First Fruit Salad is the combination of time, talents and money used for God. They all matter and are of equal importance.
My faith community has struggled financially the last 10 years. Due to economy and aging membership we have faced some tough decisions. The older I get the more I have come to understand that first fruits giving is an important part of Christian discipline. I lived in relative poverty for much of my youth and for about 13 years after my kids were born. I have chopped wood for heat, lugged water to wash dishes, stood in food lines and been adopted for Christmas many times so that my family could get through. Paying my tithing was what I believe lifted me from poverty. Not just physical poverty, but mental poverty as well.
DARE NOT TO COMPARE!
When I first started giving regularly to the church it was $2.50 cents each week. I wanted to have an amount so that I knew what my goal was because tossing in the left overs each week just didn't feel right to me anymore. This was at time when my husband made about 200.00 each week and we spent 40.00 weekly just in diapers. Gas had also climbed very high at times $3.95 a gallon or more. The economy had also crashed and we were a construction family so we were hit hard first. I wanted to try to give God something more. In truth I felt that my offering was paltry and that I was a bit ashamed of my gift to the church, but I kept at it and kept trying every few months to add something more. I began to notice how my husband and I had many miracles take place, especially when his work was very low. The generosity of the people in our faith community helped us many times to stay on our feet and to feel like we were valued members of the church. Strange refund checks would come to us from utility companies or other things stating we over paid.. always when we were at our lowest. I wanted so badly to be that person though, one who would be able to give without thought to personal cost, with the same kind of heart as the members of my church.. then I learned something.....
NEWS FLASH!!
At some point I decided that I would raise our tithing/offering to ten dollars weekly, 5 for local and 5 for the world church. My husband was working a little more boarding up repossessed homes and the kids getting older. I envisioned that most working people were contributing $30.00 - $50.00 weekly maybe more, because that was what I wanted to give, but I could not. I was so wrong about many things. One day I spoke to a bishop in the church. He told me that he was proud of my husband and I for our giving between hours donated at camps and money. I thought he was just trying to be really kind. Then he told me the facts. The average family paid roughly $24.00 a month in tithing. I have no idea if those numbers are true today, but it hurt my feelings to know that we as a society have $100.00 a pair, pairs of blue jeans, $50.00 one time nights to the movies, but the church was struggling just to make ends meet. They had to let people go. My husband and I were trying to put in $20.00 of that $24.00 monthly, I wished that I had thousands. For us though that meant at times giving something up. I was also then very sorry that I spent so much time feeling bad, because we were in truth giving sacrificially for us. I should have been doing this with a glad heart, because I had something to share, and could. True capacity is between you and God. No one else. We wake each day with a balance of time, talents, and money. God knows it all because he gave us those things. Capacity is not a measure against others, but what we can do with our own potential.
TOSS OUT YOUR SPOILED FRUITS..
Over the last 5 years, the losses of the church have been much more profound. Many people are being called upon to be volunteers, so that means that they must now compete with "secular work time" to be able to minister later... The seventies for many years were paid appointments, they were the ones who would spend their time bringing people to Christ and helping congregations form relationships with seekers... with having to work a day job now, that lessens the time significantly that people have to make those relationships count. I have to confess that I am rather tired of hearing that it is society's fault. People don't want church or commitment.. that has been the case since the start of time, because humans have never liked discipline, ever. We like to be comfortable and nothing less. People have other things to do, and they often choose those other things that are rotten fruit activities.. This is no new predicament. What is new is the excuses that we generate to remain aloof in our giving and church living, because we know even in our own ears that excuses get old. We let our fears help us make the list as long as possible and we keep adding more to the list as we go along. It is time for us to be sharing our first fruits in everything, and to stop clinging to our "rotten fruit reasons", because we are spoiling the fruit before we even take a moment to give. The church has developed what we feel are the 5 ideals found in the gospel of Luke, that define Christ's plans for us today. Here are some rather direct, but true ways that we can improve our giving in these 5 areas..
Invitation to Christ, we need to stop being stingy with our words and give it our all. Invitation creates an idea of welcome. Invite often! Telling our story helps people to understand why we love God, and why we bother to maintain a church life.. (psst, I know families are much smaller today, so that does mean you have to kick it up a step, and share more!)
Develop Disciples to Serve. We need to take Temple School, Meads, and Seminary, stop being stingy with all of our personal development time. We also need to begin putting people to work, stop being stingy and prideful with our "positions" in the church, so that they can share in their first fruits of talents.
Abolish Poverty - End Suffering. Money is good, but making relationships with those that you have given to must be key! We cannot help people find a stable path in life by just giving them dollars or food...when their hearts are broken and aching. End suffering is not just a physical thing, it is Spiritual thing as well.
Pursue Peace - It is time to stop banking on our pride in personal life. To heal and reconcile bad relationships, so that we can be more fully able to practice what we preach. Teaching others peace, is is often impossible when we do not magnify that in our own lives. Holding on to old grudges, prejudice, and hate consume our time and resources of the heart..
Congregations in Mission:
There can be no one path for any congregations, they are all different. We cannot sit around wishing that we were this or that group of people anymore. We need to find things to do together to maintain friendships and to help people find ways to encounter the church beyond worship! The moment we stop doing things together outside of worship, we have closed off our potential to be inclusive to those who might not be able to bring themselves inside the church on a first time basis. Worship is also for one hour each week. There are 167 more to consider. Also a side rant.. We have to do things more than once to make them a success. It takes time to build people into any program. Always.. so quit giving up before you get started...
SO I GAVE YOU A HARD TIME, NOW WHAT??
Over the last few years as my family conditions improved I continued to raise my offerings.. often before any improvements actually came. We just gave what we had. I have also added international ministry to my list of to do things and each mission costs about $3,000 between airfare and project expenses. I pay for about 1/2 to 3/4 of most of my missions out of my own pocket, this does not include my offering, tithing, or side donations to humanitarian projects. The rest I need I fund raise. Sometimes I do more than one mission in a year. I am not tooting my own horn here, but I am trying to give you the real picture of my testimony. I just bought a home two years ago with my husband, it is scary to think about that being in my life until I am almost 60.. did I mention that I will get my associates degree in a few months.. and student loan payments will be coming. Most people have this stuff gone by age 45.. I will be 45 in 8 years.. but still I want to go to first fruits giving.
I want to go this route because I believe in the future of my church and in the power of God. God never said that it would be easy, but He did say that He would give us what we need, when we are asking for his kingdom. So I am asking God for bushels of fruit to get the people who lead my faith community back to work, and to allow for new individuals the opportunity to know Christ. I am asking God to help me make better use of my time and to help me to be a fearless inviter, so that others will know that my prosperity comes from Him, and that the same kind of future waits for those who want to have this kind of life. So the choice is ours sit out and spoil, or make something of what we have set in front of us while it is fresh and GIVE...
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