EXORDIUM:
To
speak of “Church of Christ Pattern” is nothing but a way of making the Lord’s
Church one of these numerous ever-growing and proliferating denominations. We
simply do not have a “Church of Christ Pattern”; what we have is Biblical
pattern. The Church of Christ only seeks to speak where Bible speaks and to be
silent where Bible is silent. She is satisfied by doing Bible things by Bible
ways and to call Bible things by Bible names.
Churches
of Christ, in spirit and character, all over the world are content to be
identified with these basic principles. They seek no other.
Being informed that I would be sharing
with Preachers on this topic immediately sent defence signals to me. Where and how
do I begin my presentation? Standing before giants, one feels like a dwarf. It
is important for me to state that I am not here as an “authority” in finance
and Biblical Patterns. However, in a gathering of this nature, someone must be
appointed to lead a discussion. As for intellectual, theological and
ministerial experience, I am the least qualified to stand before you today to
speak one word. Nevertheless, appointment is appointment and invitations like
this MUST be honoured. I am known to honour invitations.
The topic assigned to me is, Fund-Launching Ceremonies: The Church of
Christ Pattern. I want to rephrase the topic to look and sound like this: “Fund-Launching
Ceremonies: The Biblical Pattern.”
CONCEPTUALIZING BIBLICAL PATTERN
The word ‘Pattern” means “Standard
measurement”. Without pattern or measurement, there are bound to be confusion. Fortunately,
God is neither part nor the author of confusion but of peace and orderliness (I
Corinthians 14:33, 40).
Take
for instance ruler and cup are standards of measurement. In industrial
production, every company has a pattern, else, there would be differences in
each subsequent production which would evidence confusion.
Standards
Organization of Nigeria (SON) ensures that all products in Nigeria or imported
into our country meet regulatory standards. The same applies to National Agency
for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
God
recognizes the need for Pattern or Standard before men and so He ensured it
that men should abide by these. Few examples would suffice considering that we
do not have much time for exegesis:
1. When Noah was to build an Ark, God gave him pattern or
specifications (Genesis 6:14-16; 7:5).
2. When Moses was to build a Tabernacle he was to follow a
particular pattern (Heb.8: 5; Exodus 25:40).
3. Because the Ark of the Covenant was not carried according
to God’s Pattern as stipulated in Old Testament Scripture God was angry with
David and slew Uzzah (I Chronicles 15: 13; cf. I Chronicles 13: 7-12). However,
when David and all Israel went back to God’s Word the Pattern for carrying the
Ark of the Covenant was uncovered they were able to carry it successfully (I
Chronicles 15:14-15; cf. Exodus 25:14).
4. Because Nadab and
Abihu did not follow the Pattern of worship and offering of incense to God, the
Lord slew them (Lev.10: 1-2).
Pattern is very critical to
doing the Will of God in every generation. If we do not subscribe to Biblical
patterns, we may end up displeasing God thinking that we are pleasing to Him
(Romans 10:1-3; cf. Isaiah 8:20).
Having stated the above, our
business would be to seek out what Biblical pattern is towards Fund Raising or
Fund Launching. Were there instances of fund raising in the Bible, Old
Testament as well as New Testament? How did people go about raising the money
needed to execute given projects at the heart of God’s Work in their own era? Agreed:
our societies have changed but the principles remain the same.
Did they ever print
invitation cards, sent to dignitaries, called men and women to High Tables where
the Chief Launcher, Co-Launcher and their Supporters took their positions and reeled
out the millions, hundreds of thousands and tens of thousands that they had
pledged to give? I do not think that was so going by Jesus’ injunctions in
Matthew 6:1-4. How did early Christians go about their fund raising activities?
These are some of the issues that would occupy our attention in the course of
this presentation. However, we need to consider some relevant issues related to
the subject of our consideration.
MINISTRY AND MONEY
A number of things make Ministry work.
Next to the God-factor are men and materials. The catalyst remains material
resources. Without material resources, Ministry would not only be drudgery but
also weak - thriving only on imaginations and wishful thinking, full of dreams
but no action.
The place of money in Ministry cannot be
overemphasized. It remains to a great extent the pivot upon which Ministry
rotates. What can we really accomplish without money? We need money for
evangelism, edification and benevolence. It costs us nothing to become
beneficiaries of the grace that Jesus brought down to us. However, it cost
those who brought it to us and will equally cost us great resources to have it
published so that others could become beneficiaries also. For Ministry, the
Biblical Statement that, “Money answers all things” is very apt.
Consequent
upon the aforesaid, it should be stated that as a spiritual Body, the Church of
Christ was not established by Jesus Christ to serve as a money-making venture.
The mission of the Church remains to seek and to save the lost. Our Lord had
expressly commissioned His Disciples to, “Go into the world and make disciples
of all nations….” (Mark 16:15-16).
Earlier, He had told Peter and his brother, Andrew, “Come, and I will
make you fishers of men.” (Matt. 4:19).
Of course, the Church is both a
spiritual body but it is also social in composition. The socio-spiritual nature
of the Church makes it imperative that money matters should concern her. She
needs money to execute virtually all her activities such as Ministers’ welfare,
evangelism, edification, benevolence, equipping of Saints, acquisition of land
for building and construction purposes; media outreaches. The list is long and
often very intimidating. Stated simply, the Church cannot do without money.
Money issues are serious issues that have given various congregations of the
Lord lots of headache.
In my private reflections, I have come
to appreciate why this is so, namely:
1. The
Church is not a fund-raising agency.
2. The
Church is not a secular organization where money is the chief concern of the Founder.
3. The
Church is not a profit-oriented organization.
4. The
Nigerian Churches of Christ’s foundation with regard to giving have not been
very encouraging.
Having said these, the way we go about raising funds needed for the Ministry becomes a thorny issue in view of the fact that our congregations are poor. This situation is so because our Brethren who make up these congregations are altogether poor. The poverty of individual members translates to the poverty of our congregations. In the same vein, improvement in materials’ well-being of individual members would rob off positively on the corporate economy of our various congregations.
METHODS OF FUND LAUNCHING OR FUND-RAISING
Various methods of fund-raising exist –
some are Biblical others are not. Some of these methods include weekly
collections, “special appeal” collections, tasking members, car wash and the
like; hiring of professional fundraisers, etcetera. Understand, however, that for
the fact that something is not Biblical (Not found in the Bible) does not
necessarily make it wrong.
Major Biblical principles that we find
New Testament Congregations employed towards fund-raising were largely internal.
Except for Apostles who needed to be supported as they moved from one location
to another to carry on with their missionary activities, Congregations largely
raised their monies with the exception of the area-wide fund-raising activities
for Judean Christians (I Corinthians 16:1-3). From this we can make
applications that when in need a congregation can write to other Congregations
to solicit for funds.
That notwithstanding, New Testament
emphasis were laid on individual congregations looking inwards to source for
their needs. For us to do this today would require extensive education of the
members, impressing it upon them to create individual eternal bank accounts for
their own individual good (Philippians 4:17; Matthew 6:19-21). In fact, Apostle
Paul recommends that wealthy people in congregations should be persuaded to
donate generously (I Timothy 6:17-19).
A
careful analysis of New Testament Congregational needs have revealed that Congregations
were able to meet their financial needs through various methods. All the funds
needed to meet the needs of Saints were raised by the saints themselves (I Corinthians
16:1-2). There was no instance where any New Testament Congregation ever solicited
for assistance from those who were outside the Faith as it is in some cases
today.
We
must appreciate the fact that God has never allowed the Church to get into any
kind of competition with anyone. We were not called to erect the tallest
buildings and imposing cathedrals. Our major work is to win souls. We are
called to build men and women. The people the Church raises will in turn raise
the Church (Galatians 6:6). The Church was not wired to get into projects she would
not be able to handle, thereby necessitating her going out to seek for external
funding from outsiders or to engage in unbiblical methods of fundraising such
as tasking her members to start paying “dues.” As a Congregation grows, her
members should be able to know that it is their individual responsibilities to
meet the needs of the Church in whatever way possible.
The best possible means of fund-raising for
the specific needs and projects of the Church was to impress it upon the minds
of Christians that Giving actually adds up to their own benefits (Philippians 4:17).
When Brethren learn to domesticate Congregational needs, it would go along way
to meeting the immediate needs of Congregations where such needs exist.
UNBIBLICAL CONCEPTS OF FUNDRAISING
Many people have come up with various
tactics for raising money for the Church. Some of these tactics are employed by
our denominational neighbours and it is working for them. But for the fact that
it works for them, should we seek to adopt these same tactics even when they
are against plain Bible teachings? Some of these tactics are outright deception.
Such methods involve requesting from adherents to, “Sow seeds of faith,” promising
them great returns, assuring them that God would pay back in hundred folds. In
fact some of them are so daring that they would give dates when the “money invested
into God’s work” would be paid back by God. In this method, God is made a money
doubler. In some cases, church leadership mandate various people to give
specific amounts of money (this is called “billing”). Men and women are billed
to pay specific amounts.
Sometimes
professional fundraisers are hired by churches to raise a specific amount of
money for them. In that case, an agreement is made between a church and a
professional fundraiser in which at the end, a certain percentage of the total
money raised goes to the fundraiser. Recently, one of these fundraisers
employed a very subtle gimmick in which everyone in the audience was persuaded
to “Cook pepper soup for God” using Genesis 18:1-15 as his fund-raising text. He
ended his speech by actually asking people to prepare pepper soup for God with
hundreds of thousand of Naira. By the time the fundraising program was over, he
had reduced the amounts to as less as N50.
00. To say that this is unbiblical is to overstretch the truth.
These types of gimmicks, perhaps was
what Osman Pius Conteh in his novel, FOR BETTER,
FOR WORST published by Macmillan Publishers (1995:5). In the novel,
Yankuba, the protagonist while answering questions on “proliferation of
priests” (which is a way of in indicting modern churches), priests who were
feeding fat on their adherents stated,
"They
are as common as flies, and all of them are thieves, always begging for money
and then for more money by passing collection plates around. Being a priest in
Freetown is now big business…. They rob people by stirring up competition among
them. They ask for donations, then announce the amount the Bangura family has
donated, teasing the Conteh to do more than the Banguras. And that has the
effect of waking up the Kamara family…. Oh, don’t talk to me about priests.
They are all thieves."
May people entering our meeting halls
never be made to have this kind of impression as a result of our over emphasis
on money. We may have the temptations to do as others have done or are doing
but we should realize that Church meetings should have the atmosphere of prayer
and worship, not merchandize. This was what irked our Lord (John 2:13-17).
BIBLICAL CONCEPTS OF FUNDRAISING
Historically, Christians have been the most generous givers, as
their overflowing joy of salvation “welled up in rich generosity” toward God (2
Corinthians 8:2).
Volunteering
has always been God’s method of seeking His people’s gifts towards His Work. The
Psalmist puts it most beautifully, “In the days of His battle, His army shall
be volunteers” (Psalms 110:3) and “The Lord gave the Word and many were those
who published it” (Psalms 68:11).
OLD TESTAMENT EXAMPLE
These volunteering methods were employed in both Old
and New Testaments successfully. We can find the Old Testament examples in Exodus
25:1-9 and Exodus 35:4-Chapter 36:7. What an amazingly
successful capital campaign! Has your organization had to restrain people from
bringing more? May we all have this problem! One of the most amazing things to
me about this text is the emphasis on the lack of manipulation in Moses’
appeal. God clearly told Moses to “take an offering for me; from every person
whose heart makes him willing” (Ex 25:1). And Moses’ solicitation (Ex 35:4-9)
is exactly what God told him to ask for, word-for-word (Ex 25:3-7). He
faithfully detailed the needed gifts and the ways that those gifts were to be
used. The requirement that only those “whose heart makes him willing” were to
give is significant. This fundraising drive came after the golden calf debacle.
People could’ve been easily manipulated to give out of guilt. But God wasn’t
interested in that kind of giving. I am impressed by the variety of gifts Moses
asked for. This seems to have made the giving open to more people. The rabbis
find a difference in “whose heart stirred him up” and “whose spirit was
willing” (Ex 35:21). Those who were willing, they say, brought what was
required. This is good. But those whose heart stirred them were more generous
giving more than their obligation. This was the better way. The people
responded incredibly well to Moses’ obedient solicitation. In fact, this story
is amazingly God-centered. God’s Word directed every step of the process.
New Testament example would be the internal
fund-raising activity of the young Jerusalem Church as we read of in Acts of
Apostles chapter 4:32–37. No one was manipulated. Those who gave contributed
because they were moved by the appeal of the Church leadership. Barnabas and
others whose names were not mentioned proved to be one of the best examples.
Notice that they did not hold an auction in the name of the Lord to maximize
the size of their gifts. They did not advertise to the community they were
giving the proceeds from their land and other property sales to the church. They
just simply, "Laid the money at the Apostles' feet" (Acts 4:34, 37).
Other New Testament examples are found in I
Corinthians 16:1-4; II Corinthians 8 and 9. Paul certainly has
a lot to say about giving. First, Paul is using a format very common to us
today - a donor appeal letter. The passage from 1 Corinthians shows a reasoned,
logical, proportional approach to systematic giving (1 Corinthians 16:2). Such
systematic giving is what we observe every First Day of the Week. The portion from 2 Corinthians seems to
be inspired in part due to a stalled fundraising campaign (2 Corinthians 8:11;
9:3). The Corinthians made a significant pledge but had not fulfilled that
pledge. Interestingly, by bragging about the Macedonian churches, Paul employed
“competition” to inspire the Corinthians to fulfill their pledge (2 Corinthians
8:1).
Paul
also showed great appreciation to those who gave to him at various times to
enable him to continue his ministry (Philippians 4:14-20).
CONCLUSION:
Fund-raising is something other than the
normal giving of a congregation toward the work of the Lord. If a church decides
to raise additional funds for specific needs, this is acceptable but caution
should be the word so that we do not violate plain Bible principles. I am
however, of the view that we should embark on systematic teachings on giving so
that we can raise consciousness amongst the Brethren on the need to contribute
generously.
We should take into considerations that
contributions should be:
1. What
one has, not what he/she does not have (II Corinthians 8:12).
2. Not
grudgingly or of necessity but out of cheerfulness (II Corinthians 9:6-7).
3. Those
who give are going to be blessed because their individual accounts are going to
be enriched (Philippians 4:17).
4. Those
who give sacrificially would not be forgotten by the Lord (Hebrews 6:10).
5. The
little that a poor person has given should be appreciated as much as the person
who is wealthier (II Corinthians 8:13-14).
6. Remember
that the greatest gift that anyone can give to the Lord is self. Let us learn
to give ourselves first and we would not find it difficult to give to the Lord
that which we own (II Corinthians 8:1-5).
7. May we all be encouraged to labour for the Lord, being assured that whatever we have committed into God’s Work would never be in vain (I Corinthians 15:58).
RECOMMENDATIONS
I
picked up the following recommendations from a source and I think it is proper
that I share them with you:
•
Be honest about what the money is for.
•Don’t
allow the fundraising to communicate to others that God’s people
are not being obedient; therefore, the church is hitting up unbelievers
for money.
•Be
sure the congregation understands it is in addition to, not in place of, normal
giving.
•Be
considerate of those that have convictions against fundraising – you cannot
prove Biblically that it is OK, so it could be a doubtful
thing
for some.
ON THE OTHER HAND, THERE ARE BENEFITS
IN DEPENDING UPON GIVING RATHER THAN FUNDRAISING:
•
People learn to give because it is a blessing (actual fruit added to their
account), not to get something.
• Depending upon gifts of God’s people allows a Congregation to learn to work in the framework of contentedness and obedience.
• Establish special funds with particular goals. Some people will give to special projects above their regular giving.
• Encourage members to take a certain amount of money and invest it over a particular duration - some might buy ingredients for something and then sell their products when the time comes; these individuals then would all bring their personal gifts as an offering.
Thank
you and God richly bless you in Jesus’ most precious name!
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