I haven't posted a sermon on this Blog before, but I want as many people as possible to see it and respond appropriately.
Finance and
Faith
Sunday 29th
June 2014
Haggai 1:1 –
15; Matthew 25:14 – 30
The circus had come to town and, as a special
act, Barney, the strongman, squeezed the juice from an orange between his
hands.
Barney, then said to the audience, 'I will
offer £200 to anyone in the audience who can squeeze another drop from this
orange.'
An elderly thin man came forward, picked up
the orange, strained hard and managed to get one more drop of juice from the orange.
Barney, the strongman, was stunned and as he
paid the man and asked him, 'What is the secret of your strength?'
'Practice,' the man replied smiling. 'For 25
years I was the treasurer of the local church.'
I feel a bit like that treasurer, and you may be glad to know
that this is the last in my series of sermons on the theme of stewardship.
We’ve been reminded in these last few weeks…
·
that money has spiritual power.
·
that giving is a spiritual discipline and an
expression of worship.
·
and that generosity in giving is simply giving back to
God what belongs to him.
But still it’s a hard lesson to learn.
At the time of the Jew’s return from exile in Babylon a bit
over 400 years before the before of Christ, the prophet Haggai had to remind
the people that their priority was to rebuild the house of the Lord – the
temple – before they saw to their own houses.
It was because they neglected the Lord’s house that their
pockets seemed to have holes in them.
“Get your priorities right,” says the Lord, “and everything
else will fall into place.”
And in the gospel reading Jesus reminds his hearers that from
the one to whom much has been entrusted, much will be expected. This applies as
much to the proclamation of the kingdom as it does to our use of the blessings
of wealth that the Lord has given us.
Now I’ve tried to be as clear and encouraging as I can be in
these last few weeks. I’ve been honest with you about my own situation and
practice in regard to giving, and I’ve been encouraged by the 2 people who
responded practically with a SO and an increase in giving – one of those living
on the basic state pension.
It’s clear what the bible says:
·
give generously,
·
give in proportion to your income,
·
and give first to the Lord.
So let me move on to some facts and figures that may focus
our thinking.
Our total income for 2013 was £137,000. Of that £95,000 was
from individual regular givers, with Gift Aid added. After that there was
£18,000 in cash offerings and the rest was from one-off donations, fees and
rental income from the church house in Waddington Avenue.
Our expenditure was £133,000. Of that £94,000 was paid to the
Diocese of Southwark to cover the cost of employing me (£52,000), central costs
(£11,000) and a further £31,000 to help the mission of the church in areas not
able to support a full-time paid minister.
Expenditure was slightly less than income, but we have an
accumulated deficit of £-40,529.
Giving in 2013 was lower than in 2010. This was because a
number of regular generous givers moved or died, and that gap has not been
filled.
In a survey of the range of individual donations my wife Nicy
and I come in the top 10% of givers. 20 people give £20 a month or less; 15
give £10 or less.
I really think we can do better.
And in fact we will need to because we face 2 big challenges
to our general fund.
The first is that we need to be able to match the income we
have relied on this last year from renting out 8 Waddington Avenue, as the availability of that
house to the church will determine whether or not we have another full-time
stipendiary curate, or other full-time member of staff.
Before agents’ fees and maintenance the rental income is
about £14,500 a year.
But we can’t allow ourselves to depend on that income for
long because the reason the house was bought by the parish in the first place
was to house a curate, not to provide extra income.
And then the 2nd big challenge is potentially much
more serious and urgent.
Since Tim
Hill started working for us 2 days a week as our Youth and Children’s Pastor
his work for the other 3 days has dried up, and he has had to find work where
he can chopping trees and doing gardening jobs.
The fact is he can’t afford that and finds himself in the
situation where he must take a full-time job.
And there are 2 such jobs going in churches not far from
here.
The bottom line is this: unless we can offer Tim a full-time
contract he will have to leave and find work elsewhere.
Not only would this be a great blow to our children and youth
work, and our mission into local schools, but it goes against the very strong
feeling that came from the Mission Action Planning day last week that expanding
our children’s ministry should be a priority. We’ve explored the possibilities
for some kind of shared work, but the sticking point is ‘what about Sundays’.
So would it be possible to raise that extra £28,000?
Let’s break it down.
If we assume there are potentially 150 givers in the church
who each could pledge an extra £4 a week, that would generate £600/week,
£2400/month, £28,800/month + GIFT AID
£4 a week. That’s the price of 2 Lotto tickets, or a cheap
bottle of wine. It’s less than the price of a daily paper, and about the cost
of daily doughnut from our local bakery.
But the more important question is: is it worth it?
Both areas of need are
to do with mission:
Providing housing for a curate who will bring added value to
St John’s, as curates have done up to now, and a way that we can, through their
training, give something to the wider church.
Our Youth and Children’s Pastor helps us grow our mission and
ministry among children and young people – the next generation of the church.
Without them, the church will simply cease to exist.
Let me finish with a very specific request.
Please, would you consider giving an extra £4 a week as part
of your regular giving.
Without the extra income we will not be able to progress our children’s
work as we hope to, and we will not be able to have another full-time curate –
it’s as simple as that.
If you are able to make that extra pledge, please fill in the
pledge form in your newsletter, and drop it in the box at the back, or to the
church office or rectory during the week. We will make sure that they are kept
anonymous until they are collected by Tony our Treasurer.
As a PS
to this: sometimes people would like to support the work of the church in
mission, but genuinely can’t at the time. If that’s the case, we have
benefitted over the years from people’s legacies and bequests in their will. You might
like to consider the church as a beneficiary: what you leave to charity reduces
the value of your estate for tax purposes so it can sometimes be a benefit for
both the recipient and the donor’s family. There are some leaflets about that
on the table.
Let me finish with this verse
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than
all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him
be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever
and ever. Amen
God can do
more than we ask or imagine.
But he
works his power through us, through our cheque books, bank accounts, and so on.
So that
glory may go to him and the church may grow.
