A Millennial’s take on charity today.

Luke Long
Luke Long
Jul 27, 2017 · 8 min read

I grew up a Pastor’s son. I saw much more of the church than Sunday mornings. I saw extremes on every end of the spectrum. Many people leave religion and church for the exact reason that I feel so burden to serve: the church is not perfect.

This “institution” is supposed to exist to help people (from both a secular and theological view) yet it consistently falls short. This was often a facet of Republican politics: save money by avoiding expensive welfare programs, humanitarian groups, aid organizations, etc., because churches and compassionate “Christians” will be there with money and energy to help in ways that government should or could not. If the church was perfect this could be a perfect solution; But it is not and people fall through the cracks. More poignantly put, entire people groups and communities were forgotten or lost as a finite entity sought to end seemingly infinite problems.

Now I see a massive humanitarian resurgence (often labelled critically as social justice warriors) and as a young Christian I see the massive missed potential among other Christian brothers and sisters of my generation. Let me explain what I mean in a non-exhaustive study of charitable giving across generations and demographics.

In 2013, World Vision asserted that “Young Men” were the most likely to give to their specific campaign (56% versus 36% of older men).

Chances are you probably were exposed to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge that tapped into young people’s passion to help through a mastery of social media and “raised more than $40 million for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis” (although this was a multigenerational awareness campaign.)

But the study that I want to utilize to talk about the issue of young people and giving is found at (also image is courtesy of) BlackBaud and summarized well by an article on USA Today: Millennials: The Giving Generation?. Millennials may not be the largest contributor of charitable giving today but they are changing the landscape of charitable giving that the Church needs to be lean into and prophetically speak against.

The first point is that millennials, (who now are the largest group in the US labor force according to Pew Research) due to limited income are seeking to give in ways that will make the greatest impact that they can see. Millennials cannot afford to give to organizations that will misappropriate funds. In an age of unbelievable interconnectedness and transparency young people have no patience or stomach for such organizations or individuals that misuse funds or simply are not explicit in utilizing whatever donations are given.

For organizations, the message is clear: young people give to those they think they know, trust, and are more likely to give if they are able to see the impact they are making. To some that is selfish but ultimately it is a result of an increasingly transparent and interconnected society. For the church this is an excellent thing to lean into: after all, how can we love and minister if we are not being vulnerable? There is no room for personal profit at the expense of people’s well-being in the Kingdom of Heaven and there is such an opportunity for the Church to shine forth. In a society that sees rampant corruption and moral decay, the church needs to step up as a powerful avenue for aid and charity and must be brave enough to be as vulnerable with our check books and bank accounts as we encourage young people to be vulnerable in their spiritual lives.

(Churches that misappropriate funds or organizations auction for profit items donated to children for charity are real issues. But the knee jerk reaction of stopping giving to organizations in general because of a lack of trust in individual cases is understandable but ultimately does more harm than good. Instead, doing research and diverting giving to organizations, of which I genuinely believe churches consistently will be best, that are honest and authentic with their use of money and charity follows basic capitalist logic: consumers (and donors) have control over which organizations survive by simply giving and supporting the ones that are most effective. Supporting good organizations and encouraging others to do the same is the most effective means of combatting corrupt organizations. This is where I really show my bias and say churches ought to be the most “above repute” and if there is a Pastor, genuinely called by God and truly seeking to further the Kingdom of God, you can absolutely trust giving to that church.)

The second point is that millennials want to give because they want to see an impact. As mentioned before, in a world of unending needs there seems to even more organizations to support whatever issue you could ever want. As a church, it is important to give and give diversely, but we cannot forget the needs immediately around us. Slacktivism is a real and genuine disease that hinders people from genuinely participating in donating or participating in giving and serving because it scratches that abstract itch to “do something” by sharing a nice quote or linking a timely article but ultimately requires little to no effort and inevitably accomplishes very little. If we want people to partner with us in helping we need them to see the value in what we are doing. That means they either meet us where we are (as in share our theological convictions) or we meet them where they are (we give out of a shared compassion).

Church, it will be much easier to take our resources to them than to expect them to bring their problems to us, especially when other resources could be available. Find out the needs of a community, partner with local organizations, and share Christ through giving and love.

Lastly, most importantly, the Church is the arena for God’s love to be diffused and communicated. It is why I opened up with my childhood in the church and seeing the past an illusion of ethereal happiness and Sunday morning smiles. The church is an awesome place to seem put together and millennials are consistently leaving for either more “organic” or “transparent” places of worship or simply being content to keep their spiritual walk their own private business. But this point is to any millennial of faith and religious conviction who stumbles upon this post and makes it this deep into the article: you are free to give to any organization you want but if you confess a relationship with Jesus Christ you are committed to give to and help in the church.

But before you write this off please hear this challenge: to call yourself a Christian requires following the example and commands of Christ and loving what he loved. There is a reason Scripture refers to the Church as the Bride of Christ! The church is truly his primary means of working through this world. Any problems an individual may have with individual churches are another topic for another post but brothers and sisters in Christ hear me out:

Before you share a video about the dictator in a third world country, before you retweet every human rights infringement that appears on your feed, and before you criticized other Christians for their message or motive: have you given to your local church?

It is easy to clamor for justice but if you believe God sent his only son Jesus to die for us, what kind of witness is it that you trust in your social media presence or personal platform to combat that reality of evil and sin more than the local church? It assumes our ability to fix the world is greater than God’s!
That may be a harsh judgement but listen to the truth there: we are quicker to share articles and promote activism on social media because truly there is no cost there. It is inconsequential for me to “Like” some page or retweet a statement. But to actually give? Not just give when it is convenient but to consistently give 10% of my earnings? That is hard. Even harder still is to give not out of guilt or obligation but to genuinely give out of the expectation that God can and will use you, through your giving and service, in community with a local church, to make an eternal impact.

Millennials truly will be a force to be reckoned with. Church, lean into their passions and zeal for justice, but speak prophetically about where our sense of justice ultimately comes from. Encourage people in their pursuit of humanitarian dreams but also ground treating temporary physical afflictions with an everlasting hope in Christ. Millennials, join the church. Give to the bride of Christ and know that God is seeking to make all things new. If we’ve put our hope in Christ, then let’s let our bank accounts fall under that umbrella too, and give of our first fruits to a God who is big enough to provide for us.

We simply have to ask ourselves two questions: who will be the one to ultimately restore all things to perfection, and to whom does our money belong. The answer to both of these, for theologically sound Christians, is God. We must be careful not to usurp God’s role as sovereign in our efforts to alleviate physical suffering and we must so careful not to assume exclusive responsibility over that which God has given us to be simple stewards of.

They’ll know us by our love and what better way to communicate love than giving up your time, resources, and energy to show others God’s love.

Please don’t stop being active and pursuing for a just world a seeking to care for the least of these: but please don’t do it at the expense of the local church and do not let social media social justice take priority over sharing an eternal and fundamental truth about the very nature of justice and our shared human condition and plight; all of which finds its ultimate hope in the Gospel of Christ.

For an excellent parable on how to give, feel free to read in the Bible, the book of Matthew, chapter 25:14–30.

Luke Long

Written by

Luke Long

Pursuing Ministry. JMU grad. Southeastern Seminary student. Youth & Children’s Pastor at Lea Bethel Baptist. Working with MyLifeMatters. Goal is one post a year

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