I've recently read a very stimulating paper called Embezzlement: The Corporate Sin of Christianity? written by Ray Mayhew. I've found the paper really challenging; it's probably the most important thing I've read in the last few years! However, it's twenty two pages long, which doesn't make it the most appealing read, especially after reading a blog post. So, here are a few of my favourite quotes from the article that will hopefully whet your apetite for the whole thing (go on, read it, it's definitely worth it).'I am not saying that we are obligated to follow the example of the early church. But most of us do believe that they have bequeathed us an important legacy. We take this with great seriousness in the area of doctrine, and I am simply advocating that we listen to them with equal seriousness in the area of stewardship.'
'the assumption of most church leaders today is that we have the right to spend our revenue in ways that we believe would be most beneficial to the work for which we are responsible. Budgets are drawn up, employees paid, buildings built and maintained, and missionaries supported. This is the way things are done, and as long as there is an annual audit and no misappropriations of funds, all is well. But is it?'
'It is not surprising that, after immersing himself for a lifetime in the patristic writings, John Wesley wrote his now famous lines that, “any Christian who takes for himself anything more than the plain necessities of life lives in an open, habitual denial of the Lord.” As we know, he practiced what he preached by giving most of his income away, wearing inexpensive clothes and eating only simple food. “If I leave behind me ten pounds,” he wrote, “you and all mankind bear witness against me that I lived and died a thief and a robber.”10 Strong words, but a faithful echo of patristic orthodoxy and ethics.'
'In the late fourth century John Chrysostom echoed Matthew 25 in lamenting, “thou hast been bidden to give freely to the hungry.....but thou dost not count him deserving even of a loaf; but thy dog is fed to fulness while Christ wastes with hunger.” Such perspectives were normative in informing the theology of stewardship in the early church.'
This paper has led a bunch of American-based Christians to develop a faith experiment called Relational Tithe. I find the whole subject deeply challenging, let me know what you reckon.
