The Next News Will Be Good
by Paul Davis, Presiding Bishopric

Not long ago, as I was speaking to members about the long-term decline of financial contributions to the worldwide mission of the church, my delivery so moved one person that she interrupted to ask if I couldn’t possibly add some variation to my voice. A small note of inflection. Perhaps a lilt. Anything that could rescue her from the coma of boredom into which she felt poised to slip.

I felt a surge of sympathy for her.

It’s my job to tell those who care about the church the decades-long decline in contributions and contributors is hurting World Ministries Mission Tithes. Badly.

The decline is forcing us to steadily reduce the number of ministers who serve the mission of the church and to decrease our educational and missionary resources.

Contribute Online   Into the Future – President Stephen M. Veazey’s closing remarks shared at World Church Finance Board. (PDF  42KB)

I believe many people care deeply about the church. I meet you all the time. So why, I ask myself constantly, do we have such a difficult time communicating about our declining contributions?

Here’s why: It’s not an earthquake. It’s erosion. Erosion never makes it  page one. But erosion can move mountains. Give erosion long enough, and the mountain is gone.

For mountains and mission, the health of the whole depends on the actions of the many, acting independently. No group has gotten together with a plan to reduce the mountain to a molehill or to slash the ability of the church to serve its mission. But each year is a little worse than the year before, and the cumulative effect is devastating.

Reason two: Because at any point events could turn for the better, we continue to believe that they will. Surely the next news will be good. Our natural desire to hear the good news, plus the lack of drama in the slow drip of bad news, lulls us into waiting for somebody to do something.

Reason two, put more positively: All around us—even as we keep sounding the alarm about declining contributions—genuine joy and hopefulness keep springing up, probably the work of that Great Interrupter, the Holy Spirit.

The gathering of leaders from the many nations of the church, both before and after World Conference, was for me such a Great Interruption. The mission of the church is well attended by these able, devoted women and men. They know the financial situation—it hits them first and hardest. But it does not induce gloominess; only renewed determination to carry on the mission.

So, here we are, with two opportunities: an awakening of all members to the great need for tithing to enable our shared mission, and an invitation to joy in shared ministry with our brothers and sisters in Christ.