Thoughts On Church Giving: Part 4, Hiring the Minister of Sharing

Okay, last post regarding my practical suggestions for improving traditional church giving. This is the post I was really wanting to get to.

Now, if you are a staff member or leader of a church my last two posts--about a giving receipt and more direct giving on Sundays--might have made you cross your eyes. Your natural and very legitimate response might have been this: Great idea but who is going to coordinate all this?

Excellent question.

Let's put a pin in that question and talk about many of the excellent points many of you have been making about tithing. Specifically, shouldn't Christians be giving more that 10%?

Again, excellent question.

And the answer to both questions, I think, is the same: Hiring a Minister of Sharing.

Here's the cold hard truth. If you were to poll church leaders asking them to name the most pernicious influence upon American Christianity I bet the answer would be unanimous: Materialism and consumerism.

But if you look at the hiring practices of churches where on staff is the minister and associated team who are working to combat this problem? I know of no churches who have a minister focusing exclusively on issues related to materialism and consumerism.

Which is, let's be honest, an abomination. Think about it. We all know and agree on the #1 Problem. And yet churches aren't doing anything about it.

Here's an example close to home. My church is currently looking for a worship minister. Really? That's what we need? Isn't this the spiritual equivalent of hiring someone to lead singing at Weight Watchers? The audience is full of spiritually obese people and we think a great band or worship service will help them lose weight?

(I mean no offense to worship ministers or my future worship minister. I'm just asking for an additional hire beyond the worship ministry.)

What we need is someone who will involve the church in the spiritually formative practices of giving, sharing, and hospitality in order to combat rampant materialism and consumerism.

So yes, in this series I did float a few ideas about giving on Sunday morning that will require personnel to implement. So let's hire that person. And let me add to the job description:

First, lots of churches have financial classes to help people get out of debt. And I think these are great. In fact, Jana and I got out of debt as newlyweds by reading some of the books associated with these ministries. I think the Ministers of Sharing should run all these classes.

But they should do more. Getting out of debt is just the first step. The Minister of Sharing should also run classes on simple living. More, they should be a coach and spiritual director. A large part of what the minister should do is to sit down with church members who want to simplify and give more. So, as a coach, the minister would come to your house and review your life. Go through your bills and bank accounts. Your closets and refrigerator. And then, in consultation with the church member, the minister would set out a plan with some clear goals. These goals could be modest (e.g., increasing giving from 10% to 15%) or ambitious (e.g., a 75K income family fixing living income at 45K and giving the rest away year after year). To help with these commitments, the minister would connect the members with others within the church working on similar types of goals. This would create networks of encouragement and accountability. To help build congregation-wide enthusiasm the minster would also be tasked with sharing stories through the church bulletin, newsletter, or website.

More, the minister should have a team who can help people with aspects of simple living. People who can coach on how to dress a family sharply and fashionably from shopping at Goodwill. Or cooks who can create amazing meals on a dime. Or gardeners who can help you set up an urban garden. On and on it could go. The minister helps identify, train, and coordinate these coaches, mentors, teachers and exemplars who can come alongside us to show us the joys of living on less and giving away more.

Beyond this coaching, the Minister of Sharing can also help organize sharing within the congregation. Setting up car pools so people can sell the second (or third) car or creating sharing networks where every member doesn't have to own their own, say, lawnmower or weed eater. In short, the minister is tasked with helping the church share more with each other. Sharing cars, tools, money, and homes. And speaking of homes, yes, the Minister of Sharing is also in charge of helping the church welcome others into their building and into their homes.

In short, if you doubted, I think the Minister of Sharing would have plenty to do to keep him or her busy. And, of course, we could throw in overseeing the actual benevolence ministries currently going on within a church. But my wish would be to keep those ministries away from this person. At least initially. That is, what we are talking about here isn't hiring someone to oversee and administer a ministry program (like a food bank), but rather someone working on spiritual formation within the congregation, transforming the membership through various practices. We're talking about someone who works like a spiritual director but is focused on sharing, giving, and hospitality.

To conclude, I'm not sure why churches don't have talented people working in positions like this. We all see the problem. So where are the ministers, spiritual coaches, and staff members who are devoted to the practices of giving, sharing and hospitality?