Financial Giving In The Sword Of The Spirit 1989

With financial data from the Servants of Christ the King and an Exhortation to Tithe by Fr Michael Scanlan TOR, Senior Head Coordinator of the Steubenville Covenant Community and member of the Governing Council of the Sword of the Spirit

FINANCIAL GIVING IN THE SWORD or THE SPIRIT

The New Testament presents a great deal of teaching on the use of and right attitudes toward money and material possessions. The fundamental teachings can be summarized very simply: Our real treasure should be in the Kingdom ot God and not in the kingdom of this world. (Lk. 12:13-21, 32-34) God vill care tor us tar better" than ve can care tor oursEllves, and we can be free of the overconcern for financial well-being that lElads to dishonestly, greed, lack of generosity. (Mt. 6:24-34; Lk. 12:22-31) Those especially vho have an abundance of the goods of thb world be generous in using them for the Lord and the Lord's people. (1 ~~im. 6:17-19; 2 Cor. 8 :13-15) We have a duty to care for the needs of our brothers and Elisters in the Lord and to be generous in giving alms. (Tit. 3:14; Lk. 10:25-~17; Eph. 4:28) In The Sword of the Spirit we teach a few basic principles of financial responsibility
1) We should all provide for the work of the Lord generou!lly from our means. The traditional approach of God's people as presented in the Scripture's is tithing (giving the first tenth of our income telthe Lord). We recommend tithing as a method of providing for God's work. Individuals can give part or all of their tithe to the Church to which they belong, at their own discretion. 2) we in The Sword of the Spirit also have an obligation t.oprovide for our life together, and therefore should contribute regularly and generously to our community (even if we tithe to the Church to which we belong). Normally, \ this means that an individual who wishes to donate to a church will divide his "tithe" in some fashion between the church and the community. Our obligation to provide for our life together is not simply a matter of givi.ng what we think we can give~ We have to take responsibility to see that our common needs are met, even if rhat requires a greater financial sacrifice on our part. 3) In additifn, as Christians "e should give alms. That means that we should provide fOf those in need around us, especially the needs of our brothers and sisters in the community. 4) we Should!prOVide'generously for missionary or outreach "ork. We could generously contribute to the outreach work of The Sword of the Spirit, and I also be ready to ~ontribute to the missionary work of others.

All of this ~eans that our "tithing" is not our only contribution to the material needs of God's people. Rather, it is the beginning, the foundation. Our generosity an1 readiness to provide for others will take us beyond that foundation. The basic teaching of The Sword of the Spirit on financial giving can be found in the course Liying in Christian COmmunity, talk 6, and in Patterns of Christian Community, VII, 5. Page 1

Sword of the Spirit Financial Polices These are the financial policies regarding contributions and tithes to The Sword of the Spirit.

1. 2.

Each Sword of The Spirit member will tithe ten per cent of their gross income to their local branch and/or church. Each local branch of The Sword of the Spirit will tithe of its branch fund income to The Sword of the Spirit central fund. We will use the funds thus generated both to defray the cost of Sword of the Spirit central administration and government and to support common outreach. Each branch will ask its members to contribute, in addition to the tithe of their gross income which they give to the branch itself, the equivalent of 1% of their gross income as a special outreach contribution. That 1% is contributed directly to The Sword of the Spirit to finance our common outreach. n.b.:Succeeding pages (particularly the page How Do We Receive runda) give further explanation of these policies.

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PASTORAL EXHORTATION ON TITHING Fr. Michael Scanlan 9/10/89

My third point has to do vith tithing. I do have an ongoing concern that some of the brothers and sisters in the body do not have the freedom that God wants to give them because they don't have the f~eedom about tithing. I've made some reference to an early experience I had in tithing a couple of years ago; I'll approach it a little differently this time. When I was in the Air Force, I traveled as a legal officer along with the chaplain for the 85th air division, and we had to travel between North Carolina and Delaware. We stopped at all the little radar stations and fighter interceptor squadrons, and we'd come in and there would be a big announcement by the commander that religious and legal help is coming. We found that there was no way to predict which cases would go to the chaplain, and which vould go to me as the legal officer. But the chaplain, 'who was a Presbyterian, would regularly get men in the service who were seriously in debt. He would talk to them, and in order to unravel the legal ramifications of their indebtedness and the rest, he'd send them over to me. I'd say to them, "What does the chaplain tell you tq do?" Their first response vas alvays, "The chaplain told me to tithe". I'd kind of gulp, as a Catholic growing up, I didn't know how they vere going to really tithe, and he'd say, "I don't know if I can do it. But the chaplain told me that if I really wanted God's care for my life, God's providence, if I wanted to live as a man of faith, if I wanted to walk the walk of faith and draw upon the riches of the kingdom of God, I needed to tithe." Well, I'd usually say to them in those days, "Yeah, if you have the faith for it, do it." And then I had to look at myself, because I wasn't tithing yet, and I had to go back and study it. I still remember the day I put a full tithe amount in the collection at the Air Force base, knowing it was going into the United States Air Force's budget, like it didn't have any other direction but to get absorbed in the Air Force expenses, and it almost killed me. That week I'd had more supplemental income than any other week of my whole time in the Air Force (I'd been on TDY temporary duty - which has all sorts of extra pay with it). I closed my eyes, and I can still remember the pain as I dropped this amount (I forget now what it was - in my mind it was hundreds - it certainly wasn't I think it was twenty odd dollars somewhere in 1956 coinage). I dropped it into the basket, and it sat there next to the nickels and pennies of 'all the other people from the congregation. It stood out glaringly, and as it went down, each guy looked back at me. I can remember, in my heart, knowing I was free, and that I would be free of money from then on.

No~ brothers and sisters, ~e've taken on a ~ay of life in ~hich ~e've committed ourselves to tithing, as a principal of our ~ay of life. We've told God ~e're going to tithe ~hen ve make a commitment to this community. I'm not talking about the community needs, nov, I'm talking about your needs. In all my years of pastoring in this community, I have never once advised anyone to give less than a full tithe, because I don't believe it. I simply don't believe it. I believe that tithes off the top, ~hen the money comes in before you count up all the expenses, is the ~ay to God's freedom, unlocking the gates of God's providence and clre. I believe it's a ~alk in faith, I believe it gives you freedom that nothing else can, and"I believe that Ood can't be outdone. I .hOIOUqhly believe 1n our practice of trusting God with our finance through tithing. I give you that little witness, even though I don't see anymore paychecks (1 don't have anything to do with them - they just bypass me and Fr. Angelus puts them in the bank). I ask you to pray about that, as part of Jubilee, I'd like to see all the brothers and sisters to get free about money and money constrictions, and I think this is one of the elements that will free you up.

510~

TO

BUDOITID IIeed

SPIIIT 101 rISC!L 1989

1-

Branch Tithes and Contributiona

56.9S 19.6S 13.3S

3.41

2- Carryover frea F1aca.l 1989 3FWld Rai81ng TV Contribution to Outreaches

--

5- Subeidy fro. Tbe Servanta of tbe Word

3.2S 3.6S

6- Otber

SWORD OF THE SPIRIT BODGETED mEHSES FOR FISCAL 1989

1-

iegional Outreaches SOS Government Renewal

Jila.4S 25.1S ,,.4 S 10.9S 8.2S

2-

3- Center for Paetoral

!I-

Central Servicee

5- Contingency and Other

COMMUNITY

1987-1988

Annual

Statement

Community

87-88

Income

OTI
~

Tithes (9 3% ) Donations (3
%)

B
f"

Niscellcneous

(3 %)

r"r-

/
I

t'>.f\. 1\

illIlll
i\ ~
II
I'

Withdrawal from Reserves

(2

%)

{93%)-

--{2%)

--(3%)

f --(3%)
'"-,
...

vV~

************************************************************************************************

Community

87-88

m m
IillIIl

Expenses
Personnel (51
%)

Fellowship Parish

( 22%)
(9

(51%).
r--f"

B The Sword of the Spirit TIthe

Office Operations
Logistics Property

%)

( 7% )

II
'u _U
[]

and Sound (7 % ) - 515 ond 603 Belleview

(2 %)

W -(7%)
)-

\-(9%)

--

rn
available

Youth Programs ( 1 %)
Miscellaneous (1 % )

~7

full

financial

report

is

at

the

Community

Office.

FELLOWSHIP
1987-1988 Annual

PARISH
Statement

Fellowship

Parish 87-88

Income
PJlocotion from Members' Tithes (79 Undesignoted Collections ( 11%) Designated Diocesan Collections (2% )
(6 %) %)

I1JJ
~

B
,r
(79%
'"

,....",
I'-.t\ t\

)----/
/

[ffiIlISf',iF
1\ ~

Collection
(2 %)

Interest

Other

(1:;)

tt
\

, " -,

-/ f';J

--(6%)

~11r. )

*************************************************************************************************

Fellowship

Parish 87-88
(]] ~

Expenses
Personnel
(31 % ) (24 %)

All Saints Assessment Diocesan Catholic Assesarnent

B
,,~,.. (2470),(317- )
r'I

(10

%) (8 % )
(6%)

mIII1

Central Assessment

II
[]

Designated

Diocesan Collections (5 % )
(4

Office
.f

Operations

Liturgical and CCD IS~F Collection

%)

~~
\ \.

'\.~

I j

(10%)--

2~)
~

(8%)-J

lEI B

(2 J)

Net Income ( 11% )

ftil1

financial

report

is available

at the

Community

Office.