Church Budgets and the Greatest Commandment

Not yet in Virginia, but across the country, many students have already returned to school or college. Summer isn't officially over, but it's nearly done. At church, that means we're gearing up for fall. Classes and choir rehearsals will resume. At this church, and at many others, fall also means "Stewardship campaigns." Theologically, this is about how we utilize what God has given us to do God's work. Practically, it's often mostly about church budgets.

Not that church budgets are unimportant. It takes a fair amount of money to fund all the activities and ministries at the typical church, and I make no apologies for expecting church members to make sure that money is available. But as many have said before, budgets are more than spending plans. They are also "moral documents." They declare our priorities and reveal what we truly stand for.

“Which commandment is the first of all?” Even those who are not part of a church have likely heard some form of Jesus' answer to this question. In today's reading from Mark he says, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Curious that Jesus is unable to answer the man's question without offering two commandments, both lifted straight from what we Christians now call the Old Testament. Love God, and love neighbor, says Jesus. Now you've covered the essentials. Everything else is secondary.

That brings me back to budgets as moral documents. If love of God and love of neighbor are the essentials then surely church budgets would reflect this. Alas, this is often not the case.

Now I'm happy to acknowledge that defining exactly what it means to "love the Lord your God..." is complicated. Surely worship would fit into this, but worship also tends to be designed in order to please those doing the worship. And so worship usually reflects the musical tastes and styles preferred by the worshipers. Given that we have no explicit information on whether God prefers organs to pianos or rock 'n roll over classical, perhaps this is the best we can do. Still, I have my suspicions that a revelation that God actually loved Gregorian chant but hated Bach would not change the music selections in many congregations.

Regardless, for the moment I'll take it as given that the big chunk of the typical church budget going to worship is fitting. But what about the loving neighbor part?

Rare is the church that does not do something to live out this commandment. Many congregations take it to heart in significant ways. Yet I have rarely come across the church budget that elevated love of neighbor to the status Jesus does. Rarely does is look like an absolute essential. It's more often one of those minor expenses along with "Christian Education" or "Fellowship."

In his daily devotion for today, Richard Rohr talks about how prayer in the Western church became something functional as opposed to the transformational thing it should be (a transformational possibility some have recovered via contemplation and meditation). This problem of functional versus transformational extends well beyond prayer and includes church budgets.

As soon as you make prayer a way to get what you want, you’re not moving into any kind of new state of consciousness. It’s the same old consciousness, but now well disguised: “How can I get God to do what I want God to do?” It’s the egocentric self deciding what it needs, but now, instead of just manipulating everybody else, it tries to manipulate God.

This is one reason religion is so dangerous and often so delusional. If religion does not transform people at the level of both mind and heart, it ends up giving self-centered people a very pious and untouchable way to be on top and in control.

What sort of moral statements are embedded in your church's budget? In what sense do they exhibit priorities that have been transformed from those of the world to those of Jesus? In what sense are they primarily focused on "keeping our members happy" and providing them with what they like or want?

Love God; love your neighbor as yourself. Sounds pretty clear, but I wonder if anyone would deduce this as the central core of my life from observing how I live and how I spend my money?

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