4 Reasons Church Leaders Should Talk About Money More Often

I get it. You don't want people to think all you want is their money (because that isn't true). At the same time, churches need resources to accomplish their mission. So talking about money can be uncomfortable, hard, and/or awkward for churches. But it doesn't have to be. Below are four reasons why church leaders should talk about money more often.

1) Money and resources were the #1 thing Jesus talked about

Either directly or indirectly, money, resources, and possessions were mentioned by Jesus more than anything else. Why? Because as he says himself in Matthew 6, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also... “No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

What we do with what we have guides our hearts more than anything else. And because Jesus is primarily after our hearts (and not behavior modification), what we do with our money matters and greatly impacts our relationship with God.

To be clear, Jesus (and all of Scripture) is never manipulative about money and has a lot to say in regards to how we handle our money and the potential problems wealth accumulation can bring. God cares about our money because he cares about us. And as I often tell people, the fastest way to grow your trust in God is the grow in your generosity.

So why does Scripture speak about how we handle what God has given us so much? Because God ultimately wants us to experience joy and true life (which is why his Kingdom is better than we can ever comprehend or imagine). Which leads to the next reason.

2) It is good for us to be generous

As we all know, our lives are hard. Sin and pain prohibit us from experiencing the life God truly wants for us and what all who trust in Jesus will one day experience. But that doesn't mean God doesn't want us to experience any joy or goodness now.

Being generous grows our trust in God and helps the communities in which we live. One of the ways we love one another is by supporting each other when we have needs. Instead of apologizing or feeling bad about talking about money, we should do it because we genuinely care about our people.

I often say when money or generosity comes up at New City that I do not care about people's money (because I genuinely don't), but I do care about our hearts. And because what we do with our money has a big influence on our hearts, we need to talk about money and generosity.

3) Talking about money often makes it no longer taboo

Yes, some churches talk about money too often and in an unhealthy way (i.e. give us your money or else God will bless you and also so the pastor can get rich). Of course that is wrong, so don't do that.

However, in my experience, most churches don't talk about money enough. Especially considering how it is all over the Bible. Instead, they talk about it maybe one or two Sunday's a year and preface it by apologizing or ensuring everyone that they don't normally talk about money.

Here's the problem; when we do that, we then bring more attention to the fact that we are talking about money and make people think that it's a bad thing. When we don't talk about things like money (or sex), we make them out to be taboo subjects. And as I have written before, they shouldn't be.

Ironically, at New City generosity comes up a lot. I even use it often in examples I give. In fact, one of our five values as a church is based on financial generosity (grateful people give).

I could be wrong on this, but I don't think the people at our church feel as if we talk about money too much. Yet, compared to many churches we really do. But it doesn't feel that way because we don't apologize for it, we don't make it a big deal, and we genuinely care about our people (not their money).

4) Your church needs resources to do what God has called your church to do

The reality is that it takes resources for any church, organization, non-profit, or business to sustain itself. To be clear, the church is not a business. But it does deal with money, staff, hiring, firing, etc., so there certainly many applicable business principles churches can and should use.

There is no way around the fact that churches have rent, utility bills, staff costs, ministry expenses, and a number of other expenditures. In fact, in my experience, the biggest reason church plants don't make it is because the lead planter didn't spend enough hard work and focused effort on fundraising.

If you're a church leader and you're in it because you want to see Jesus transform people's lives (which 99% of church leaders are) then you shouldn't feel bad doing what you can to ensure the mission gets funded.

Again, this isn't about hoarding resources or giving the pastor a large salary. It's about funding the most important mission in the entire world. Churches need resources to do what God has called them to do.