As part of his chapter on Worldliness in Respectable Sins, Jerry Bridges talks about money and how Christians use it. First, let’s see his definition of worldliness.
“Worldliness means accepting the values, mores, and practices of the nice, but unbelieving, society around us without discerning whether or not thos values, mores, and practices are biblical.”
Pretty good definition. It is when we are shaped by the world instead of being conformed to Christ in how we approach seemingly trivial matters. He points to how Christians use money as a place where we are often quite worldly. We often don’t examine how we spend our money- only if we have enough to get what we want. We tend to get caught in that self-centered approach to living when it comes to “our” money.
Evangelicals are giving far less money to their churches than they did in years past. He notes that in 8 evangelical denominations (not mainline ones) people give only 4.4% of their income. They are spending more money on themselves by keeping up with technological toys, collecting music or movies, big boy toys (boats, snowmobiles..), eating out often, etc. But here was what disturbed me even more.
“Not only are we giving less to our churches, but it seems that more of what we do give is spent on ourselves. In 1920, the percentage of giving to missions from total offerings was just over 10 percent. But by 2003, that figure had declined to just under 3 percent. That means we spent 97 cents of every dollar on our own local programs and ministries while sending 3 cents overseas.”
It is hard for a small church to give alot away. But, over the years our little church was giving 10% to our denomination (which helped support church plants, missions and other programs), and some money to foreign and local missions, as well as church plants. I wanted to do more, and they wanted to do more. Our church had above average giving- so it sounds like we were a rare breed. We had our flaws, but overall God cultivated generosity in us.
The problem is not just that churches aren’t giving to missions. Neither or are Christians, through offerings. I was speaking with a campus minister yesterday. He noted that the average Christian spends more money on food for their dog than they do on missions. He noted that he spent about $15 every 2 months on his dogs food (about right for my family too). I was shocked and dismayed. Back in my “radical” days (after reading Foster’s Freedom of Simplicity) I considered not ever having a dog. My girlfriend at the time wasn’t wild about that idea.
Animals have value, though, as part of God’s creation. Most of our family loves our dog. Nor are we expected to go “Amish” and ban cable, cell phones, iPods etc. But we need to begin to be discerning and recognize that good stewardship involves what we do spend our money on, and what we end up not spending our money on. If we see that God is generous (indeed Christ impoverished himself for us and our salvation), and earthly treasures can distract us from God’s mission (the Sermon on the Mount) our priorities will shift. Our giving to church (tithes- yes, I hold to a minimum of 10%) and missions, plants and ministries (offerings above our tithe) will be put in place before we put the rest in, rather than getting the monies left over after we live the life we always wanted. I recognize that is difficult. As a congregation we struggled with that early on. But as we committed ourselves to certain things, it happened. As a family, the CavFamily, doesn’t have unlimited funds either. We make tough choices (man, there needs to be more in that IRA), but I wish I had more to give to missions and mercy ministries. Don’t take that to mean I’ve got it all together, but I think Jesus is moving my in the right direction.
Maybe I’m crazy, but I think Christians the richest nation on the face of the planet can do better (though we are more generous than our neighbors). We are worldly in this area. We need to focus on the abundant generosity of God, not so we can justify our best life now, but to remember that Jesus works in us to conform us to His image and likeness- which includes being abundantly generous!
Cavman Considers 
I agree with you completely. Most people do need to give more, and most of us don’t give enough period. Not just to the church, but to everyone. In some places in the world, people still starve (even at home in some cases), and yet we spend most of our money on ourselves.
This is so hard. Especially with the economy the way it is. People are expecting to be in the mud financially so even though things haven’t changed in their situation, they are holding on to what they consider to be the first thing to quit – their giving, especially to missions. I do support raising myself, I understand it is hard and unnatural to give generously, but after looking at what God says about money it is clear. I am thankful for those that are faithful and continue to support causes that are on God’s agenda. Thanks for bringing up these recent numbers, not that different than the stats I have, but I appreciate seeing this evidence.