2 Corinthians 8:7-8: "But just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us—see that you also excel in this grace of giving. I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others."
I noticed recently an add on Facebook that said I could have great abs in one day. One Day! Now who wouldn't jump at that opportunity!? Well, I didn't. I did notice that many workout programs have promised amazing results in the shortest amounts of time. There is even a workout machine in the airplane magazines that promise I can get a hard body in just four minutes per day! Somehow, I'm not so confident in those methods...
Okay, I did a little comparing yesterday at the Network Conference. I probably should not - I typically try not to - but it was, well, unavoidable. The Network puts out a listing of church giving, listing all churches in the Network both by total giving (in differing areas, the primary one being Missions) and per capita giving. Of course, the numbers for some churches were tremendous...some of the mega-churches were putting out hundreds of thousands in missions giving. It made our tens of thousands seem rather paltry by comparison.
HOWEVER...when I started looking at the numbers, something became quite clear almost across the board. While the larger churches gave large, their per capita numbers were inversely proportional to their size - meaning: They gave more, but ny quite a measure less per person. I was encouraged to see that our family gave $400 per person into missions last year. That put us about 15th or so in the list of several hundred churches in Washington and Northern Idaho. The larger churches couldn't compare. In fact, of those churches that surpassed us in per capita giving, not one was a mega church. Most were churches under 200. The mega churches had numbers that sunk embarrassingly into double digits - a sad, but telling statement that I keep pointing out concerning the state of the large, program churches we have come to love in America.
One church has over 5,000 members, yet gives only around $70 per person to missions. Can you imagine if all of those members were actual disciples of the Lord and gave commensurate to what the smaller churches do? Is it really that all of the numbers they report - the "Sunday morning attendance" numbers - are just fluff? Are they all really Christians? If so, then how are they giving so little per year, per person? No excuses - this is a church in the richest area of Washington, and in a church with the most opportunities of finding discipleship. A bad economy is not to blame - our church has several unemployed or underemployed members, yet our giving numbers remain high. So why the difference?
I am more and more convinced that as the size of a church increases, so too does its failure to reach the individual - at the very least in discipleship, and at worst in salvation. It is hard to get away with anonymity in a small church. It is easy to define Christianity for yourself (as opposed to the Biblical definition) in a large church. And the size of the church was not as telling as the speed of growth of the church. There were many examples of "marquis" Network church plants - new churches that had busted out big, and quickly, because of a good marketing strategy or fine organization and leadership. The giving numbers for these churches was very, very small. I pray it means that their growth is from new conversions, which means that their disciples are younger in the faith and less inclined to give or give consistently. I fear that it means they are growing by siphoning others' Christians - other churches' members who are just immature enough to jump congregations at the first sign of the shiny distraction of faddish excitement.
It is hard to do what God has called us to do at Passion. Avoid marketing. Avoid strategizing. Avoid program-driven agendas. Discipling people is a slow process. Winning people is a slow process. The faster we've done it in America in the past 50 years, the smaller the overall church has shrunk, even while the mega churches blossom. I could've done the marketing thing. I had a plan for that in 2003. God told me to scrap it and simply love the people He gives me. Grow them. Teach them. He promised that He wold provide the increase...in His time. He has told me that "slower is stronger."
No, you can't build abs in a single day. Muscles don't work that way. Fat doesn't either. You can't join a program that will take you from couch to marathon in a week. You can't go from drinking a six pack a day to having a six pack IN a day. There are no magic wands you can wave that will reverse what it's taken 10 (or sometimes dozens of) years for you to build up. It is the same with the way we've mistreated our lives, our relationships, our attitudes, our character. God doesn't do spiritual plastic surgery. The only implant you get is the Holy Spirit - and that is to help you in the PROCESS of growing into a disciple.
Sometimes we want the fast results. We want the mega church to wrap around us all of their programs and podcasts and pageantry and make us a mega Christian in a week. We want the brand new fad church, with all of the glamour and excitement and showmanship, to excite us into faith once a week. But what it really takes is a daily workout regimen, with mature, healthy believers who can coax us off of our spiritual couches and make us do the daily Bible diet program, the prayer crunches, the daily faith distance training and the heavy lifting of daily taking our every thought into captivity and making it obedient to Christ.
Giving is a great measure of maturity. Very few come to Jesus in the first week and start tithing and giving offerings faithfully. It is a hard-fought discipline and a mirror for the believer to reveal just where they are in Christ. And we should not measure our faith against Corinthians, who had to be cajoled by Paul into giving. Rather, we should compare ourselves to the Macedonians, of whom Paul spoke adoringly:
"Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will." 2 Corinthians 8:2-5
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