from Rev. Tom Berlin

One of the keys to living a prosperous life is generosity.  Neuroscientists, psychologists and theologians all agree: giving is good for humans.  It releases chemicals in our brain associated with pleasure and joy, it impacts our daily mood and it is good for the spirit.  On Sunday during the sermon I shared my sadness that after preaching for 14 years at Floris I felt that I had made little widespread impact on the giving of the congregation.  I thought it would be good to give you some context to those remarks.  Many of you were concerned that I did not understand the impact our focus on financial stewardship had on several families and individuals in the church.  I would agree that there are a number of examples in our church of faithful stewardship.  Many have grown in both their desire to give and their willingness to give.  Many are giving more at Floris than they have ever given in the past.  I would also agree that over the years we have some remarkable examples of what generosity can accomplish, including the Child Rescue Centre, Mercy Hospital, Connections for Hope and our new facility.  All of these efforts touch thousands of lives a year for good.  This is the power of generosity.  It enables us to start ministries that bless the economically and spiritually poor with the love and hope of Christ. 

But there is another truth that we must acknowledge as well.  The basic standard of giving in the Bible is the tithe (10% of your income) given to the work of God in the world.  We are nowhere close to this figure on average.  This is the widespread impact that I was referring to in my sermon.  According to the Fairfax County website, the average family income in our county in 2008 was over $126,000.  A tithe on this income would be $12,600 a year.  The number of our members who give at this level or above is a real minority.  While there is a range of incomes at Floris, and many who do not earn the average income, it is also likely that there are families who earn above this amount as well.   

When I considered this sermon series, I felt it was important not to spend weeks talking about the importance of generosity.  I think most of those who call Floris their home are already generous.  This is to say that they wish they could give more.  The problem is not that they lack the desire.  The difficulty is that financial decisions that include mortgages, car payments, vacations and possessions do not allow them to demonstrate generosity.  Some of these decisions can change easily.  You don’t have to have the latest model car.  You can cut back on spending.  Many of you have told me how eye-opening the 21 day fast has been in this regard.  Other decisions, like a mortgage, are far more difficult to change.  I want you to understand that I am not trying to speak too broadly.  There are other things that keep people from giving as they would desire.  I know individuals who are putting kids through college while assisting their parents or other family members.  Some families have medical costs that will take years to pay.  Some have a spouse who is not a Christian or who does not attend church and does not support giving.  I have always stated that giving should not become the wedge issue of your marriage.  But let’s be honest, those situations are in the minority of our membership. 

Here is the truth I want you to understand about your church: about 25% of those who attend carry about 80% of our budget.  That figure simply has not changed much in the 14 years I have been here.  What saddens me is that if people would take steps toward tithing and commit themselves to a lifestyle that would support generosity, we could bless so many more people.  We could feed the hungry, house the homeless, heal the sick, share Christ with the lost and engage in ministries that we now cannot even imagine.  That is part of the blessing that I imagine for our church; but there is another blessing as well.  It is the blessing that would come to our members when we allow our giving to order our financial worlds.  Such generosity would require people to spend less and not rely on credit card debt with absurd interest rates.  It would require us to separate needs and wants.  We would have to talk more to our kids about what they expect from parents.  It would make more of our members find pleasures in life that do not require big price tags.  It would be life changing.  Every year I hear comments about me and other pastors who are “just trying to get our money.”  I have grown accustomed to these comments and no longer take them personally.  But let me be clear: I think that God is after far more than your money.  The goal is the transformation of our lives.  I think that God calls us to a more simple life, a more ordered financial life and a more generous life.  That, I believe, would be a better life than many are living now in our financially stressed country. 

I have also been convicted by some of our members who come from countries like India, Pakistan, Cuba or China.  To be a Christian in these countries is to take on a huge commitment.  It has social and economic costs.  You can lose your job or have death threats for going to church.  Many of these persons have lost loved ones as a result of their faith in Christ.  Their consistent message to me is how much more dedicated people have to be in order to follow Christ in places where you are in the religious minority.  They find it amazing that people react so strongly in America to the thought of tithing.  If that is the only uncomfortable, lifestyle-changing commitment you are called to make, it is what they would call a very good deal. 

Rev. Tom Berlin

Lately I have had more than one church member sheepishly approach me with something as small as a soft drink saying, “I know you are encouraging this financial fast.  I just haven’t started yet.”  Contrary to what you may think, I am not on a crusade to rid the world of small things people enjoy.  The fast is not about losing things or giving things up.   A fast is a spiritual tool that enables us to understand ourselves and our relationship to things in the world and to God.  I am on week two of the financial fast and here are some things that I am really pleased to discover:

1.        Not much has changed.  I haven’t had any epic struggles over buying things.  This is good news. 

2.       There have been some wants that I have given up.  Almost all of them are not healthy in other ways.  They are the small guilty pleasures of life that when enjoyed in moderation probably won’t end my life but certainly won’t extend it either.

3.       It has not been that hard to give things up.  This is not suffering. 

4.       I have a very clear picture of some of the habits of my life that I was not aware of before the fast.  Paying for groceries with cash, for instance, has been fascinating.  I can feel the price of certain items in ways that I don’t normally notice when using a debit card. 

Here is what I have enjoyed the most about the financial fast: I am talking to God more as I consider financial decisions.  Money is attached to so many moments of the day.  There are fees paid for an activity at school , gas for the car, groceries, offering at church, and so many others.  Each of these is a moment to ask myself about my life, my priorities and how I use the resources I enjoy.  I am for the financial fast.  I think that it is a helpful tool to take a look where the money is going and what impulses drive us, or don’t. 

from Rev. Tom Berlin

We all have little rewards in life.  Mine is the Coke Slurpee.  I realized that I might have a problem with my love of the Coke Slurpee when:

1. My daughter asked if we could get a Slurpee and then said to her friend, “my dad knows where ALL the 7-11’s are around here.”  You may be an expert in art or music, my claim to fame was being a 7-11 locator.

2.  I then realized I knew where most of the 7-11’s were located on the I-95 corridor between here and Richmond.

3.  My co-workers would see me carrying a Slurpee and say, “has it been a bad day?”

            The truth is that I have loved Slurpees since I was a child.  So many of our habits related to purchasing were formed in our childhood and while many of you grew out of Slurpees, I still prefer them to any number of other vices I could have adopted over the same time period, but clearly it does not pass the need vs. want test during this financial fast.

            I was driving back from a meeting at Trinity Presbyterian Tuesday and started thinking about the Slurpee.  Did you know that there are no less than three 7-11’s between Trinity and Floris?  Each time I passed one I thought, “why isn’t it a need?  I think I really do NEED a Slurpee right now…”  Here is the great thing about the financial fast: that thought turned my thoughts to God and to an examination of my life.  How many things in my life do I think I need that are really just wants?  I am not talking about $1.29 Slurpees.  My list has things that are much more expensive.  The cost is not really the point in the end.  The issue is that so often things have control over us.  They call to us and we follow.  I think that God is calling us to a life that has more freedom than that, freedom from the little compulsions and reward systems we have put in place to make our day seem brighter.  I thought about this as I passed that third 7-11 and headed back to the office.  Strangely I did not miss that Slurpee as much as I expected. 

            I hope your financial fast is not just a time to save money, but a time to examine your life and what makes you tick.  I am thinking more about God in the mundane portions of my life than I usually do and hope you are too.

            How is your fast going?