Stewardship Moment: Skin in the Game

Church and money. Talking about it makes many of us uncomfortable, but the fact remains that the church as we know it requires more than prayers to function. Gail Christensen shared her reasons why giving to the church is as important to our spiritual lives as it is to the church’s finances.

Skin in the game: A term coined by renowned investor Warren Buffett to refer to the situation in which high-ranking insiders use their own money to buy stock in the company they are running. The idea behind creating this situation is to ensure that corporations are managed by like-minded individuals who share a stake in the company. Executives can talk all they want, but they have the best vote of confidence when their own personal money is on the line!

My husband, Alfred, comes from a country (Denmark) where taxes support the church. Taxes pay for all renovations, all services to the church (such as maintaining the grounds), and even all major purchases as new pipe organs. In England, the words in the Anglican prayer book and the appointment of Bishops must be approved by Parliament, the members of which are mostly not even Anglicans. There are some in this country who support the government giving monetary aid to churches, but I say be careful what you pray for, because you might get it.

Danes, like the English and citizens of many other countries in Europe where the church is a national institution, attend church in startlingly low numbers. Children learn about religion in public school, not Sunday School, until they are confirmed at the age of 14, the occasion for parties that rival the scope and cost of weddings, and then they “graduate from church”. They may attend on Christmas Eve, they will marry in the church, and they will always baptize their children there (another occasion for a massive party), and they will be buried in the churchyard. But otherwise, they couldn’t care less.

When we visit our home in Denmark, we always attend one of the many local churches on Sunday, all of which are nearly 1000 years old, but we are two of only about a dozen in attendance. As a Roman Catholic priest in Assisi Italy told me decades ago, the church is like the post office – do you care about your post office except when you need to get mail and send packages? You have no “skin in the game”.

Here in the USA, our churches are separate from the government (so far) and as such, everyone who attends any church has “skin in the game”. We choose this church or that for many and varied reasons, but if our chosen church is to survive and thrive, it is because we make it so. New roof, new organ, grass mowers, teachers for our children – that’s our job. We give of our time, our talent, and our treasure, or the church goes belly up. Do we sit back and expect someone else to do the jobs needed to be done, to keep the wheels moving and the doors open? Nope, we get our hands dirty and get our wallets open. That’s the American way of church membership. Think of it as patriotism when you support your church!

I personally think we are so much better off when we have “skin in the game”, because our faith is a living, breathing thing to us. Pushing this analogy a little too far, you could say that Nativity is “God with skin on” – we are the body of Christ, and each cell is needed to make the body whole. Our money goes where our hearts are. Having skin in the game means your cell, your family, is willing to make a financial commitment. You are committed, not just standing on the sidelines. If you aren’t willing to put your own skin in the game, you aren’t holding up your end of the enterprise – the enterprise being the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.