James 1:27 — Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

What counts as a “big” church nowadays? Myra and I are part of First Baptist Church Naples where between one and two thousand people attend each of three services every week. That feels really big to me … and it has some disadvantages. Sometimes it seems hard to really “know” people.
At other times, though, “bigness” can have real advantages. FBCN supports a lot of great ministries and at this time of year the giving engine can really crank up. As well as the year round support for a food pantry / thrift ministry and a benevolence fund, at this time of year we have opportunities to send gift boxes to children all over the world, gifts for children with a parent in prison, gifts for children in single parent families and Christmas meal for migrant workers. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
I added up what Myra and I would be spending on this type of giving this year — including something we do for a local homeless shelter. I was somewhat depressed to see that it’s around one percent of our income. Now please don’t misunderstand … this is in addition to tithing and our year-round activities. Still, it struck me as pretty low.
Three things bother me more than the sheer “numbers”. The first is that sometimes I get grumpy about the number of giving opportunities that come our way. I was struck this morning by what John had to say about that:

But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3:17-18)

That bit about “shutting up the bowels of compassion” — that’s getting grumpy when another giving opportunity comes along.
The second thing is that statistically, even while we might not be doing a lot, Myra and I seem to be among the givers. If you’re tithing (which I take to mean ten percent of gross income), giving a few percent over and above on a regular basis, and coming up with something extra at Christmas you are, sadly, in a minority. What’s worse, there’s no evidence that Christians do any better once you take tithing out of the giving picture. What I don’t believe is that the facts mean that Christians are cheap givers. I suspect they mean that many people are like me and don’t do the numbers very often!
The last thing bothering me is that giving can be the easy way out! That verse from James talks about “visiting the fatherless and widows”. “Visiting” suggests an action having real impact on their lives … I’m not sure a donation at Christmas really does it!
Reading this over, I see it might come over as a little negative! It’s not meant to be. I just intended to use our experience as a platform for an appeal for everyone to have a more generous, thoughtful and involved Christmas season — because reading those verses in 1 John this morning certainly made me think! Have a great and generous Christmas giving time!