Ben Lemery | Church & Culture

Church Dominance, Is It Good?

The UConn Women's Basketball Team has just broke their own record for most consecutive wins, having 71 straight wins.  For any sport, that is quite impressive.  The question that has arisen out of this streak is, "is this good for women's basketball; that one team dominates over all of them?" 

This made me think about the church.  "Is it good for church overall, if one church has a majority of one group over them all?"

I remember a few years ago a para-church group on a campus decided to become an established church that met on Sundays.  Me in my infinite wisdom, completely disagreed with that group becoming a church because they would take all the young adults away from the other churches.  It was kinda like I was the Rock from World Wrestling Entertainment and I was yelling, "know your role!" 

Of course, I am short-sighted and this church is impacting the community more than many of the other churches there.  The impact of this group now having a majority of the young adult Christians, left many churches questioning how they could get young adults back in their own seats. 

There are two perspectives, that I believe were well laid out in the response to UConn's dominance and representative of how churches respond presently.  They were stated in this SI.com article below:

"It's not their fault, but it's not a great thing for the sport," Rutgers coach Vivian Stringer told USA Today. "How can anybody enjoy a game that is really not much of a competition?"

Counters ESPN analyst Doris Burke: "Did anyone ask John Wooden when he was in midst of the 88-game streak, 'Is this good for men's college basketball?' It didn't happen. If they are beating your ass on a nightly basis, then get better."

If the one swear word in the quote threw your entire Christian life off, well, get a life.

These two responses are similar to how churches react to the giant churches in their midst.  If it is one church dominating a specific age group, another church that has six other campuses or whatever.  The church can have two responses to these issues:

1.  This isn't good for church because of A, B or C.  We begin to nitpick and tear them down because clearly all of those people attending there just don't know what they are missing here.  How stupid.  If someone really wanted to attend and feel like they were getting fed AND felt like they were in a solid community, then their butt would be in a seat right now. 

2.  If you are having trouble reaching people, then maybe that is a YOU problem.  Oh Ben, you silly boy, it couldn't possibly be our issue, all of our programs work.  Denial is the greatest and worst defense in these situations.  Because we own the vision and programs of our church, we never want to admit that they aren't attaining the goals originally envisioned.  It really takes a lot of guts to say, "we got it wrong and we're going to start over again." 

I think that we forget that the church isn't one big studio apartment.  We are not all sharing the same room and certainly not vying for the same people.  (John 14:2)  Just like Coach Stringer said, "it's not their fault."  It isn't a churches fault that they are good at what they do, it simply means that you need to get better if you want to reach the same groups of people. 

It is good for the church to have a little friendly competition.  It means that we indirectly learn and sharpen each others approaches so we can hopefully reach EVERYONE and not just a few.

What do you think?  Is it good for one church to have a majority of one cultural/age group in a community?  Do churches have to change the way they do things if they want to reach the same people?  Where does that whole unity thing come in?  Start the conversation.

Don't Make the Pastor Beg For Your Tithes

After being a born again Christian for 10 years, I have seen it all in regards to getting people to tithe.  Catholics really don't make a big deal out of it, the offering bags come out, passed around and that is that.  When I became an Evangelical Christian, I remember the first thing that bothered me about going to church was "the way" people got you to give.

In a culture that is a tad cynical towards these attempts, I wanted to lay out a few in hopes that maybe we can simply be honest about how we do it.  I know the difficulty of taking an offering because when I did the Campus Cry events, I would be on stage and the most I could say to people was, "we need money to cover this event, if you feel like you can give, please do."  Asking for money is awkward because it is the one moment where you feel like you are on the street with a sign up saying, "please give."

Even in all of the cynicism that can surround tithing, we should never make our pastors stand up in front of a congregation, begging for money.  There is a trust factor involved that they are using our money in the best way possible and if you feel they are not, then you can privately share your concern.

However, that doesn't excuse the church from their own mishandling of how they get money from you.  Here are some ways I feel the church misses it when asking for money.

1.  Guilt.  There is nothing worse than doing a Bible study on all the verses in the Bible that state you should give.  That if you don't give, they won't be able to do XY&Z well.  My favorite is using a sentimental story to work your heart into a frenzy to give.  Missions organizations tend to be masterful at this, showing pictures on the Powerpoint and saying, "if you give, this child will smile."  We don't have to manipulate people into giving, I think if you simply laid out the need, people will give.  That is just me though.

2.  You will be blessed!  The prosperity gospel has ruined the verses in regards to being blessed if you give.  It is bad enough that our culture already feels entitled, it is worse when the church believes that you should be entitled to God's blessing ONLY if you give.  If you want to talk about wrong motives, these certainly rank up there towards the top.  I should not put a single dime in the basket thinking that that dime is going to turn into a $100,000.  To be blunt, that is idolatry, a plain worship of money.  We should be giving because we want to support the vision, the cause and the people of that church.  Plain and simple.  It shouldn't be what we could possibly get out of the deal. 

3.  Lack of transparency.  Churches do not do a great job on presenting where money is going towards and showing that what you put into has had results.  As much as people don't want to agree with me on this, there is a certain business aspect when running any type of church.  If you have a building program, people want to see a building in a timely manner.  If you have a missions fundraiser, then they expect that you will be going on a missions trip with that money.  Churches should bend over backwards to openly share where their finances go and how they are being used. 

So those are the three biggies that I see hurting tithing.  Just because they happen, doesn't mean you shouldn't.  If they do happen, then we need to act like grownups and approach our leadership, in grace, and share our concerns with them.  If God has called you to be apart of a church, then obviously there is a buy in through your time, finances and overall giving that should be required of you.  We certainly wouldn't question why you give your finances to video games, a marathon, a camping trip, etc.  You give money towards those things because you are passionate.  Why would you not give to your church then, if you are passionate about that? 

Any final thoughts for the week regarding tithing, giving or what I put here?  Please share below.  We had excellent comments this week and I look forward to hearing more. 

My View: Tithing Is No Longer Relevant, Giving Is

This post started because my friend Jesse Phillips tweeted an intriguing thought, he said, "I'm sorry, tithing to support a building & paid staff simply is not Biblically mandated.  Otherwise Paul, Peter & Jesus were way off."

I would have to say that Jesse is 100% correct.  This speaks to a bigger issue of the separation of the law and what Jesus brought when He came to earth.  In my studies of tithing, I wanted to prove that it was Biblical because so many churches have taught that you should give 10%, every week, without fail.  The argument becomes obtuse when people start to ask whether you should give 10% before taxes or after taxes. 

During a church service, the question came up about what happened if you couldn't tithe; the pastor explained that he would actually keep a record of the times he missed and try to pay it back in full.  I couldn't believe this, much less find this reasoning in the Bible.  That the God who is merciful but just would lay a burden of debt on us simply because we didn't have the money to give to the church that week?  That seems to be a little ridiculous and I certainly cannot find it anywhere in the Bible.

So I looked, and found some scriptures but they didn't quite support the argument I wished to make:
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. (Matt 23:13; Luke 11:42)

This is a powerful rebuke and I believe the key word here is "should."  "You "should" have done [these things] without neglecting the others." 

Isn't it amazing the things we should do versus the things we do because we are made to do it?  The reason a 10% tithe was put in place was the same reason a majority of the law was put into place; the Israelite's hearts were hard and not open to the greater grace & freedom that God could provide. 

Jesus comes to earth and turns the whole law upside down.  He says that the law forbids you to sleep with a woman but He now says, the bar is being raised, you shouldn't even look lustfully at another woman.  What we forget and the church mistakes, in regards to grace, is that Jesus was the new coach who came in and said we are not going to settle for the conference championship anymore, we want the national championship.  The standard of living was raised.  It was an expectation, it was an encouragement to go deeper than anyone had ever gone with God to that point.

So, where does tithing fit into all of that?  If the law was about 10% and that was all you had to do, then in all likelihood that was all you were going to do.  Jesus presses us to go beyond regimented practices and give even more!  Does that mean financially?  No.  If you couldn't give a dime because you are unemployed, then what about your time?  What about your skills?  What about the ability to make food for someone who is hurt? 

Obviously, the churches in the New Testament survived on financial support. There is overwhelming evidence that many churches met in synagogues or even built their own buildings to meet in.  They didn't get this done off of their good looks.  People gave to the cause.  Paul did live off of financial support from others, he thanks the churches in his letters for their prayers and support.  However, he even spent time working as a tent maker in the midst of being a pastor & teacher for three years.  

Let me clarify, I am not saying "stop giving to the church," I am saying that the Lord has ten million ways for you to give beyond just finances.  We should take care of our pastoral staffs and have places that we can meet in that won't fall apart from a sneeze BUT we shouldn't overlook the poor, needy and even the people in our church that may need help paying a bill or a nice dish to eat from that week.

Tomorrow, I will write about why people become sketchy to tithe or even give.  Tell me what you think, agree, disagree, whatever.  These are great conversations to have.

Is Tithing Biblical?

My friend Jesse Phillips posted a rather thought provoking tweet the other day on Twitter and he gave me permission to share it all with you. 

If the graphic isn't working this is what it says, "I'm sorry, tithing to support a building & paid staff simply is not biblically mandated.  Otherwise Paul, Peter & Jesus were way off."

What do you think?  Is Jesse right?  Do you see it differently?  I will post what I think tomorrow.

Thank you Jesse for opening up a good discussion.

3 Groups That Lost Their Way To The House of Jesus

Now that you know what you want from church, how do you go about finding a church that fits those values?

These are a few groups of people that tend to get lost on their way to finding a church:

1. The Anti-Establishment Crowd.  This seems to be a common trend lately.  People either read "Pagan Christianity" and think the entire institutionalized church is bunk so they stop going; or they start attending a house church (the real motive behind the book in the first place).  This isn't true for all people but one thing I have noticed is the amount of like-minded people house churches tend to attract.  Many are anti-establishment and in some cases despise the institutionalized church.  Obviously, it is easy to be apart of anything that affirms your choice in life but it certainly lacks the challenge of interpersonal dialogue within a diverse community.  I don't mind if you go to a house church, just don't lay out a ten page defense on why you do it, why it is bad for me to attend an institutional church and that all the liturgical worship that is done in my church is of the devil. 

2.  Church Hoppers.  I believe some people would be content going to a different church every week until they found one that fit their list perfectly.  Unfortunately, after two years of hopping, I would start to wonder if they really want to commit or they are simply not flexible on what is on their values list.  In all honesty, instead of being a wedding crasher, you could be a church crasher and only attend a service if they had a potluck after.  I have been to some serious food hauls after some services and in this economy you can save some serious dough.

3.  If I Don't Feel High, It Ain't Gonna Fly.  Some Christians would be great athletes if we set the bar as high as we do in regards to how the "Spirit moves" in some services.  I remember attending Onething four years ago and Jason Upton came out to do worship.  He didn't even play one note and people were already in the worship stance, hands raised, heads up, like it was a reverse game of 7-Up.  They were all waiting for "the moment" to begin.  People want to feel and experience God and when those church services no longer provide the same stimulation, we go looking for the next thing.  Of course if we could get a Cirque du Soleil troop saved, how epic would that be if they were above us during worship, doing interpretative twists and turns?  I mean, even I would be a little caught up in "the moment." 

Obviously I am mixing opinion and humor here but I often wonder why fringe groups form and then hold to their opinion with a Darth Vader death grip.  There is a time and place (hopefully soon) to debate what church is and none of this determines your salvation.  But I wonder what Paul would have said had he seen these groups forming in the church during his time?