“God loves a cheerful giver” is one of those aphorisms that we often hear, but unlike some of them (“God helps those that help themselves.” for instance) this one is actually in the Bible. Second Corinthians chapter nine, verse seven says “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Our Pastor, Hunter, touched briefly on this a couple of weeks ago. He talked about an experience he had (that I witnessed) at another church where they cheered when the offering was taken up. It should be said that in that particular instance the monies were going towards feeding some hungry folk in Africa and towards meeting some local needs as well. He encouraged us to take that to heart and to express our joy in being able to give back to God from that which he gave us. That elicited a healthy amount of cheering and clapping.

So, when you give, do so cheerfully. That’s pretty clear. There’s a bit more I want to say though, I can’t just leave it there. Joe Harrison host of the podcast Christianese Radio posted a question about tithing, i.e. “Should we as Christians tithe?” The majority of the answers indicated that we should indeed. My answer was that we should leave it up to the individual. I don’t believe that a strict tithe of ten percent is required. We should, as Paul wrote, give as we have decided in our heart to give. That might mean more or less money as you are so lead. The amount isn’t the most important part, it’s your attitude. He does say earlier that there are consequences, you reap what you sow, and I take that as an encouragement to give sacrificially, not as an attempt to inspire guilt or fear.

So we should give happily and generously, but what should we give? Paul says we “will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion” and earlier talks about seed and bread. I think that those are certainly partly metaphors for money, but we also need to give food if we have extra and one of the most important things I think we have to give is time. Give what you have, where there is need. For instance, our particular situation is such that we don’t have an abundance of money, so we give time and food in service not only to our church but also to our community.

And that’s another thing, Christians focus an awful lot on giving to the church. We should meet the needs of God’s people but it shouldn’t stop (or even necessarily start) there. If you feel led to give out of your abundance to a homeless shelter or the YMCA or to a buddy down the road then that’s just as much the work of God as adding to the building fund. I could take this opportunity to opine on building funds and professional ministry salaries, but that’s going too far afield. Suffice to say I think you should give as much as you can of whatever you have to give where you feel led to give. We have a lot of freedom in the gospel and this is one freedom that we need to exercise.

This sort of beautiful giving has been acted out in two places in my online community and it continues to amaze me. Tee Morris, Podcaster General, had a personal family tragedy some time back and there is a ChipIn fund dedicated to taking care of expenses and his young daughter’s future. Almost five hundred folks raised over twenty thousand dollars. Another member of our community, SVAllie, voice of Brand Gamblin’s podcast novel Tumbler, has had some serious legal expenses revolving around her attempts to maintain custody of her daughter. She too has a ChipIn drive where folks are pouring our what support they can. It’s my personal feeling that giving what you have in situations like this, or to the people down in Haiti, might actually speak more about your love of God and your neighbor than dropping a check in the plate on Sunday.

That probably sounds like I’m trying to lay some guilt trip on you and I don’t want my blowing this particular horn to turn into another rule for you to follow. If God is leading you to give to the church then that’s what you should do. I know the money that goes into the plate at Redeemer on Sundays goes to do some wonderful (and some very mundane) things, all valid needs in my opinion. I just want to encourage you to examine your heart as I’m doing lately and give out of whatever abundance you have and to do so in the right spirit.