Opting Out … Opting In

Well, it’s happened again. Facebook (“FB”), which I love, has added another element that automatically shares your information with certain websites.  In order to avoid having this happen, you have to go into your FB profile and manually change your privacy settings to “opt out” of this feature.  It amazes me that FB can get away with this when the marketing world is moving more and more to an “opt in” protocol in order to prevent spam and protect privacy.  “Opt in” means that you must go in and ask to be included, much as the feature on our website that says “free newsletters… click here to sign up today.”  

 

While I’ve been learning about “opt in/out” in marketing, it has occurred to me that giving in the church has also moved from an “opt out” to an “opt in” model.  In decades past, the church did most of is mission and other giving via unified gifts that were divided up by local presbyteries, synods and the General Assembly.  Thus your mission dollars were going to a wide variety of causes, whether they were of interest to you or not.  (If you did not like the way funds were distributed, you had to “opt out” by withholding or by re-directing your dollars with a designated gift.)

 

Over the past few years, the PC(USA) has adjusted their funding in response to the increased desire on the part of congregations to have some passion about where their funds are going.  As a consequence, fewer and fewer ministries are funded through a unified budget, and more are funded by direct contributions.  

 

The same goes for Cherokee Presbytery. The only mission we fund on a unified basis are Campus Ministry, New Church Development and Cherokee Retreat Center, and each of these is only supported at a nominal level.  Each of these missions rely on additional gifts given out of a passion for the work.  

 

Which brings me to my point (you thought I’d never get here, right?)… an “opt in” type of system does not allow us to be lazy in our giving.  When our gifts were unified (“opt out” system) we could participate in all of these good ministries without having to be deliberate or work at it.  Now, however, if we value a particular mission, we must make the effort to give to it directly… it will not happen by accident.  All of which is to say that you and I must each become more assertive in seeking God’s desire for our giving and in following through on that desire with our financial gifts.  

 

Part of me misses the lazy days of unified giving, but I am discovering that both my giving and my spiritual life are enriched by the more up-close-and-personal involvement that comes with directed/designated giving.   And I’m much less likely to push off requests for giving, because I’m learning that it might just be God knocking on the door of my heart. And that has made all the difference.