Death to the Money god
Two subjects churches often avoid: sex and money. Interestingly, these are also two of the most popular idols in our culture—millions of people will sacrifice anything and everything in order to get more of both.
Our hope is to address these subjects with great openness in order to expose them as false gods, redeem them as gifts from God, and proclaim Jesus as the only source of true joy.
This month marks the end Mars Hill’s financial year (more on that soon), which makes now a great time to talk about what is at least the second hottest topic for a church.
Where I’m Coming From
When I first became a Christian about twelve years ago at Mars Hill, I did not want to part with “my” hard earned money.
I was going to school and working at Buca di Beppo making decent tips. Giving money to the church didn’t make a ton of sense to me at first, but the Bible says it’s important, so I decided to give it a shot.
I was quite pleased with myself when I decided that I was going to give $10 per week to Mars Hill. The more I read the Bible, however, the more I realized that my ten bucks did not resemble the sort of “sacrificial giving” God calls us to (2 Cor. 8–9). My token contribution was not even close.
But God, being the loving Father that he is, convicted me of my sin and graciously encouraged me to begin to give more and more, while at the same time building my faith in his continued provision and promises.
The Elephant in the Room
Now I’m a pastor, which means I get to talk about giving all of the time. I actually like that part of my job, because it means talking about Jesus and the stewardship of his incredible blessings and grace (John 1:16). That’s not to say that discussing money and giving isn’t a challenge, just not for the reasons you might think.
The difficult thing is that people in the church are at all different stages of Christian maturity. Each requires a totally different message when it comes to giving: encouragement (for the faithful), instruction (like me as a new Christian), rebuke (also like me), or in some cases even assistance, for those suffering from extenuating circumstances.
In addition, many people operate with a skewed perspective when it comes to financial matters:
- Culturally, personal finance is a “private,” taboo matter. When this perspective creeps into church, it creates shame—for those who have to talk about money and those who have to listen. In contrast, Jesus spoke about money in a very public, forthright way.
- Money can provoke fear and anxiety. This reveals our idolatry: our hope and security are in money, not Jesus. When it makes us anxious, money achieves an ill-deserving place of power and authority over us. Instead we need to trust God and view money as a blessing from him, given to us as a tool to steward and bring glory to him.
- Church leaders have a bad reputation. A lot of Christians have witnessed greed and corruption within the church, which has led to a general lack of trust and skepticism when it comes to church and money. I won’t defend poor church leadership—I’ve seen it myself. However, this cannot serve as an excuse to maintain non-biblical positions in regards to our own giving and stewardship.
We Want You to Know
As the leadership of Mars Hill, we want to be honest and open—biblical—like Jesus. We want our people to be free from the worship of financial security and monetary gain. And we take matters of trust very seriously, which is why we have a number of financial controls in place to ensure accountability and wise stewardship.
Why? It’s all about Jesus. We’re accountable to him, and we want people to love Jesus, not stuff.
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Giving at Mars Hill
