The Bible and Fundraising for the upkeep of the Church of God: Demystifying Biblical interpretation inaccuracies

More often than not, the story of the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and his visit to the temple, as narrated by the gospels, is used to defend various contextual arguments, including the question of ‘selling in the church’. All four gospels tell us that “When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers’” (Matthew 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-17, Luke 19:45-46, and John 2:13–17). There seem to be no other biblical account or incident that speaks to the question of selling, except that in the same vein Jesus quotes prophet Isaiah to support his actions when he says “for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Isaiah 56:7), a clear indication that Jesus was putting emphasis on the ‘purpose of a temple as a place of worship and not a place of economic trade’. It is for this reason that we take a closer look into this scripture and its implications on the contemporary church and its funding model.

 

There are many theologies and beliefs on various biblical questions and interpretations, many of which the contemporary church is hard pressed to find common ground on, for the sake of its progress and the continued ministry of Jesus Christ. The scripture in question being among those, in it we find a number of key questions that arise as a result of the difficulties faced by the modern day church, among others the financial difficulties to respond to the contemporary needs of the world. In its effort to tackle the question of financial difficulties, the modern day church’s financial model is commonly based on three key areas, ‘dedicated giving or tithing, offering during service and fundraising through various initiatives, among others raffles, hosting events, selling of church books and other items’. The latter becomes our focus area as the scripture specifically says ‘he found people selling in the temple’, even though it does not specifically tell us as to ‘the purpose of their selling, in reference to the financial needs of the temple’. But unlike the modern church, we know that the church in Jesus’ time was entirely funded by the state as a result of the then relationship between Church and the Roman empire, a system which I believe Christ himself was not in favour of, for the autonomy of the church, we know this because Jesus Christ was nothing short of a revolutionary that stood his ground on religious ideologies but died a death of a political criminal on the cross. Therefore, it is highly likely that in this instance, the selling that went on in the church was not necessarily to raise funds for the upkeep of the temple, but rather as a result of ‘personal gain between merchants and customers’. In her effort to explain the layout and architectural wonders of the temple, author Katrina D. Hamel tells us that “The- large courtyard where the incident in question took place was called the Court of Gentiles, where anyone could visit. She says this was the exact place where the money changers, the dove sellers and other business transactions took place. It was likely noisy and bustling - not very conducive to a worshiping atmosphere” (K. Hamel 28 September 2018: https://shorturl.at/gstBI), solidifying my assertion that indeed the trade was an activity outside the church. We also know that this incident of the cleansing of the temple as it is widely described, happens during the time of a biblically ordained pilgrimage festival, ‘the Passover’. Therefore, it is evident that the courtyard was unusually filled with people from all over the world, ‘to celebrate Passover and give thanks to God’ through among other things ‘sacrifice, using animals such as cattle, sheep and pigeons’ (John 2:14), meaning the only relationship that we can establish between the temple, merchants and pilgrims, Jesus included, is the celebration of Passover. All of this paints a picture of a disorderly temple environment, so we can conclude that ‘Jesus simply regarded both merchants and customers guilty of desecrating the temple, obstructing worship, and specifically taking up space that had been set aside for Gentiles to worship, hence his anger’.
 

Now that we have separated the events in the courtyard from the question of the funding model of the church during Jesus’ time, we can now deal with the elephant in the room, the question that the modern church must attend to is whether “is it wrong for the modern day Church to raise funds, does God expect his kingdom to flourish in a church that only survives on tithing and offering during service? Given that the modern world and church has no doubt that the separation of church and state has had far-reaching benefits over time, we can equally appreciate the reality that ‘as a result, the most glaring repercussion is that of a financially distressed church'. Therefore, the modern church is faced with the difficult task of funding itself in a changing environment, raising the level of its ethical responsibility to do so. The changing environment is informed by a number of factors, the ever growing pool of independent churches, the ever increasing secularisation of the world, socio-economic and political factors, to name but a few. With these factors in mind, the church is undoubtedly forced to be creative in how it funds itself, while maintaining its credibility and ethical responsibility to God and the world. The question that ultimately has to be answered is ‘in line with the scriptures, how does a modern church creatively fund itself, while preserving both its ethical and biblical obligations to God and the world’?

 
As a Christian in the Anglican church of Southern Africa, I can only speak to the environment that I know of. It was at its 65^th synod in 2017 where the Anglican diocese of Johannesburg discussed the question of funding, specifically on how the church will meet its financial obligation towards the post-retirement medical aid for its retired clergy, a figure which stood at a million rand at the 66^th synod meeting held in October 2023. I use this scenario deliberately as it paints a picture of the basic financial needs of the modern day church, to maintain itself and continue God’s work unhindered. Now if the funding model is based entirely on member dedicated giving and offering, then it may not be possible for the church to meet its pastoral and ethical obligation towards its retired clergy, particularly because the dedicated giving and offering is derived from the individual parishes that are affected by the list of factors that we outlines above, the changing environment, the ever growing pool of independent churches, the ever increasing secularisation of the world, socio-economic and political factors, this over and above its own basic needs as a community on the ground. If this challenge spans as far back as the year 2017, then the situation cannot possibly be any better given the devastating effects of the Covid19 pandemic, unless the church is funded through creative, ethical means.

 
The reality is that there is no Biblical evidence that suggests that Jesus ever addressed the issue of Church funding, mainly because his ministry never established any brick and mortar assets that needed to be maintained like the temple and the modern day church, nor is there any biblical evidence that Christ ever registered any issue with a church that relied on fundraising as a model. But instead, we can find evidence of fundraising throughout the ministries of many Biblical figures, Moses, David (read 1 Chronicles 29:1-20), Hezekiah, Nehemiah (read 1 and 2), Paul (read 1 Corinthians 16:1-4), even Jesus himself has asked people to financially support God's work (read Luke 8:1-3), a clear indication that the church can explore outside funding from willing, ethical donors. Key to this arguement is that, using this scripture to suggest that it is wrong for churches to fundraise through selling is rather contradictory, reason being “selling books, having a raffle, doing fundraising, etc, is different from what was going on in the temple. Jesus was not necessarily angry that they were selling in the temple, but rather that selling was becoming the focus instead of God. Jesus was also angry that the moneychangers were taking advantage of people, many of whom were poor, who needed their services. Pigeons and other animals were required for the offering, and tithes in acceptable currency were also a requirement. On the contrary, such is not the case in today's church, at least as far as my denomination is concerned. Purchases in a church bookstore or at a church craft sale, for example, are entirely voluntary. No purchase is necessary to attend worship, every individual is welcomed in church whether they are able to participate financially or not. If a church does decide to sell something inside the church or to host a fundraiser, it should make sure that the selling does not receive undue attention and does not draw away from worship and the teaching of God’s Word. Selling should also never be made "high-pressure", most importantly ‘the church must be pragmatic in its approach, maintaining its ethical, biblical and Christian obligation of ensuring that every cent received is accounted for, is legal and does what it is meant to do, maintaining God’s property and promoting God’s kingdom’. Fundraising coach Marc Pitman says ‘funding your ministry does not mean losing your soul” (fundraisingcoach.com), therefore the basic principle should be that "for the Kingdom of God and the good of his people".

 
As a believer in Christian pragmatism, it is my unreserved conviction that the God we pray, will not have a problem with his people honestly raising funds for the good of his church and its people, in an honest and ethical manner.    

 
Kgosiemang Phejane
 
Writing in my personal capacity as a Christian, in the church of God. The views expressed here are person and represent no other individual, group of people or affiliate organisation.