Money and Spirituality Quiz
Answers and Comments
Question 1: Only five percent of pastors across North America feel comfortable
preaching about money.
True. But pastors are the
ones who are best equipped to help us reflect on the relationship between our
financial giving and the spiritual life–to help us look beyond the needs of
the church to the needs of our souls.
Question 2: Over 50% of the members in a typical church want to give more
generously than they currently are.
True. The actual percentage
is 78%. Most of us would like to give more to the church and would if we had
more or if we could better manage what we have. Many of us need to pray about
our priorities.
Question 3: Church giving as a percentage of personal income has been declining for
years.
True. Church giving by
individuals, couples, and families has been declining as a percentage of
individual or household income for more than 20 years. We increase our giving
over time but often not at the same rate our incomes grow.
Question 4: Most congregations don’t need an annual giving campaign in order to
be financially strong.
False. Very few
congregations can be financially strong without an annual giving campaign.
Churches which have never had an annual campaign that begin doing so find
dramatic increases in giving. A church with a true year-round stewardship
education program might reach a point at which the annual campaign is not
needed.
Question 5: Over the last 20 years, the purchasing power of most church benevolent
funds has increased by only 10%.
False. The purchasing power
of most church benevolent funds has actually decreased by about 25% over the
last 20 years. The actual dollars received by the church may have increased, but
the purchasing power of those funds has decreased when inflation is taken into
consideration.
Question 6: Church members who talk together about the role that money plays in
their spiritual lives generally feel good about the result.
True. The experience of
churches which encourage members and constituents to talk together about money
and the spiritual life is that almost everyone feels very good about the
process.
Question 7: Children should not be included as part of the church’s financial
campaign.
False. People who learn to
practice tithing (giving 10%) as children are seven times more likely to
practice tithing as adults – AND they are more likely to feel good about the
relationship between giving and the spiritual life.
Question 8: Planned giving (through wills, trusts, etc.) is only for persons of
great wealth.
False. All of us should
think about our commitment to Christ and the church when we are thinking about
wills and other estate planning matters. Not only are those gifts important to
the church, but, more importantly, we need to see all that we possess as having
come to us from the generosity of God.
Question 9: Guilt plays a major part in most large gifts to the church.
False. Guilt plays very
little role in most large gifts to the church. Large gifts are generally
motivated by lives that are Christ-centered and by thankfulness for what God has
provided.
Question 10:
Most people have at least some anxiety in their lives about financial matters.
True. According to one
study, 87% of the North American public has at least one time each year when
they feel highly anxious about money. That’s one of the reasons for talking
about money and our spiritual lives.
For ideas on helping your congregation become
financially strong, read the New Life Ministries report Developing
a Financially Strong Congregation and see a list of web-based
resources on stewardship.
You are free to reproduce this quiz for use in your own
congregation. It is also available in a Word document for reproduction as a bulletin
insert.
Thank you for giving credit to New Life Ministries, www.NewLifeMinistries-NLM.org
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