The Challenge of Generations and Giving
Two week’s ago in my Loose Canon column, I asserted that maintaining the status quo for our churches into the next generation or two will require one of a few changes:
- Younger members of the church will have to increase giving to match older members, or
- More members will be needed, or
- Cut backs will be required, perhaps drastic actions on staffing and building costs.
Last week, I took on the third and seemingly least attractive option. This week, I will consider increased giving and finally next week, I will look at increasing attendance.
Generations and Giving
Younger generations tend to give less money to churches than there parents and grandparents. In some ways, this is nothing new. While getting established in a career and raising children, there is always less money coming in at all and less that comes under the heading of discretionary spending. Yet, many also observe that the pattern goes deeper than this and have suggested that those who are 40 and under today may never give to their churches the way earlier generations did. The truth is we will not truly find out the answer to the question until enough of the older members die and we see whether the younger members step up in giving to make up the difference. As one born in 1963, I am counted by some a member of the so-called Generation X, and I tithe and I am not alone. So the picture is far from clear, yet there is cause for concern.
The Truth about Tithing
The other factor is that average pledge to a congregation in the Diocese of Georgia in 2008 was $2,837, but we can guess that the average household income for our families is more than than $30,000, which is the long way of saying what we already know: no generation of members is, in the majority, meeting our stated standard of the tithe. While many of us do tithe and will continue, tithing is a conversion of understanding. That conversion toward giving the first ten percent back to God in thanks is more a work of the Holy Spirit than anything else. But there are things we can do to set the stage.
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First, we do need to be able to have transparency around finances in the church so that all can trust how we handle money and all know where the money goes and how that is overseen. Second, we should be wise stewards of the money that is entrusted to our care, showing some return on that money dedicated to God by getting as much accomplished as we can with what we have. And finally, we need to teach by word and example. Give those who give faithfully a forum for sharing this with others, talking about how they came to tithe and what it has meant for their lives. Those who do give generously to their church share a feeling that it is a blessing rather than a chore or mere obligation. Others need to hear that there truly is joy in giving.
Share what your pattern of giving is for the church’s ordained and lay leadership so that you may lead by example. Often vestries do this by committing to a tithe and stating publically that the whole vestry is committed to the tithe. Honesty may make it necessary to name that the whole vestry is giving proportionally and moving toward the tithe.
The Good News
There is Good News in what appears to be diminishing giving among generations as it gives us the proding we need to do the teaching we should be doing anyway. As those who have been converted to a fuller understanding of stewardship, of which the monetary offerings to our church are just a part, the need helps reveal how more teaching and leading by example is needed.
If you want to maintain the status quo in your church in terms of buildings and staffing, it will likely require more giving by future generations than they now give. Helping facilitate this will give churches the impetus for doing the teaching we should have been doing all along. After all, Jesus readily spoke of money quite often. We need to do so as well, not for the sake of the church budget, but for the sake of teaching new generations the blessings of giving back to God in this way.
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon for Congregational Ministries
The photos above are of a Christ Church Valdosta Youth Group Car Wash.
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