Proverbs 18:15 (The Message)
A lack of monetary resources has been, and is likely to continue to be, a problem for the Conference. We have goals we would like to accomplish - goals that seem reasonable, goals that seem important, goals that seem Godly - that are beyond our means. What can we do?
We can hope that we raise more money from our congregations. As a whole, United Methodists don't tithe; we can continue (or start) to encourage tithing and preach on its importance. In my limited experience of three congregations, preaching on money and giving will anger a few people - and it will increase the offerings, as some people start to take Jesus at his word.
In addition to hoping, and praying, end encouraging, we can also learn how to increase giving. The Conference has many educational resources available for clergy - we teach fundraising, we teach vision casting, we teach family systems, we teach how to prepare for retirement, just to name a few. Some classes are mandatory: if you want to dean a camp, you need to take an abuse prevention class. If you want to be a pastor, you have to learn appropriate sexual boundaries. But I don't recall ever seeing a class on living simply - certainly not as a regular offering.
Living simply has long been seen as a virtue by the Church, and it is one of the primary ways to increase giving - when people learn to spend less on themselves, and learn that spending on others makes us happy, giving naturally increases. The more clergy who discover the truth of simple living, the more their income will be freed up to do good - and the easier it will be for them to share this good news with others.
As we've already noted several times, student debt is a large financial problem today. Much of this debt is due to the soaring cost of tuition and books, but some can also come from students' lack of awareness of the debt load they are creating. When tuition, fees, and housing are adding up to $20,000 a year or more, it's easy to see the daily Starbucks as insignificant. And discretionary spending by college students is high - averaging over $5,000 per year in 2014, not even counting Starbucks and other food purchases*. For a student with loans, that $5,000 per year is going to contribute $20-25,000 of undergraduate student debt, with more tacked on for seminary.
What if classes on simple living were mandatory for students receiving scholarships from the Conference?
What do you think?
Should simple living classes be mandatory for scholarship recipients? How about for clergy?
*The statistics on discretionary spending come from marketers, who are interested in how college students spend the money they control, not in the usual distinction between "necessary" and "discretionary" spending. Thus "food" is all lumped into one category, and included - whether it is discretionary (restaurant/snack food) or necessary (groceries for students not on a meal plan). With food included, discretionary spending was over $7,500 per student.
We can hope that we raise more money from our congregations. As a whole, United Methodists don't tithe; we can continue (or start) to encourage tithing and preach on its importance. In my limited experience of three congregations, preaching on money and giving will anger a few people - and it will increase the offerings, as some people start to take Jesus at his word.
In addition to hoping, and praying, end encouraging, we can also learn how to increase giving. The Conference has many educational resources available for clergy - we teach fundraising, we teach vision casting, we teach family systems, we teach how to prepare for retirement, just to name a few. Some classes are mandatory: if you want to dean a camp, you need to take an abuse prevention class. If you want to be a pastor, you have to learn appropriate sexual boundaries. But I don't recall ever seeing a class on living simply - certainly not as a regular offering.
Living simply has long been seen as a virtue by the Church, and it is one of the primary ways to increase giving - when people learn to spend less on themselves, and learn that spending on others makes us happy, giving naturally increases. The more clergy who discover the truth of simple living, the more their income will be freed up to do good - and the easier it will be for them to share this good news with others.
As we've already noted several times, student debt is a large financial problem today. Much of this debt is due to the soaring cost of tuition and books, but some can also come from students' lack of awareness of the debt load they are creating. When tuition, fees, and housing are adding up to $20,000 a year or more, it's easy to see the daily Starbucks as insignificant. And discretionary spending by college students is high - averaging over $5,000 per year in 2014, not even counting Starbucks and other food purchases*. For a student with loans, that $5,000 per year is going to contribute $20-25,000 of undergraduate student debt, with more tacked on for seminary.
What if classes on simple living were mandatory for students receiving scholarships from the Conference?
What do you think?
Should simple living classes be mandatory for scholarship recipients? How about for clergy?
*The statistics on discretionary spending come from marketers, who are interested in how college students spend the money they control, not in the usual distinction between "necessary" and "discretionary" spending. Thus "food" is all lumped into one category, and included - whether it is discretionary (restaurant/snack food) or necessary (groceries for students not on a meal plan). With food included, discretionary spending was over $7,500 per student.
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