Examining our Motivations for Giving

I have just returned from a long weekend in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I call it long because I am an African who grew up on a 75 degree temperature diet 24/7. And guess what we were consuming in Winnipeg; Minus 10. If freezing doesn’t mean anything to you, it means a world to me. I could literally feel my face turn into ice. And it didn’t matter how many layers of thick wool I threw on my samsonite-size body, the heat was just not finding its way into my skin. When I was finally dropped off at the airport by one of my best friends, I sure was not ready to part company with him and his family, but I was certainly ready to kiss the snow goodbye. I am glad I am back in drooping-rain Portland. I can definitely handle the rain but not snow. Anyways, enough of my cold adventure rumblings.

Lat week I started a discussion on money and giving and I thought we should pursue it further. Thanks for your comments. Let’s dive right into motivations for giving.

Organizations today are hiring topnotch sociologists and marketers to study consumer habits. Someone on Madison Avenue right now is feeding information into his computer about your spending habits and will send that information to marketing experts who will in turn send you junk mail relevant to your consumer habits. All of us who buy goods and services have become laboratory specimens for marketing experts. Next time you buy running shoes ask yourself why you did not buy Adidas but Nike. You know very well that this is your fifth pair of Nike’s and you are just not about to change your consumer habits even if Adidas will do pretty much the same job. The same goes to your third Toyota Camry even though the Honda Accord would provide the same accord to your family of three. Marketing experts know how to dig deep into our emotions and pull out those things that sit deep in our decision-making modula operandi.

The scary thing though is that some Christian organizations and churches are not innocent in this rat-bisecting, consumer-driven probing of donors and supporters. Some Christian organizations are hiring marketing experts to study trends in donations and to come up with a strategy that would maximize their donor gifts. These organizations are asking questions such as “what are the motivations for giving and how can we positively harness these motivations?”

Callahan in his book “Giving and Stewardship in an Effective Church” has listed five motivations for giving: They include compassion, community, challenge, reasonability, and commitment. Motivation is basically internal, not external. Manipulation is external. The above five motivations are the major internal resources out of which people internally motivate themselves to become part of an organization or congregation. In his article “Fundraising: Why People (and Foundations) Give Away Their Money,” Robinson mentions credibility and referral as being some of the most important motivations for giving. As far as credibility is concerned, donors want to know if the organization is well-organized, competent and legitimate. Referral is about friends referring friends. People are most likely to give if they were referred to the organization by their friends, family members, or colleagues.

Personally I have given a dollar or two here and there, and may be will continue to do so. I know that you have done the same too. My worry though is that most people are giving money to organizations based entirely on compassion, community, challenge, reasonability, referral, and commitment. What about efficiency and effectiveness of these organizations? Are these organizations doing with your money what they said they would do in the literature? I think that its high time we donors started bisecting the numerous organizations with a sharp surgical razor to find out what lies on the inside of each one of them. We need to be more responsible with God’s resources and give to those causes that are making a real impact- organizations whose effectiveness is measurable not in terms of its balance sheet at the end of its fiscal year but in terms of real needs met and real problems solved. Period!

Why I Give My Hard- earned Cash

If you haven’t been asked to give money to one cause or another, consider yourself living on another planet. From starving children in Africa to dog lovers’ associations in blue-hill neighborhoods, the list is endless. Some research shows that Christians get asked to give more than any other social group. From televangelists to humble local pastors serving on less than a dollar a day, the requests never stop coming.

We can’t deny the fact that the Bible is full of examples and teachings about giving. Probably the best form of giving we find in scriptures is God himself who gave his only begotten Son (John 3:16). Today Christians respond to God’s calling by doing and giving. Whereas the love of money is discouraged in scriptures (1 Tim 3:3; 1 Tim 6:10, Heb 13:5), the possession of it is encouraged (Deut 8:18; Ecl 10:9). Since money is a product of labor, money is ultimately a form of God’s time and talent, stored in the creation of the world made available to human use.

The average Christian has mastered the theology of giving. The hard part is that, with so many appeals for money from all kinds of organizations, the average Christian is bombarded with all kinds of options to give his hard-earned dollar. Choosing which organization to give to is becoming harder and harder. Should Christians be selective in where they give their money or should they give to any organization that has a good cause for the Lord.

Then there is the new era of spending more and more on personal goods and services. Television commercials are telling Christians to buy because they deserve good things too. Christian organizations and churches are competing for the same dollar that local and online stores are targeting. Organizations are also competing among themselves as the average donations to Christian organizations continue to suffer in favor of real value marketable goods and services.

The dwindling finances of Christian organizations and churches are not being helped by the commercialization of giving or fundraising. Some churches are promising prosperity and wealth to the giver, yet some of those who have been giving for years have not seen this promised wealth as of yet. Radio and television commercials of starving children make people give for the wrong reasons. Others are not giving because they think that organizations which advertise on radio and television are unethical.

Why are people giving less and less? Some people lack motivation to give away their hard-earned money because the church has failed to provide a compelling vision for how the money will make a difference in the world. Others see their giving as leverage on the future. Some don’t realize the church needs their money to be effective. Some lack the proper understanding of what the Bible teaches about giving. Some are just selfish.
Why do you give? Where do you give? Why don’t you give?
Any comments?

The Chief End of Man

Every time we children at home decided to do something new, my mother always pulled out her black dust-kissed Bible and quoted a milliard of verses explaining why we should or shouldn’t do this or that. One of those things involved this one day when I wanted to uproot a mango tree behind our kitchen because that was a cool spot for my new house. I was 12 and very excited about building my first house. My mom then quoted verses from Genesis to somewhere I can’t remember explaining why destroying nature annoys God. “God put us here to take care of the environment not to destroy it,” she continued.

Two years ago I went back to my small village in Africa and my mom put a basket of ripe mangoes before me. She picked out one of the juiciest and said “eat from the fruits of your intended destruction.” I didn’t know what she meant until she explained how 20 years ago I had intentions of destroying the same mango tree that gave birth to the juice I was about to enjoy. Of course I was quick to repent because I was not prepared for another reading through the book of Genesis defending the cause for mango trees. My mom and I had had enough battles when I was growing up. I was a very inquisitive kid who did not take things for granted. For example I remember one day turning the pages of my mom’s veteran’s Bible to find a verse that could prove to her that raising pigs was better than cows. I couldn’t find one. And as soon as I put down the Bible she found five to defend her cause and outlawed piggery from that day on. I still hope that one day I will find a verse or two to prove her wrong; if not for a good old conversation with my 65 year-old mom, may be just for fun.

But is this what it is all about? Finding a verse or two to defend what we believe? Yet that is what I see in Christianity today. Religion in the 21st century is taking an interesting turn. From radical fundamentalism to authentic conversations, the spectrum in-between is interesting to watch. I have heard Christians debate such hot topics as gay marriages, abortion, environmental stewardship, global warming, among other chill-down-the-spine topics. Of course you can tell that I am lost in the sea of bubbling Bobs. What is left of the Bible? Where do we start to debate issues that all of us are divided about? Who is right? Who is wrong?

I believe that we Christians are moving away from the fabric of religion into useless bubbling that is hindering our effectiveness. Is the chief end of man debating endless issues that do not contribute to the basics of our religion? Issues are going to keep coming up. And if Christians are devoting their talents and time to debating emerging mosaics of worldly concepts, what is going to be left of the gospel of love? You see I believe that we are working so hard to defend the cause of God as if God is some helpless fellow who can’t defend himself. We can’t go on fighting to defend the glory of God and loose sight of his love for us and for all mankind. I see this as chasing after the wind. The world will continue to be worldly. That’s why it’s called “the world.”

Unlike the Westminster catechist which emphasizes fighting for the glory of God, I believe that our role is to love God and to show the world how much he loves all and wants us to come under the wings of his unfailing love. We Christians should be riding on the wings of love, not opinions, holy wars, and endless theological battlegrounds. We are loosing it and the world is laughing.

Psychology or Astrology?

A few weeks ago I was asked to write and present a paper on the proper response to the thought that personality tests and other psychological testing have pagan astrology as their basis. I had to think twice. I knew I had taken many of these tests myself without thinking twice. And now I was supposed to defend or ditch them. So before I made my input, my first stop was at the library to examine some of the writers’ opinions and later form my own.

Personality tests aim at categorizing people according to certain observable forms of behavior, which Keirsey and Bates (1984) believe are important in interpersonal relationships. People are different from each other and no amount of getting after them is going to change them. And there is no reason to change them, because the differences are probably good not bad.

The study of personality has been aided by a number of tools including, among others, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the DiSC Personal Profile System (PPS), the Biblical Personal Profiles (BPP), the Taylor-Johnson Temperament Analysis (TJTA), the LaHaye Temperament Analysis (LTA), the Personality Profile Test (PPT), and the Spiritual Gifts Inventories (http://www.rapidnet.com). The big questions is to what degree are these tests related to, or have a bearing towards, pagan astrology?

According to the expository dictionary of Bible words, the word astrology as used in the context of the Book of Daniel is linked with magic and sorcery. People who practice magic and sorcery, referred to as “diviners of heavens” (Isaiah 47:13), expect to find guidance for the decisions they must make and to gain insight into the future. Scripture does, however, prohibit God’s people from looking to any source but the Lord himself for personal guidance. Deuteronomy 8 calls all such practices “detestable” and says “Let no one be found among you who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiriticit or who consults the dead” (18:10-11). Scripture gives a number of ways Christians can be guided. These include the completed word of God, the indwelling Holy Spirit, the insights of other Christians, circumstances, and the proper use of our renewed minds (Romans 12:2). These sources provide all the guidance we need. To turn to any other source is to insult the living Lord and to reject the guidance he has provided.

The grand question is whether personality testing and its suggestion of who we are is outside the proper use of what God has ordained to guide us, thus qualifying as divination or astrology. A careful examination of astrology as it stands side by side with personality testing is necessary if we are to understand the similarities or the differences. Take the horoscope for example. By plotting all the heavenly bodies pertinent to the sign under which an individual is born, an astrologer draws up a celestial map known as a horoscope. Conclusions are drawn from this regarding one’s personality, tendencies etc., and thus predictions are made. The question is how different are these “horoscope” predictions from the four temperaments of Keirsey and Bates or from all the other personality groupings? How scientific are these predictions and how can we be certain that they are not rooted in astrology and fortunetelling? In their book “Magic, Mystery, and Science,” Burton and Grandy (2004) confer that the occult, the magic, and the mystery of the ancient worlds still seeks refugee in western civilization through science and psychology.

Just how different are we and how much can personality tests define the kind of people we are- our weaknesses and strengths, our actions and human relationships? How much does the Holy Spirit change our temperaments? How much does God change us to suit the kind of ministry he has called us to do? Can we say that we are wired this way or that way? Doesn’t God reserve the ultimate control of our personalities? Can personality tests define who I am and how I relate with fellow man? Much as one can argue that the idea of personality and temperament is truth related to anthropology, it is also true that the philosophers who have passed on our lessons in anthropology were greatly influenced by the mythological beliefs of their time. In the same breath, therefore, believers ought to pay close attention to whatever form of knowledge that claims to define and predict human behaviors based on formula and method. The study of temperament and personality traits might as well be the new form of astrology, the civilized horoscope with scientific evidence.

A Prophet of Doom?

No. That’s not what you would call a learned man like Federal Reserve chairman , Ben Bernanke. So what do you call him? A realist? I think so. Uncle Ben’s comments on the downwardly moving American economy are frightening. Ben Bernanke speaking on behalf of the Federal Reserve on Thursday told Congress that the American economy was going to get worse. What will a powerful country like America do if its dollar, the internationally acclaimed medium of exchange, hit a down-low average against the ever rising euro? What does that mean to the American economy, the strongest economy in the known world?

China, with a mushroom-growth rate of 11.3 percent is topping the charts against all odds. Compare this to America’s 2.45 percent growth and the rising cost in housing and gas prices and you have a picture you don’t want to paint. The big post-office-box question is “are we seeing a green-swing in the pendulum of world economies and super-power muscle-flexing as we have seen in the past?”

Strong economies have come and gone. This whole scenario leaves us still wondering. What really matters in the world today? Power? Money? Wealth? What are we running after and what is the end of things? Now, I am not really saying that money is not important. Money is a very good thing. The author of of Ecclesiastes writes that money is a protection and that it does answer all things. The point I am making here is that the world comes to a crisis when its chief end is to amass wealth and live a happy and uninterrupted life. One of the wisest men in history wrote, “I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind. Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun. And I set my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly; I realized that this also is striving after wind.

This brings up another important quesation. What is the chief end of man? The westminister catechist confronted this question centuries ago by stating that "the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever." But how does this enjoying look like?

To be continued…..
Comments are welcome. Click on "comments" below.

Who Needs Help?

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; from where shall my help come.
My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber.
Psalm 121:1-2

We need help; help when everything around us seems to be going against us. We need help great help, stable help, and constant help. Where does our help come from? In whom have we placed our trust? So many times we turn to the left and to the right looking for help from friends, family, and sometimes the government. And in most cases we have been disappointed. At times we have put trust in our own strength and wisdom, and hoped that we would make things right for ourselves. But even then we have become disillusioned by our own efforts; for with them come fear, failure and constant disappointments. Our trust should be in the Lord who made heaven and earth. If we put our trust in Him, we can rest assured that our help is on the way and will not fail to reach us in due time; for He who sends it is never too early or too late. God has promised to protect us from all evil. And when we go to him for help, we should go with that attitude of surety that He who promised is faithful to complete what He promised.

Reading these verses makes me feel ashamed of myself for trying hard to achieve my freedom on my own. I feel relieved that I can rest in God knowing that He has my best interests in mind. I know of a few things that I have been stressed about even though I knew I couldn’t do anything about them in my own might. But still I was worried and troubled. Going through these affirming verses about God’s provision is like lifting a heavy burden off my shoulder. I can now rest in God knowing that He who keeps me will not sleep or slumber. He is watching over me and I just need to rest in Him knowing that He is working out the best plan for me amidst of all my turmoil and difficulties.

Walking the Road to Humility

Walking the Road through Serving

Christ has commanded that he who is chief among the brethren should be as he that serves (Luke 22:26), for the one that serves is greater than the one that reclines at the table (Luke 22:27). Christ modeled this example by serving his disciples. On that Passover feast before he could face his hour of trial, Jesus laid aside his garments, girded himself with a towel and washed his disciples’ feet. This he did to demonstrate the spirit of servanthood and humility which those who follow him ought to have (John 13:1-ff).

Walking the Road through Love

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (I Corinthians 13: 4- 8).

Walking the Road by Putting Others First

Pride, the opposite of humility, finds its way in self importance and self focus which is the opposite of Christ’s command to “love one another, even as I have loved you” (John 13:34). By putting others first, we walk in Jesus’ footsteps of humility who seeks not his own glory but the glory of God his Father (John 8:50).

Walking the Road by Giving Equal Treatment

God sees all people equal in his sight. God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34-35) and he expects us to look at people with the same lenses.

The Road to Humility

"In reality there is perhaps no one of our natural Passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself...For even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility." - Benjamin Franklinan

Can we achieve total freedom from pride and self seeking egotism? This is one of the oldest questions in the school of man’s total deliverance from selfish desires. Whereas total deliverance may be something ahead of us, God does value the steps.

Christ our Model.
The life of Christ is the ultimate model in our journey to humility. Christ lived a life of humility and obedience to the Father. He speaks of his relation to the Father as working for the will of the Father and doing everything by the Father’s empowerment. The son can do nothing of himself (John 5:19). The son does not seek his own glory (John 8:50) but the glory of the one who sent him (John 6:38). As you work towards humility, seek to have this attitude which was in Christ, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant (Philippians 2:6-7). Because of this humility, God gave Christ a name which is above every other name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil 2:9-11).

"I am Humble; Am I Not?"

Proude of My Humility
Paul warns against a certain type of false humility (Colossians 2:18-23). This kind of humility is a self-seeking, voluntary kind which has to be guarded against. It is not genuine humility to humble ourselves with the feeling that we are greater than others, but only when we do not think of self at all. It is possible to be proud of our humility. The question then is what is this genuine Christian humility and how does it express itself?

Watch me: I am Humble, Am I Not?

True Christian humility is not the kind that seeks to be wondered at, but one that is active at work and in being more interested in others than self. It is found in being more committed to truth than convenience, in being more inclined to look up to others than to look down on them, and like the incarnate Son of God, being more comfortable with the lowly than the great. Humility is more silent than loud; it is more a done thing than a said thing. And because the humble can never know they are, humility makes no attempt to project itself. It certainly makes no pretence of being humble.