Grace Lutheran Church & School

March 2010

The path to discipleship

As Jesus' disciples, we are committed to certain habits: participating in weekly worship, daily prayer, and the regular reading and study of Scripture; serving at and beyond Grace; nurturing Christian friendships; and giving of our time, talent, and money. Making a Faith Promise is a financial expression of discipleship.

Here is how one Grace member describes the path to discipleship.

The firstfruits go to our Lord

Growing up in my close-knit Norwegian-American family, church was at the center of our world-even in the midst of the Great Depression.

My father had lost his business; my uncles, too. Still, our extended family continued to give what we called "the first fruits" to the Lord. (We didn't use the word "tithe," but it was ten percent that we gave - even during those difficult times.)

I learned that faithful stewardship also meant we served those in need. It's why my grandmother installed what she called "Jesus' chair" at her dining-room table: an extra place for a person that, she said, Jesus might send - and during the Depression, plenty of people were hungry.

It's also why my grandparents remodeled their attic into an apartment so that they could offer housing to Jewish refugees-a widow and her children - who had escaped the Nazis during World War II.

When I consider my faith formation, one childhood memory is particularly vivid. I remember drying dishes in my grandmother's kitchen as she washed them, and asking her, "Grandma, do you really believe in God?" She lifted her hands from the soapsuds and turned to me, pointing. "No, I do not believe in God," she said emphatically. "I believe God."

In believing God, I learned to stay open to His bidding and trust in His plan for me.

Believing God: it's what we as Christians are called to do.

February 2010

What has God given you?

"Count Your Blessings" was a popular tune written in the 1950s by the legendary Irving Berlin. Counting one's blessings is also a practice many people enjoy doing at Thanksgiving.

But you don't have to wait for Thanksgiving to think about all that God has given you. Faithful stewardship calls us to think about our blessings and to consider how best - and how much - to give back to God.

One Grace Church couple explains how their practice of tithing has returned manifold blessings to them.

"God's blessings exceed a tithe"

My wife and I tithed before we knew what that word meant. Early on, our parents explained to us that at least 10% of anything we earned was to be returned to God. My dad was a truck farmer who depended on rain, sun and late frosts for crops - gifts only God could give. My wife's father was a pastor in a struggling congregation. Our mothers were homemakers, managing small budgets and large families.

When we married, we just assumed we would tithe. We tithed as our children were born, as they attended college, as we saved for retirement and now we tithe in retirement. Though we both worked for not-for-profit institutions, living on 90% of our income was always enough.

Calculating a tithe was simpler in Bible times. If you had ten sheep, you sacrificed one. Now income can be taxed and untaxed, adjusted gross, tax-deferred and on and on. In our home we use a tenth of all our income as our starting point. We don't restrict our gifts to Grace Church and School because the need is great in so many places.

We continue to experience the joy of giving. Blessings, both spiritual and economic, have come to us in the half-century we have been married. God's blessings exceed a tithe, and we trust that as God "cares for the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, how much more will God care for us."

January 2010

“Put your faith in God”

It was in 2007 that my life took a downward spiral. My father died; I became divorced. I lost my job and on that same day I had to put down one of my two dogs.

My former job required me to work most Sundays, so often I was unable to come to church. This presented a problem for me, as I am a lifelong member and my family has had a long, rich heritage at Grace. However, once I was no longer working Sundays, I was able to return to Sunday worship and reconnect with God and Jesus Christ.

By January 2008 I had secured a part-time job that became full-time in June. During the time I was out of work, I continued my offerings to Grace. When the job became full-time, I readjusted my donations to the tithing level and even a little beyond that.

Although life looked dismal and bleak for a while, I kept faith in God and even increased my giving. In turn, God blessed me. I have a roof over my head, I can attend church services more frequently, and I have a job that, although it pays only a fraction of my former salary, provides me with benefits and allows me to tithe. Life looks a whole lot better now.

Put your faith in God; He will bless you in return.

December 2009

"Tithing has changed us"

We grew up in church-going families, but because our parents didn't tithe we had no experience with it. Early in our marriage, however, some Lutheran friends - a couple with three young children - mentioned that they'd begun to tithe. Initially, they said, it was a challenge to "find" the money in their budget, but the longer they tithed, the easier it became. And after tithing regularly, they told us, something amazing happened: an unremitting stream of blessing seemed to come their way.

That testimony was powerful for us, but we soon became parents ourselves, bought a house and learned the meaning of ‘living on a shoestring." Years passed. When the subject of tithing came up again, we were juggling two jobs, a marriage, parenting, and the many other challenges of family life.

Despite our hectic existence-and with college expenses looming on the horizon-this time we gave tithing serious thought. At first the stumbling block seemed to be the ten percent: Could we set aside that much of our earnings without giving up ‘necessities'?

We decided to try it-to take it in stages, beginning with five percent. After regularly giving at that level for awhile, we discovered that the goal of ten percent felt not only attainable but compelling-something we felt called to do.