the speaker a T-shirt emblazoned with the group’s logo while everyone clapped. It took my friend several minutes to realize that this shirt was his total payment for the weekend’s work. He got in his car, without even a check for gasoline, and headed back to his waiting family.
An isolated and extreme example? Not at all. Every professional Christian speaker has stories like these.
Deferred gratification or deferred tithing?
January 3, 2007
A friend writes as follows:
“In a recent discussion I brought up the idea of students being in debt, and wondered what kind of conceptual framework they should be working through regarding tithing: they are privileged in their education, but currently do not have an income on which to made tithing-type decisions.
“I plan this semester on talking with my students a bit about the whiplash effect that students can have when they graduate and suddenly go from having lived for 4-5 years with no income (and not tithing), to suddenly making $60k and trying to make decisions about their giving. How should they begin thinking, acting, and growing generous hearts now, in preparation for graduation and their future, while feeling burdened with their accumulating debts? I expect questions about ‘deferring their generosity,’ such as ‘I could tithe from my summer earnings but then I’d have to take a larger loan … so I’ll be generous in the future.’ Thoughts?”
