Mennonite Weekly Review

When friends who serve the church lose their jobs or take pay cuts, the reality hits home: The ministries we care deeply about need our support now more than ever.

Employees at several church institutions this month paid the price for a slumping economy. Budget cuts forced layoffs, some to take place next year, at Tabor and Bethel colleges in Kansas. Mennonite Mission Network reduced employees’ hours, as has Lancaster Mennonite Conference.

Tabor President Jules Glanzer described how it felt: “We all hurt with these decisions. Our love for each other is deep, and because of these relationships, we hurt even more.”

In times like these the church family feels the pain in several ways. Glanzer’s comment notes the personal impact. On an institutional level, we fear diminished capacity: good teachers gone, fewer options for students, uncertain futures for mission programs. Behind the scenes, morale could suffer, and constituents might lose confidence.

It is up to all of us to ensure that the church’s ministries of mission, service and higher education can weather these difficult times.

To begin with, our giving needs to match our words. Christian Leader editor Connie Faber points out a trend that extends across denominations: While 87 percent of U.S. Mennonite Brethren members said congregations should financially support denominational programs, only 65 percent of local churches actually did. People are keeping their dollars close to home. We need a wider vision of giving if we want our colleges and mission agencies to thrive.

There are bright spots. For MMN, individual giving increased 4 percent, to $2.12 million, in the 2008-09 fiscal year.

“We experienced an outpouring of generosity in a very difficult time, for which we are very grateful,” said Stanley Green, MMN executive director.

The generosity will need to continue. Endowment income may shrink, but constituent giving does not have to, even in a recession. Those who have avoided the worst of the economic downturn can carry a larger share.

More tithing would help. According to a 2006 Mennonite Church USA survey, 61 percent of members reported giving 10 percent or more of their income. That’s a lot better than the 6 percent of born-again Christians who tithe, according to one study. But there’s still lots of room for improvement.

When Jesus spoke of giving a tenth, he warned not to neglect “the more important matters of the law — justice, mercy and faithfulness” (Matt. 23:23). Jesus’ words show that giving is more than a financial transaction. It is an expression of deeper values. Now those values are being tested.

A generous spirit doesn’t rise and fall with the business cycle or the stock market. Rom. 8:2 tells of churches whose “extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.” Will it be said of us that the recession brought a surge of giving and caring?