K. J. PATTERSON graduated from the College of the Bible with honours in 1945. The degrees of Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Arts were completed in 1946 and 1948 at the Melbourne University. Ministries to date have been Ivanhoe 1946-48, Oakleigh 1949-51, Prospect 1952-54, and now at Balaklava. For four years he served with the Wells Organisations, church fund raising and planned giving programme specialists, first as a Programme Director and then as an Area Clients Manager for N.S.W. and Queensland.

      The church corporate has the duty of helping each member become the best Christian he can be. The church therefore needs to advise and help her members on the matter of giving. Too many Christians engage in the responsible act of presenting their offerings at the Table of the Lord without a word of counsel or instruction from their churches.

      Mr. Deacon. Mr. Elder, Mr. Conference Committeeman, Mr. Christian, you are responsible for the quality of soul of your fellow churchman. Have you helped others to experience the blessedness of generous and worshipful giving? Have you, yourself, learnt to give systematically, cheerfully and prayerfully? I trust this pamphlet may be a help to you.

      The church's teaching-of-giving programme should properly be conducted in the spiritual interests of the givers. We are inclined to emphasise how giving serves the church instead of how it serves the givers. Pleading the needs of the church is a fundamental error. The important question is this, 'Is the giving of family 'A' doing that family good or doing that family harm?"

      To answer the question you must understand something of the meaning of Jesus when he said, "You cannot serve Gad and mammon (money)." You need to appreciate the struggle which the Christian has between avarice and spirituality, between selfishness and .the doing of God's will. Unless a family is offering a significant and important part of their weekly budget to the Lord they are declaring that money is more important to them than God. But when a significant part of weekly income is surrendered to God we can predicate that God has won the victory over the wallet and the soul. Is family "A" giving enough to compel and hold their interest in God's will and programme for their lives? Or are they merely tipping God to "keep in good" with Him or making an offering of sorts because everybody else is making an offering? Is family "A" giving enough to increase their interest in the spiritual phase of their lives? Or are they giving so little as to make the development of their spiritual lives an incidental interest?

      Most church families give as they do from habit. They have not been adequately taught sufficient good reasons for substantial giving, so that most do not give enough for their own good. That is why it is imperative to have a teaching-of-giving programme in your church.

      A t-of-g programme may meet with opposition since people instinctively do not like being taught to give away their money. Those responsible for the t-of-g programme will not be overawed by such opposition, if they understand "the God vs. mammon struggle." They must also learn to appreciate that "No programme can be successful unless it is approached with an abundance of 'faith, prayer and love', and the power of this love must be so strong that everyone in the church continues to love each other at all times far their weaknesses as well as their strengths." (Col. Wells). They should also understand that the programme has as its basic appeal, "That we do the will of God."

      People can set aside substantial amounts for a house, a car, amusements a TV set, secular education, etc. Is it not many times more important that they set aside goodly amounts for the advancement of their own and others' spiritual well-being?

      Teaching-of-giving is not the same as stewardship instruction. "Stewardship is understanding that our whole lives--our time, talents and money--are gifts from God which carry with them the responsibility that they be used for His purposes." T-of-g is but one part of the much wider field of stewardship instruction Should either stewardship instruction or t-of-g be subverted to serve the church's own financial needs, then the church has fallen prey to materialism. But the church has a duty to her members, to see that they enjoy the whole of life because they have learned how to live it from and for Christ, and in particular that they enjoy their giving because it is something they have learned to do well.

      This pamphlet does not extend itself to discuss Christian Stewardship which is as wide as the Christian life, but restricts itself to a study of the church's teaching function in the more limited area of Christian giving.

      A. Church members need to be taught good reasons for generous giving. Christians will enjoy their giving at the Table of the Lord if they are taught to give and learn to give from the following motives:

      i. Give to express gratitude to God for blessings received. "Freely ye have received, freely give." An expression of gratitude can never be mean,

      ii. Give as a recognition of God's ownership of all things. Give as an obligation of stewardship. As a steward a Christian is responsible for the use he makes of the goods entrusted to him by his Lord. He needs to use them to advance the interests of His Lord. What a Christian holds, he ought to use for maximum dividends in character.

      iii. Give sufficient to indicate that you are living a balanced life. Study the amount of money put into feeding the physical, £. . . . . . ., entertaining the mental, £. . . . . . ., and developing the spiritual, £. . . . . . .

      Give so that you can honestly say that spiritual promotion is given an adequate place in your life. Remember, too, that a solid investment in the things of God often means that the remainder is better administered and less wastefully used.

      There are many who can testify that they were "better off" when they gave more to the Lord than when they gave less.

      iv. Give as a representation of how much God, your church, and your spiritual life mean to you. You buy meat to satisfy physical hunger and think little of the payment of money because your family's hunger is satisfied. Likewise you will happily provide a sizeable offering if you are really wanting to satisfy the spiritual hunger for worship, teaching, pastoral care, and your own need to give for others. You will scarcely realise you are giving because the money you are spending is satisfying a great need of the soul--you want to see Christ's Kingdom extended. You find that in giving, it is being given back to you "good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over."

      Tell me on what a man spends his money and I'll tell you what he believes in and what he really wants in life.

      v. "Why Should I Give?" is the title of one section of Dr W. E. Sangster's little book, "You Can Be a Millionaire." (The booklet could well be given to every church member--price 8d.) It reads:

      Because the whole Bible teaches it.
      Because Christ, my Lord and Saviour, commands it.
      Because I love Him, and giving to Him is a way of showing my love.
      Because the more I give, the more I love.
      Because the work of God at home languishes for lack of giving.
      Because the work of God abroad wilts without money.
      Because the more I give, the deeper my interest.
      Because all I have I owe: even the hardest-earned of my money I earned by the health and strength He gave me.
      Because the more I give, the more He gives to me--that I may give it again.
      Because generosity enriches the soul.

      This is a wonderful summary of personal motives for giving.

      vi. No one should give because of fear, or because he thinks he is supposed to. No one should give on the basis that he is buying his way into heaven. Nor should anyone give just to keep up with the Joneses.

      vii. Give generously because God is a generous giver, because you are a child of God, and because you want to be like God.

      B. Church members need to be taught clearly to appreciate the two ways in which their offerings are spent:

      i. The money given is spent an the givers themselves. The payments of the church's utility bills, the major part of the pastor's stipend the rent or interest bill, repairs and maintenance of church property are payments on behalf of the members. If the cost of such services were for example £40 per week in a church of 120 members we could say that the average member would need to account 6/8 a week as "my contribution for my spiritual welfare." (Not much different from the amount spent on medical and hospital insurance!). This is not really a given-away amount at all. It is payment for services rendered.

      ii. The money given is spent on others and therefore meets the giver's need to give. The money is spent in missionary service, social service and church extension. This is real giving.

      Many churches today are bogged down in a morass of selfishness (albeit unwitting), unable to rise above the tensions inherent in struggling to pay for the services the members expect for their own edification. Very often they want too much for too little, and sometimes even try raising funds by methods which have others paying up for them. Too many of our churches are trying to pay their way instead of experiencing the exhilaration and thrill of providing for the Lord's work on a grand scale--a scale which would cause thousands more of their countrymen and overseas neighbours to turn to the Lord. When the world sees we Christians are really paying out of our pockets to have them converted they will begin to believe we are really persuaded of the merits of the Lord and are really interested in them. The church which exists as a club merely to serve its own members is dead because it has lost its missionary reason for existence.

      Surely in the Christian church the members should be giving more for others than for themselves; but there are not many Churches of Christ in Australia who are (though it be admitted that some individual members are).

      It should be stated that offerings applied to building funds partake of the "far others" virtue when the amounts given are this generation's contribution to facilities which the next generation will enjoy debt-free. By the way, on the subject of church buildings: Must our children become accustomed to seeing better hotels business premises, and schools than their churches and Sunday schools?

      To summarise, What the Lord receives from us in our offerings at His Table, He returns into our hands to do us and our fellowmen good.

      "Giving is living, the angel said, Go feed the hungry sweet charity's bread.

      Must I keep giving and giving again? My selfish and querulous answer ran.

      Oh no, said the angel piercing me through--You just keep giving 'till the Master stops giving to you."

      C. Church members need to be taught to plan their giving. Such an important matter as giving to God ought not to be done lightly or left to the feelings or impulses of the moment (Impassioned speeches of appeal are "out" in my pattern of church organisation--I'm glad we don't have them as the normal thing in S.A.)

      Members need to be taught to give regularly and systematically--"upon the first day of the week" (1 Cor. 16:2), "According as he purposeth in his heart" (2 Cor. 9:7), and "as God has prospered him" (1 Cor. 16:2). Teach the member to consider carefully and prayerfully, in the light of all the spiritual motives, how much he needs to give. He should decide upon a weekly amount in pounds and shillings. He should re-decide at least once a year or whenever ha financial circumstances change.

      It is no giving at all when one dives his hand into his pocket at the announcement of the offering, and simply draws out whatever is touched. It is not worthy of men who deal in a business-like way with others during the week, and it is not worthy of God.

      The amount decided upon should be considered sacred to the Lord. It should be the first charge on income. Offerings to God should never be the left-overs, nor what remains after other needs are satisfied. Offerings are rightly the first-fruits.

      D. Church members should be taught to consider a tithe as their minimum standard of giving. The tithe is a Biblical standard,-- actually a demand in the Old Covenant. The spending of one tenth of income will draw the giver's significant attention to what he is doing. It will be an important part of his spending. He will not be offering to the Lord "that which costs him nothing."

      If one feels he cannot tithe, he does well to be sure he has decided so with God, and not for selfish reasons.

      Explain the tithe to your church members in concrete terms such as 2/- in every £l, or £2 in every £20, or £100 in every £1000. Use the excellent material in Songster's above mentioned book pages 12ff.

      The church, through her present best givers, should not shirk the responsibility of counselling her members an how much to give She is the counsellor and spiritual teacher of her people and teaching is not much good if it is vague or indefinite. Never, when talking to Christians in groups, speak about giving in terms of less than a tithe. Meet individual problems in individual counselling, not from the public platform.

      The above doctrines may be printed but they are of little effect until they come alive in real people. Primarily it is people who teach.

      You will find in almost every church consecrated members who have the radiance and jay of the good giver. They give a tithe and more and enjoy it. They have won the struggle against mammon. Their growth in the Lord is promoted by their sacrificial offerings and vice-versa. These should be the teachers in the church's teaching-of-giving programme. They should be called by the church to witness to their fellow-Christians what their giving means to them.

      Too often the t-of-g is left to the treasurer--someone says, "He's the man who deals with finance"--or to the preacher. They may be on the t-of-g committee if they qualify as good givers but not because they happen to be treasurer or preacher. The treasurer's function is to keep the books of account, the preacher's to expound the spiritual truths of the faith. It is the good givers who should be called to function as teachers of good giving.

      It is high time our churches (i. e. the church leaders--the Board of officers) gave up being so timid about organising our good givers to testify to their experience. The reason for this timidity rests wish those officers and members who are afraid to listen to the testimony, because they do not want to be taught to give away their money or to have to wrestle in a decision between more pounds for God or more pounds for self-comfort. For God's sake, in, this pagan age, and for their fellow-members' sakes, our good givers need to be vocal in their witness as to haw God has blessed them through their giving.

      In a world where the pressures of secular business, success, material pleasures and keeping up with the Joneses are so strong, we Christians need to guard against selling our souls to the spirits of this age. We need some powerful motives to rescue our souls lest seeking to save ourselves we lose them. Two powerful motives rest (a) in the appeal to do God's will, and (b) in the testimony of those who are showing the way, and who invite us to follow.

      The most compelling testimony will come normally from those whose gifts are the highest because they are the most able to give. It is not enough for the middle incomers to show the way. Consciously or subconsciously the rest of the congregation will ask, How are the more well-to-do giving?--they are better able to give than I am. If these same better-able-to-give members are really in the Lord's business then normally others will follow their example. But how easy it is for those wealthier members to excuse themselves saying, The ordinary working man doesn't understand the commitments I've got. I know--it was harder for me to give £5 per week when I was on £2,500 than £2/10/- per week now I'm on £1,200. Mr. More-Well-To-Do read 1 Tim. 6:17-19--you have your commitment to the Lord as well as your other commitments.

      Not enough of our richer members are putting a tithe and more aside as "the Lord's portion" a first charge on their incomes. Too many other important things to put their money into!! It's high time our richer brethren led the way to big things for the Kingdom, for spiritual growth in the community and in their own lives. Thank God for some who are. When richer men put God in the forefront of their lives, the rest of the community will tend to follow.

      Mr. Church-Officer, see that you appoint the right men to your t-of-g committee--such as are able to share "the gospel of good giving" with their fellow members. When you appoint them, remember to charge them to work in Christ's Name and for the sake of their fellow Christians--not for the church (which can be a nebulous abstraction) or the Board.

      The testimony of such givers on what they are giving and why, the problems they have faced, and the faith and thinking behind their giving, is the best evidence that great giving is, and does, real good to the giver. No amount of contradiction can gainsay the witness of a radiant Christian who has experienced the personal blessings of great giving.

Organisation Chart:

Congregation elects Board of Elders and Deacons who appoint on behalf of the members a Teaching-of-Giving Committee who plan

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      and administer the T-of-G programme and who enlist such helpers as they need to carry out specific projects.

      1. Provide every member (or family unit i. e., income earning unit) with dated weekly offering envelopes, which are large enough to hold bank notes and cheques without being folded too many times. A good size is 5¾ inch x 3½ inch. Most churches number the envelopes so that the offering amounts may be acknowledged. Envelopes cause people to think before coming to church and emphasise the weekly act of worship.

      2. Protect the members from a multiplicity of miscellaneous and special annual appeals for which they cannot possibly budget their giving at a generous level. Weekly giving at a thought-out level stresses the primary question, "What amount shall I give?" Today, many are so confused by the claims of the many appellants, that their energies are consumed on the question of the worthiness of the recipient.

      It is because our administrators have been afraid of not receiving enough that they have fallen into the error of pleading their own cause. Appeals to give to abstractions like departments and committees who keep calling for support are not creative. Let the administrative machinery which spends the money work so smoothly that we scarcely realise it exists. Our departments need to appreciate that members who are taught to give as much as possible each week will provide far more resources for Christian service than have been given under past and present methods. Of course members need to be told how their offerings are serving people (not departments).

      3. Tell the members what their offerings are doing or about to do, and also what could be done with more offerings. Translate payments into amounts of money which are rendering a service to people (see B above). Paying out the offerings is usually the function of the Board or its finance committee who act on behalf of the members in this regard.

      4. Do not structure our church organisation so that your members give to a budget. Members should be taught to give for spiritual reasons not for budget reasons. There is no limit to the amount of money which can be given and used for service in Christ's name. Church boards should beware of creating a ceiling to giving by the exercise of a too rigorous pruning of church spending. Let the spending of the money be determined upon after members have settled their giving intentions from spiritual motives.

      5. Assist each member family to make a pledge. I hope you will try to understand the word "pledge." It is primarily the decision which states the intention to give so much. One pledges when he decides to set apart a given amount each week for presentation to the Lord at His Table. The pledge is first made in the mind and heart. It may or may not be committed to writing. The decision is strengthened when it is recorded by the giver.

      There is an urgent need for every family to commit themselves to a decision about the importance of spiritual values. To make a pledge, one must pause, consider the real and permanent values of life, and determine upon a financial contribution which will sustain those values in himself and for his children and the world at large.

      The t-of-g committee should provide at least once each year--in the normal course--a farm of pledge for the use of every church member (or family). The issue of the forms should be preceded by an educational programme led by the committee.

      A typical pledge form:

      As part of our (my) Christian

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Stewardship of the material possessions we (I) enjoy by God's bounty we (I) will try to contribute £ . . . . . . . . . each week as our (my) offering at the Lord's Table.

      Thus, under God, we (I) subscribe to--

1. The larger ministry of the Church to the Members and to the Community where we serve.

2. The maintenance and improvement of our Church buildings.

3. The Missionary outreach of our Church in unlimited amounts.

4. The Care of the needy.

5. The Education and preparing of our Youth.

      Some t-of-g committees will discuss the giving decision with the member families, and record the giving amount on a pledge card bearing the name of the family. All professional consultants advocate this procedure as the most efficient and as the one which will meet the counselling needs of each individual family. Many of our sister communions have their own employed professional consultants who direct intensive 3 to 7 week programmes in local churches during which pledges are so recorded. A member of one of our Victorian churches, a former Baptist layman, is employed by the Methodist Church of Victoria and Tasmania in this capacity. I myself conducted such a programme, m some not so spare time at our Lane Cove church, Sydney, when I was a member there in 1956. Quite a number of our churches have used this approach in special building fund giving programmes. There is not the space in this pamphlet to detail the plan and organisation of such a 3 to 7 week programme.

      Recently many of our churches have conducted what they have called "Stewardship Campaigns" (not an accurate term in my view), when they have issued pledge forms. In many cases the pledges handed in or received in visiting have been without names. Our churches, by and large, have been afraid of heart-to-heart personal counselling in the homes, because it requires careful training, is not easy, is capable of being misunderstood, and of course because they have not properly tried it.

      The sizes of the pledges whether named or anonymous should never be published. As Col. Wells says "It is agreed that it is better not to publish any lists of gifts because most gifts are too small." This does not mean that the good givers should not make known their gifts and their reasons for so giving as a means of helping other people become better Christians.

      A pledge or decision to give so much must be reckoned capable of alteration with changing circumstances.

      Prompting people to make a pledge causes them to pray, to think, to decide, to record and, we hope, to rejoice.

      6. Literature, etc. While literature and films are aids to teaching, they should not be expected to replace the teacher. Don't overdo publicity. However be sure all your printing is good quality, not penny-pinching and cheap looking. The minister's sermons may give good background to the t-of-g programme, but he must not think that his sermons are the sine qua non of the programme. Let him keep with great Biblical and spiritual themes and be sure he does not become a mendicant.

      7. i. Never talk in terms of schemes and systems, e. g. budget system, envelope system, and Wells System; talk in terms of peoples' needs and people's deeds.

      ii. Never talk negatively. Never refer to those who don't do what you would like them to do or who do the things you wish they wouldn't. Emphasise what you are trying to inculcate and leave contrary views to die out.

      iii. Have your treasurer publish total collections to date for the year, not week by week amounts. Have him publish his financial statement showing under "Receipts": "Offerings . . . £ . . . ." Have him avoid a receipts dissection in terms of where the money is going or in terms of how the money was received How the offerings are used should be shown on the payments side only.

      iv. Plan your t-of-g programme well ahead of operation dates.

      v. Try to get your Board to plan to give away more money than it has. There is some truth in the saying, "The church will never raise money unless it has to."

      vi. Watch lest your church programmes become geared to financial considerations instead of to the needs of people. e. g. A building should not be built on the basis of the amount the local church members can raise but on the basis of the needs of the community it is designed to serve. This of course is not to license the extravagant use of spiritual money--but of course the temptation is rather the other way, to cut down purely for financial reasons.

      vii. If you have any problems or need help in your programmes consult the expert advisers of your State Conference "Planned Giving" committee which I hope to see set up by our respective State Executive Committees in the near future,

      viii. Programmes involving gifts to major building projects require special understanding and organisation,

      ix. Talk big amounts.

      i. The dual function of our present Conference Departments of raising funds and disbursing them has serious defects. The Departments are seen more as receivers and salesmen than as servants who are serving the churches and serving on be half of the churches.

      ii. The Executive Committee in each State should set up two specialised committees viz.

      1. (a) A "Planned-Giving" Committee to assist churches in their t-of-g planning and programming. (b) consult with the churches and advise them on their need as churches to give funds "for others"--not because the brotherhood wants the money, but because it is good for the health of the church to give it.

      2. A Finance Committee of informed, intelligent and consecrated men and women who, on behalf of the churches, recommend to the Executive how the money given "for others" be distributed as between the several alternative possible uses.

      iii. If suggestion ii is followed then our departments can get on with the job of planning, organising and administering their fields of service. They can tell the churches with pride what they are doing in their name without having the unpleasant feeling that people are saying, "That is so much propaganda to raise funds."

      iv. We need to plan for growth. Our brotherhood leaders do the churches and our church members a real service when their thinking and planning is statesmanlike, progressive and extensive.

      It has been said:

      The cross of Christ has no part or lot with selfishness, and the giving which builds His Kingdom is the giving which is our answer to His love. Giving of that kind is possible when discipline has strained the softness out of us. Spending is then determined by our highest good and by what He requires.