I knew it would come back to haunt me. This is all because I sometimes put all the pennies into the benevolence side of the First Plymouth Sunday School offering envelope instead of splitting the five or eight cents between the local church expenses and benevolence. Somebody up there was agonna get me eventually. I just expected it to be while I was still wearing itchy petticoats, lace-edged anklets and black patent Mary Janes.
Bill Cosby and my dad taught me how to saw. My dad told me to let gravity do the work. Bill Cosby taught me that sawing should sound like VOO-bah, VOO-bah, VOO-bah... The Lord told Noah to build an ark, and Bill Cosby created a wonderful stand-up routine about their conversation. The VBS malware worm has me peering into the bottom of the computer ark. Who is going to clean up the mess down there?
Two-sided offering envelopes were a strategy for Protestant congregations with regular expenses beginning in the 1920s:
Excerpted from Samuel A. Stein, A Guide in Church Finance, (Columbus, Ohio: Lutheran Book Concern, 1920), 11-18.
The one and best envelope system to introduce is the Weekly Duplex Envelope System. This system is recognized practically by all Protestant denominations as the most successful method at the present time for congregations to raise money for their own up-keep and for benevolences. ... We solemnly express the opinion that a congregation which fails to introduce the very best possible method in keeping with the tasks imposed by God lags behind in obedience to God's Word.
Here is a sample of the weekly duplex or divided envelope--one for each Sunday in the year. Study the reading.
1. THIS METHOD HELPS TO INTELLIGENT GIVING
The church, at insignificant expense, tells the giver fifty-two times a year what the Lord needs His moneys for; what His moneys are expended for. It answers many questions. In many congregations not half a dozen people half have a clear idea of what is required to support the Kingdom of God in their own midst, and their support is according to their hazy views ...
The system is decidedly educational ... Here is a system that leads up to intelligent giving. It instructs, teaches and informs regularly and repeatedly each contributor as to the needs of God's Kingdom. And it reaches more persons, old and young, than any other method. In the parable of the talents, Matt. 25:14, Christ teaches us to use our money to the best advantage of His Church.
2. THIS METHOD ENCOURAGES CHEERFUL GIVING.
... Cheerful giving ought to flow throughout all the year. The weekly double envelope offers this opportunity. "God loveth a cheerful giver" (2 Cor. 9:7).
3. THIS METHOD ENCOURAGES REGULAR GIVING.
Regularity here means good order. Mild regularity is needed everywhere--in the clock, in the home, in the state, and why not in the church?
What happens in the biggest business concerns if irregularity creeps in? The Church of Christ is the biggest business on this planet. Regularity and good method cannot be separated. A minister, layman, or congregation can accomplish more with good methods than without them. There is a business side to the church ... Method and habit go together. Much of Christian virtue consists in good habits. A good act comes from faith; often repeated it becomes a good habit.
... Many Sunday Schools use the weekly double envelopes. Their use is of great educational value
... Several months ago we read: The envelope system was introduced recently into a leper church in Siam. In imitation of their more fortunate brethren, the lepers with mutilated fingers made their own envelopes out of scraps of white paper from a mission press. On the first Sunday under the new system their offerings increased from 60 cents to $1.44...
4. THIS METHOD ENCOURAGES PERSONAL GIVING.
...The old custom that the head of the family should pay for all is out of date. And why should the husband not give his wife money for the Kingdom of God as well as he gives her money for a new hat? All housewives that have an allowance certainly ought to give to Christ's Church. Then, remember, it is the Christian Church that has given to woman the high place that God wants her to have. Parents give their children money for useful and often even for useless things; why not for the Church?
A certain father was liberal and the main financial supporter of a church. When he died the church was hardly able to survive the financial loss. How about his large family? Oh, the sons and daughters give practically nothing. They were not taught to give. Pa always gave for themThe training feature of the weekly duplex envelope system is great. "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it" (Prov. 22:6).
5. THIS METHOD ENCOURAGES RELIGIOUS GIVING.
Giving belongs to true religion. Christian giving is worship. "Honor the Lord with your substance." We worship God by paying as well as by praying. ... Some insist upon paying by the year; but God gives us grace every moment. It seems when the Christian congregation on the day of its Lord hears: "He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might become rich" (2 Cor. 8:9), it ought to respond also with money. The weekly duplex envelopes give the opportunity to all worshippers to give of their substance "upon the first day of the week," "the Lord's day." This is one of the underlying ideas of this method.
6. THIS METHOD ENCOURAGES PROPORTIONATE GIVING.
...God is the owner of all money. He gives it to us. We are not the absolute owners, but stewards. Some of the money God gave us we received for the purpose of using it for the upbuilding of his Kingdom. How much? A percentage need and cannot be stated here--that would be legalism; but this much is certain that we ought to give a fair share of what He gave us. That means, in dollars, much more for the rich man than for the poor. God's Word lays down a certain principle: "Every man should give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee" (Deut. 16:17). "According to ability": "As God hath prospered," "not grudgingly, or of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver" (2 Cor. 9:7).
Now, is it reasonable and God-pleasing for a man to hold off bringing an offering to the Lord until some festival, or until six months or the congregational year is up, and then try to figure out what proportionate giving is? Does the good Lord not give to each one every day in the week; and would it not be much more reasonable for him to bring his offerings each Lord's Day? A man says: "I'll pay mine in a lump when the year is up." Suppose he wants to see then how the Lord has prospered him. Well, we do not see how he can see at the end of the year whether or not the Lord has prospered him, if he cannot see it now. Experience shows that he never gives a due portion. Moreover, what right has a man to hold up "his share" for months when the Church of Christ needs it today? ... Many Christians hate to think of the old way of giving. We can see no doctrinal difficulties in the new may. We know the Spirit of God says, "Give as the Lord hath prospered you," and the weekly plan reminds us of this, offers the opportunity for it and encourages us to do so. It makes the service of love easier. Is it right to tempt to covetousness by unsuccessful methods?
Oh, and VBS malware isn't really divine retribution. Visual Basic Script seems to be a handy tool for folks who like to disrupt a wide swath of computer communications and functions. I hope Fat Albert sits on them.
© 2007 Nancy L. Ruder
No comments:
Post a Comment