By Emmanuel Gandu
HIGHLIGHTS
* Excerpts
* Introduction
* Types of church fundraising
* Biblical principles of giving
* Conflicts and Challenges
(a) Overview
(b) Harvest Thanksgiving and Bazaars
* Closing the gap
EXCERPTS
“Fundraising is a vital activity that supports the church’s vision and mission of evangelization in order to enhance the spread of the gospel in the community.
However, the new wave of fundraising techniques in our churches has become a major concern to serious minded Christians.”
“Pastoral integrity must be one of the cardinal objective of Christianity because when the pulpit becomes a business, the truth becomes a threat.”
“Church leadership should avoid exploitation so that giving becomes voluntary, not shaming or compulsion or competition as doing this may create walls that block the word.”
“The conduct of Harvest Thanksgiving and Bazaars, for the purposes of raising funds for church development, for example, are often characterized by actions of carnival-like entertainment where secular comedians are brought into the church to pursue, cajole, harass, blackmail, and even intimidate church members to donate money for development.”
“But why must a christian not donate on his own volition according to God’s concept, principles, and spirit of giving as contained in scripture?”
INTRODUCTION
Fundraising is a vital component of activity to support the church’s vision and mission of evangelism to enable the work of the gospel in the community, country and the world.
This function goes a long way to support the clergy carry out their duty effectively.
These include the provision of facilities, place of worship, support training of seminarians and the religious, assistance/making a difference in the lives of vulnerable members, and above all serve as an opportunity to build a stronger, united, and committed community in the church.
Church fundraising facilitates and encourages members to harness resources towards meeting the collective goals and aspirations of spiritual well being, growth and physical development of the church.
However, raising funds to support various church projects, groups, programs and activities can be very tough especially for a small congregation/community. It’s likewise cumbersome for a poor, struggling, and the not well endowed, and those at the lower income bracket.
Lamentably, the prevalent hard economic situation in Nigeria and similar struggling countries makes matters worst.
For most of these communities, fundraising does not only come with pain and hardship, but the organizers employ all kinds of coarsion, gimmicky tricks, deception, and even intimidation to extort money from members of the church/public.
These types of fundraising efforts no doubt negates the whole essence of giving in true Christian worship.
This discourse is an attempt to further define fundraising as an opportunity for church members to give back to the church and community in conformity with God’s concept and spirit of giving.
TYPES OF CHURCH FUNDRAISING
Today, church fundraising ideas must be creative, representative, and effective for a positive and focused result.
It’s a fact that church members put in a good deal of time, effort, talent, and resources towards support and development of the church. In view of this, many churches worry about over burdening / over tasking their members by requiring additional support from them.
These churches have therefore evolved the idea of organizing different types of fundraising activities in order to :
✓ Allow every member of the church the opportunity to freely participate in supporting the church.
✓ An all inclusive arrangement without alienating certain categories of people as a result of their economic status.
However, the eagerness, excitement, and urge to meet up certain set out targets, datelines, and benchmark have pushed some of the organizers of such church fundraising to engage in methods that may be seen to go contrary to God’s principles of giving.
Some of the types of church fundraising include the following :
1. Funds launching activities.
2. Harvest and Bazaars.
3. Event hosting.
4. Award/gala/dinner
5. Games/ sports
6. Musical concert
7. Community labour.
BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES OF GIVING
The new wave of fundraising techniques in our churches has become a major concern to serious minded Christians.
These Christians have joined in the clarion call on organizers of church fundraising to desist from employing gimmicks to get funds for the mission of the Gospel, but view generosity as a christian duty, and an opportunity to participate in the mission of the church.
God created us, and Jesus knows that we are human, and as human, we are liable to fall. That’s why He gives us guidelines to control our choices, decisions and conduct.
Some of these guidelines are contained in the biblical principles of giving :
(1) “God owns everything because He is the creator, maker and giver of all things” – James 1:7.
So when we give, we are merely giving back a portion of what belongs to God anyway.
(2) “Do not give grudgingly as God loves a cheerful giver” – 2 Cor. 9:7
(3) “Give and it shall be given unto you” – Luke 6:38
(4) “Do not store up riches for yourself here on earth” “……. instead store up riches for yourself in heaven……” – Matthew 6:19-21
(5) “Command those who are rich……to be generous and ready to share with others” – 1Tim 6:17-18
(6) “The believer’s faith becomes useful when it is expressed in the work of giving” – James 2:15-16
(7) “……..So when you give something to a needy person, do not make a big show of it. …… and your father….. will reward you” – Matthew 6:1-4
(8) Poverty is not an excuse not to give – 2Cor. 8:1-2
(9) Giving is an opportunity – 2 Cor. 8:3-4
(10) Give yourself first to the Lord – 2 Cor. 8:5
(11) Giving is a proof of your love of God – 2 Cor. 8:6-8
(12) Christ is an example of a great giver – 2 Cor. 8:9
(13) Give willingly – 2 Cor. 8:12
(14) What you sow you will reap – 2 Cor. 9:6
CONFLICTS AND CHALLENGES
(a) OVERVIEW :
This discourse has been an attempt to define fundraising as an opportunity for church members to give back to the church and community in conformity with God’s concept and spirit of giving.
Lamentably, contemporary fundraising styles, means and methods employed in some of the churches leaves much to be desired.
Churches don’t bring in much money because they are non-profit organizations. They are therefore deemed public charities and hence rely almost completely on donations from members and non-members alike.
To ensure they have funds to continue the vital work of evangelism, churches must look for unique fundraising modalities as they cannot obviously rely on tithes alone.
But generating adequate funds is not only challenging. It’s big task even with the most “lucrative” church communities.
However, it’s important to distinguish between fundraising methods that are good in theory but aren’t actually that effectively non-aggressive, non-offensive, as well as unacceptable to the generality of the members.
Interestingly, the most effective church fundraising methods are likely the ones that best suits your congregation, church and community, without necessarily jeopardizing, compromising, or in contrast with God’s concept and spirit of giving as laid down in scripture.
(b) HARVEST THANKSGIVING & BAZAARS
The conduct of Harvest Thanksgiving and Bazaars for the purposes of raising funds for church development, for example, is characterised with actions from both the organizers and the donor members/public such that the whole theatrics leaves much to be desired.
A situation of carnival – like entertainment where secular comedians are brought into the church to encourage, cajole, pursue, blackmail, harass, and even intimidate church members to donate money for the work of God is not only scandalous, but a blasphemy. It is vanity, inglorious and a gross violation of the sanctify of worship.
Meanwhile, while we blame the Organizers of such fundraising for employing ungodly, negative, aggressive and extortionist methods on church members, we should equally beam the searchlight on the poor-giving attitude of some of the church members.
Chinua Achebe’s proverb in his ‘Things Fall Apart’ classical novel succinctly captures both the attitude of the Organizers of fundraising and that of the recalcitrant church members : “Since the hunters have learned to shoot without missing, the Ekede bird has also learnt to fly without perching”.
In view of the foregoing the following rhetorical questions may shed some light on the matter :
(1) Why should church members wait until they are either pursued, harassed, blackmailed, cajoled or “bribed” with praise singing before they donate for church development ?
(2) Why must a donor be invited on several occasions on public procession in church before he can give out his donations in piecemeal instead of at one go ?
(3) Why don’t church members donate at fundraising on their own free volition ?
(4) Shouldn’t church fundraising be the opposite of begging ?
(5) Why can’t Christians be seen to be doing things differently from what obtains at secular fundraising events ?
(6) Since giving is a “❤️” heart thing, why wouldn’t Christians conquer the attitude of selfishness, pride, ego, self-indulgence, etc like exhibited at contemporary church fundraising ?
(7) Shouldn’t church fundraising be a missionary act ?
CLOSING THE GAPS
In some dioceses, theological disconnect may occur where 60 – 75% of the clergy and congregants identify with the prosperity gospel style of fund raising leaving about 25% on the other side.
This scenario may lead to either a band wagon acceptance or an unspoken rejection of the methods used in the fundraising.
And when this happens, it will lead to a crisis of competition between the pew (congregation) and the pulpit (clergy), thereby leaving a gap between what is preached and how people actually respond to the message.
Therefore, a healthy Church needs the pulpit and the pew aligned as partners instead of having yauning gaps all over the place.
The harmony and alignment may be achieved through:
1. From a faith perspective, preachers should lead fund raising activities with truth, accountability/transparency, biblical injunction, and the common good rather than financial gains and pleasing the crowds.
2. Christians should realize that the greatest preaching happens when action matches the message.
3. Efforts should be made to avoid manipulation. When the pulpit (clergy) encourages and turns to fundraising pressure, the people may be forced into becoming financially broken.
4. Pastoral integrity must be one of the cardinal objective of Christianity because when the pulpit becomes a business, the truth becomes a threat.
5. Avoid exploitative tendencies so that giving should be voluntary, not shaming or compulsion or competition as this may create walls that block the word.
6. There should be mutual partnership and agreement between the clergy, the church congregational leadership, and the people on how mutually best to conduct fundraising. This will prevent a situation where the pews become agitated and louder, the pulpit loses its authority, and the church’s focus shifts.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
If Jesus comes today will he meet Christians any better than those who turned his “father’s house into a market place”? – John 2 : 16
