Finance

The Vision for the Finances of St Mary’s

PP 1 of Vision River

Over the last weeks we’ve been looking in our Sermon Series at the development of the Vision for St Mary’s.

We have a Big Vision: to see God’s Kingdom extended out of the centre of Luton. We have a Big Aim: to build a strong church of disciples of Jesus Christ, reaching out to others. And we have a Big Challenge: to resource and nurture the growth of a healthy, Anglican, cell-based church.

Taking us towards this Vision is the River of the Life of this church. Giving us a framework to achieve our Aim are the streams of Worship, Prayer, Social Action, Discipleship, Relationships and Evangelism. Giving us the means to meet our Challenge are the banks of the river: the church’s Relational and Physical resources.

This morning, we are going to look at the financial resourcing of the vision.

The first thing that I want to say about this, is that it is work in progress, there have been no conclusions drawn or decisions made. What I would like to put before you are some of the points that might direct our thinking, and ask you to feedback, through your Network group leaders or direct to me, your thoughts, insights, concerns, and hopes about the way we, as a church, direct the money God has put in our stewardship.

So, with the background sketched out, I want to talk about three aspects of the way in which we make decisions about money at St Mary’s.

Firstly, How it works - the mechanics of decision making

Secondly, Sources of Guidance for decisions, where do we look?

And thirdly, the General guiding principles that underpin the decisions we make.

PP 2 - Names of Finance Committee

So, who makes decisions about the finances of St Mary’s, and what’s the process?

The Parochial Church Council, members of which are chosen by the congregation, has a Finance Committee. I am the Chair of that Committee, and also serving on it are Andrew Rodell, the Treasurer, Steve Wood and Beverley Fraser, the Church Wardens, Nick Bell, the Vicar, Linda Brewer, Matt Pirnie, Ruth Corbett, Juliet Johnson, our secretary, and Clive Richardson.

As a committee we make recommendations on financial matters to the PCC, who then make the decisions.

These financial matters include the annual budgets, long term financial plans, responses to unbudgeted ad hoc proposals, teaching on giving and stewardship strategies, financial processes and the management of the church owned investments and properties.

Ok, but this is all a bit dry, why are we talking about this? Mushrooms.

PP3 - Mushrooms

In the early church there were, as you might expect with the brand new enterprise that it was, some teething problems. We often read this piece of Acts, particularly when Church Finances are up for discussion:

Acts 2:44-45

All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.

However, we don’t so often read what happens a few chapters later:

Acts 6:1-5

In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word." This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.

Even in the early church there were disputes about resource distribution. And so people were chosen to make decisions and oversee resource distribution. Not anonymous people either, but Steve, Phil, Procorus, Nick, Tim, Parmenas and Nick the Greek. Why are their names listed? Well, maybe it’s because it was important that everybody knew who was responsible, who to talk to if there was a problem.

Because only one thing grows in the dark - mushrooms. Poisonous mushrooms of discontent, misunderstanding and gossip. And money matters make great mushroom compost. When we can see that these things grew even in the fellowship of the disciples we really have to be on our guard.

And we’re not here to grow mushrooms, we’re here to grow Christians, so I ask you, please pray for us, always assume the best, forgive us when we get it wrong and come and talk to us about any concerns you have.

So that’s the mechanics of the financial decision making, and later I’m going to highlight some of the principles that underlie our decisions, but where do these principles come from?

PP4 3 Legged Stool

Well, guidance on financial issues comes from the same place as we look for guidance on any issue.

Firstly, we look to see what is taught in the Bible about financial matters and resources. Which is a lot. However, the circumstances and context of the Bible’s teaching are, in some cases, quite different to our own. Also, as I’ll talk about later, there are tensions between some of the Bible’s teachings that have to be resolved. So we have to work out how this teaching should be applied in our situation.

To do this God has given us two things. The first is our reason. God has created us to be thinking beings with intelligence and sense. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can work some of this stuff out. And if we can’t work it out ourselves, we have the second thing, the accumulated thoughts of the church over the years.

One of the great things about the church universal is that we don’t only have access to the wisdom of the people in the church on earth today, but records of the the wisdom of many of our fellow Christians through the ages.

And in all these things we aim to discern what the Holy Spirit is saying to us about the right use of God’s resources in this time and place.

So, what are the general guiding principles that we believe have been given to us from these sources?

PP5 Compass

Our God is a Generous and Trustworthy God

Our first guiding principle is that our God is a generous and trustworthy God.

In the Old Testament we can read what the prophet Malachi wrote:

Malachi 3 v. 10 “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room for it.”

(NIV)

In the New Testament we read what Jesus said to his disciples:

Matthew 6:31-33

So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

(NIV)

Many of us have seen evidence of these promises in our own lives as we have released money that God has given us into the church. We have also seen this in St Mary’s. In 2001 the congregation was challenged to meet a budget shortfall of £20,000 and regular giving increased by £22,000. In April of that year we heard that a lady in California, whose parents had married in the church in 1894, had died and left St Mary’s £40,000. This was used to increase the welcoming atmosphere of the church by improving the seating. We do not believe that this is a coincidence but God honouring our commitment to sacrificial giving.

This year, the congregation has been asked to increase giving 15% year on year, and is nearly on track to do so, making progress towards our aim of covering our normal running costs from our congregational giving by 2007. And again we have seen bequests and one off gifts come in that have enabled us to undertake projects that will also further the ministry of the church.

The Bible teaches that God is trustworthy and generous. It makes sense that God is trustworthy and generous with material resources, given that we have experienced God’s generosity in salvation. Christians through the years have witnessed God’s generosity and so have we, here.

Planning and Saving

Now we come to one of the tensions in the Bible’s teaching that we have to resolve in our decisions about our finances. One reaction to what I’ve just said would be to say, “OK, God is trustworthy and generous, so we should implement all the ideas we have, have faith and God will provide.” However, I don’t believe that this would be in line with what the Bible teaches about planning and saving, our second guiding principle.

In Proverbs we read:

Prov 21:5 The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.

(NIV)

It has been said that heaven finds nothing funnier than people telling God about their plans.

The plans of the diligent are God’s plans, not our plans. This doesn’t mean that they have been delivered by Angel Post, but that they have been developed with prayerful consideration, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

In his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul wrote:

Now about the collection for God's people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.

(NIV)

In this case God’s plan was for the Christians in Corinth to support their fellow Christians in the poorer church of Jerusalem. And God was providing the resources to the Corinthians to do this, but a week at a time, over a period of time, in advance.

With these things in mind the Finance Commitee do develop Annual budgets and 5 year long term plans. These allow us to come to the church and share the challenges that face us and encourage us to continue giving and growing together.

One of the biggest questions that has kept the Finance Committee occupied over the last few years has been the amount of money we should keep in savings. At one stage it seemed that it was too high, so high that it didn’t reflect a right trustin God in the long term. As many of you will know it has been reduced by spending it on projects, such as the projection system. However, this is still an open issue for us. Some churches give away all excess capital at the end of a year, choosing to trust God to supply the resources afresh in the following year. Currently, we believe that God has led us to hold savings equivalent to three months running costs, in line with our responsibilties to our employees. Whether or not this will still be the case as we move towards our vision is something we will keep under review.

Tithing

The third major principle that we are guided by is the principle of tithing. Tithing is the practice of giving away 10% of income. The basis of the tithe is that it is seen throughout the Bible. God commanded the people of Israel to bring a tithe to the temple and Jesus’ teaching on giving extended the concept of tithe beyond the mathematical 10% and onto the concept of sacrificial giving.

10% of all regular giving is budgeted by the Mission Committee to give to long-term projects that are supported by the church in prayer and action. 10% of unspecified bequests is set aside by the PCC to be given to ad hoc and short notice projects.

Occasionally local projects come up at Finance committee that are mission focussed, and we have to assess whether or not they should be funded from our tithe giving or within our normal budget. In these cases we have to look at ourselves very hard and be sure that if we finance them from our tithe giving it is not because we want to avoid the challenge of funding them from the normal budget.

PP6 Stream again

As we go forward into a new vision at St Mary’s I believe that the right use of the financial resources of the church will be critical to our success.

Sometimes a lack of apparent resources will be an indication that a proposal is not right at that time. Sometimes that lack will be a challenge to take a step of faith and get on with it.

Sometimes we will be called to save in order to meet a future commitment.

Sometimes we will be called to dispose of our savings so that we are dependant on God’s immediate provision in the future.

Discerning which time we are living in along the vision stream will be challenging, and as a committee we will value your prayers and support.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.