Christian Building 11/26/44
Scripture: (read Psalm 1)
Text: I Chronicles 16: 29b; “Bring an offering, and come before him...”
“What does your church mean to you?” That question is the slogan of the United Church Canvass in our city and area. You have seen it in the newspaper advertising of the past week and on the poster in the entry as you came in this morning.
Let us consider that question intimately for a few minutes here this morning. What does our church mean to us? What do you feel it means to you?
Is it a fellowship of sincere Christian people made more sincere by your presence and interest? Does it provide adequately for the preaching of the gospel, the administration of the sacraments, the pastoral care of members and friends? Is its house of worship kept in good repair so that it is attractive and comfortable as a place to meet? Does it provide well for training in Christian character of children, young folk and mature adults? Does its worship lead one into the presence of the Eternal God? Does the church mean all of these things, and perhaps more, to you? If it does, that is probably because you put a certain amount of interest and effort and support into it. It may mean more, if you and I will put more into our church, and probably only as we put more in where we expect to get more out.
In this particular church of ours, it is our custom to examine once a year the financial needs of the church program, and to decide then what, for a whole year ahead, is to be our financial effort in support of that program. Because we confine this special attention to this one effort in a year’s time does not mean that we lack further interest in it through the rest of the year. It is just that this time is the main time of decision - of planning for each year. For giving, or sharing, is rightly a year-round, continuous process.
The way in which we give is a practical expression of the way we believe. Our talents and our substance are really life itself. You work at your job through the week, and much of that labor is translated into a medium of exchange called “money.” That “money” can be exchanged for the fruit of someone else’s labor that you need to keep you a producer of your kind of fruitage. Or it can be put to work helping produce the kind of fruitage others need worse than you do. Money is not something to be considered apart from character and spirit. Your money is life itself - stored labor, stored energy, a stored-up part of your own life - ready to be translated into more life.
When we spend it for milk and bread, we exchange life for life. When we offer it for the service of God, we give that portion of our life and labor that it represents for other lives. That portion of our money which we give to the work of our church represents a measure of our belief in the ideals of the church and the faith it offers to mankind. The proportion of our lives which it represents is a measure of our belief in the gospel as preached, taught and lived through the church.
Ten days ago, at an open church business meeting, we had presented to us the needs of our church, as far as a careful study of those needs can estimate them for the coming year. During this past week, a letter was mailed by the committee to each family in our parish. Enclosed in the letter was a pink sheet which explained, in figures, what is needed for the preaching of the gospel and pastoral care of our people, for the care and necessary maintenance of our house of worship, for the music and other expenses incidental to our worship, for our share in the wider Christian fellowship.
A few items are held down to smaller figures than last year. Two items are increased over the last year. We are now installing a new furnace to replace the one which was worn out after 33 years of service. Because of the good response to letters sent out by trustees and then by the finance committee, the furnace will probably be paid for by the end of this year. But because we are putting in a new furnace, we will be required by legal regulations of the building code, to install an entire new system of ducts for the delivery of heat to, and return of cold air from, all parts of our building. This will have to be done as soon as the war situation is relieved sufficiently to make priorities for material available. That is why $3,500 is included in next year’s budget for this item.
The other increase is for benevolences. This increase is not as much as we are asked to make. We are asked to accept an apportionment of something over $1,500 as our fair share of the state and national goal. Our officers feel that we will have to approach that goal gradually, accepting nearly half of the increase, or an increase of $250, for this coming year, and probably raising more in the following year, after we have taken care of completing our furnace improvement.
Now we can see easily enough the need for a furnace to keep ourselves comfortable in our house of worship. None of us wants to shiver around in a cold building as some congregations in bombed out churches of England have to do. We are comfortable in our homes and intend to be comfortable in our church.
I wonder if we perceive as clearly the need for this thing we call “benevolences.” Unless we understand that word carefully, we ought perhaps to use a different word. That item is really an investment in a better world. It is important, and it ought to be a growing and far bigger investment, if we expect to get ahead of the forces of evil which plunge us into hatred, greed and war.
Roughly speaking, half of the benevolence money we propose to contribute (let us say $650) is used in the larger work of this state - including special speakers, literature, state conferences, youth conferences, assistance to smaller, but important churches, maintenance of student work, living and expenses of our State Superintendent, Field Superintendent, and Pastor-at-Large. There is really need for more of this support. The office force at Madison is over-worked and needs more room - and we need the literature and advice they have for us. Our young folk would not give up Leonard Detweiler, nor would we do without Dr. Faville and Dr. Wicks and the service they give to all our churches. We need a state worker in Christian education.
But state expenses will be held down so that more of our gifts can go to the rest of our benevolence objectives which need them so sorely.
Speaking again in round numbers, one fourth of our benevolence money (let us say $310 of our proposed giving) is used in the larger work of the United States, including some support of Christian schools, aid to some smaller churches, to defense areas and servicemen. Defense areas never have adequate church facilities. But a portion of our gifts will help. And that is just a part - a temporary part we hope - of the whole program of national missions.
For the larger, world-wide work of Christian service and teaching we allocate approximately one fourth of our benevolence money (let us say $315 of what we propose to raise.) This is the portion of our gifts that will get into the work of what we call “foreign” or world-wide missions. Someone is apt to say - “But isn’t that kind of missionary work finished with missionaries driven out of Japan and interned in China and the Philippines, or sent home?”
Indeed it is not finished. The need is as great as ever. Medical missions alone render a great service in China. In all that vast population there are only 370 hospitals. Of these 310 are private and of these 310 private hospitals, 235 are maintained by Protestant missions.
General MacArthur has let it be known to the authorities at home that he wants the missionaries back at work in the Philippines just as soon as possible after enemy forces are cleared from an island. And the work goes on in three great fields in Africa; in India and Ceylon; in the Near East; in Mexico; - in all the fields touched by our American Board workers where there is no enemy present to restrict the mission.
A year ago at Cleveland, I heard the proposal formulated and adopted, that our churches be asked to undertake a “substantial and courageous” increase in apportionment giving - that is to “benevolences.” The increase set as a goal, was from the $1,700,000 given by all our churches in this country in 1942 to $2,500,000 by the end of 1945. It is needed to maintain present work at increased cost; to man more adequately the centers of our present work (150 new recruits are needed by the American Board now); to strengthen churches at home and abroad; to mobilize Christian public opinion in support of a Christian world order.
This budget which is now before us does not include all of the Christian giving we are interested in. Last year a considerable portion of our membership pledged to give a total of $486.75 to War Victims and Services this year. A number of our people have purchased war bonds for the Manse fund in an amount totaling $900 maturity value. Several of our laymen maintain a unit of more than $100 in the Unit Plan for wiping out the obligation of the churches on the Annuity accounts of older ministers now retiring. These should continue. I think those of us who give to War Victims and Services, for instance, will want to continue our gifts, for this need is an increasing need as long as war rages and for some time after.
But our main attention must now be focused on the needs summed up in this budget and the needs it represents. How shall we raise it? Are we to assume that everyone now has more money than ever before and hence will give more? Well, I believe that every understanding Christian wants to give a worthy proportion of his trust in talents and income to the “sharing service” of God in his church. But I do not think that it is enough to assume that the need is cared for by the rise or fall of prosperity. The times, and the need, call for glad and willing sacrificial giving.
Among the young Christian Churches of one foreign country, hard pressed by war, the slogan has been adopted - “something from everyone.” It would be a good slogan for us who have so much more. Every man and woman in the membership of this church should be giving something (according to his or her faith and ability) to the work of the church. Young people, who have joined the church, most of whom have some occasional earnings or allowances, should decide on some worthy part of their money to be given to their church. Preferably it should be pledged and given regularly so that each has the joy of a definite share in the good work. Friends of the church who attend its services, who have children in the Sunday School, who like the fellowship of the church’s various organizations, are invited to share according to their faith and willingness in the work. “Something - Everyone.” That is one way to see that this budget for God’s work is underwritten. The other way is by more sacrificial giving by many of us. Most of us would treat ourselves to greater satisfaction than we have known in a long while if we really gave more of what we think we would like to have in order to make more of a world that ought to be. We do some of that sort of giving, but in the light of others’ needs, others’ sacrifices, our own relative comfort and security, our own ability, and the threat of unchecked evil, we could do a lot more!
If everyone will give something; and if all of us will give sacrificially - not ‘till it hurts (that isn’t enough for the good of our souls!) but until it really feels good! we will subscribe this budget with surprising and delighted ease!
---------------
Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, November 26, 1944