Pastoral Leadership and Giving: Interview of Pastor Chad Stuart, Spencerville Seventh-day Adventist Church
DS: Leaders are men and women of influence. How would you apply this assertion to pastoral leadership in the local church?
Chad Stuart: Pastoral leadership itself is influence. I can’t control volunteers by threatening their pay because they don’t get paid. Nor can I kick a member out of the church for not volunteering. So, all I have is the ability to influence people to get them to respond and act. A leader who doesn’t know how to influence or who doesn’t recognize the significance of influence is not a leader. Unfortunately, in our church, we tell everybody that they’re leaders, yet we watch as the church dies. In many cases, it’s just a title, and nobody follows that person. If you can’t influence people, you’re not a leader.
DS: Can you share about the responsibility of church pastors to influence members to support the church financially? Do you consider it part of your responsibility? And if so, why is it?
CS: It’s part of every pastor’s responsibility. Let me start with what’s most important: It’s our responsibility because it’s biblical. There are more texts on finances and giving than faith, love, heaven, or any other topic in Scripture. To teach the entirety of God’s Word, we must teach about giving. When you teach about giving correctly, you will influence people to give because God’s Word is true, it is powerful, it is convicting.
Second, you are responsible for teaching about giving as a shepherd of the people because giving is closely connected to the heart and spiritual growth. When people give in faith, it strengthens their dependence on God. So, as a shepherd, I have that responsibility.
And then I have an integrity responsibility. I get paid by tithe, by the faithfulness of others. God forbid that I would ever take a dime from the church if I’m not willing to try to influence my people to also contribute to the fund that supports pastors all over the world, including myself. By integrity, I hope everyone would preach on and use their influence to help contribute to the pie that pays us.
DS: After 22 years of service as a local church pastor, what obstacles have you observed preventing members from growing in their participation in giving to the church?
CS: One of the biggest obstacles to faithful giving right now is discouragement. When we repeat negative messages over and over, they become self-fulfilling prophecies. For example, I never read Ellen White’s writings as a kid. All I heard was, “People who like Ellen White are legalists,” and other negative comments. As a result, I never once picked up a book. Others’ negativity about Ellen White influenced my interaction with her writings. Then one day, when I was speaking negatively of Ellen White, a friend asked me, “Well, have you ever read her?” Conviction came to my heart, and soon after that I read my first chapter from The Desire of Ages, “He Must Increase.” That chapter was so powerful that I said, “Wow, this is amazing!” I mean, I just got chills even thinking about it now. I had missed out on her because there was so much negative talk around her. If we keep telling young people (and even old people) all the things that are wrong with the church, of course they won’t give.
Another typical example connecting to our topic would be statements like this: “If the church does not engage in a certain course of action, then our kids are going to stop supporting the church; they’re going to leave the church.” We repeat this over and over and over again. Eventually, our kids will hear this. And guess what? Just as I didn’t read Ellen White because of the negativity, they’ll stop supporting and leave the church. We are creating the church we say we don’t want by focusing on the wrongs in the church.
DS: How would you address the issue of discouragement?
CS: I don’t give or call people to give because I think the church is perfect in its use of money. Honestly, there are things the church does that I don’t love. There are programs we do all the time as a denomination that I don’t love. But I still give and call people to give because our, or my, giving is not tied to a specific program or whether the church does this or doesn’t do this. I give because I believe this is the movement of Jesus Christ. This church is the movement of Jesus Christ for the last days. The Adventist movement is bigger than any one decision or any one program; it is bigger than me or any other member. And I believe that, biblically, God calls us to return our tithe and our offerings, not just one or the other, but both because we are giving to a movement and a mission, not just out of function.
DS: Can you elaborate more on how the conviction that the church is God’s designated instrument impacts giving?
CS: I’ll be very transparent and very honest. When I started my ministry, people would come to me and say: “Hey, Pastor, I give 10%, but I give it all to the local church.” I replied by saying: “That’s OK. It’s OK as long as you’re giving 10%. I don’t care where you’re giving it.” This was early in my ministry, 15 years ago, 16 years ago. Sometimes I’d even say to the conference: “If you guys don’t help us with this, then I’m going to tell people; I’m going to let people know. And if I let people know, they’ll give to me locally rather than to you.” I never minimized my tithe personally. However, I would tell other people to go ahead and give just to the local church or to defer any money they could to a special project if that is what they wanted to do. I would never directly indicate deferring tithe, but if they said they did, I’d say, “It’s OK.”
Then, one day, I was invited by a movement that was parting with the official church to join them and plant a church outside of the official Adventist movement. I thought and prayed about it. Through some mentorship and reading Mrs. White, I was convinced that God raised this movement (the Seventh-day Adventist Church) for a particular purpose. I studied the book of Revelation, looking at the evidence of God’s true church, and studied the three angels’ messages. I became thoroughly convinced about God’s establishing the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and I prayed, “Lord, forgive me for my wandering and my doubt. I will be faithful to Your mission in this church, wherever You call me to serve in this movement.” That conviction and subsequent prayer changed my ministry. It also impacted my passion and joy in calling people to give to this church. So, I will always preach on tithe first, and I preach on offerings too. But I always preach on tithe because I’ve found that when people start faithfully with tithe, the rest of it grows too.
DS: Are there any other obstacles to giving?
CS: People struggle with giving because Satan knows giving is a strong, transformative thing. Satan will do anything he can to prevent heart transformation. Jesus uses giving to transform our hearts. So, Satan tries to distract us. We blame lots of things when people don’t give, or we try to find methods to encourage people to give. But blame should begin with the enemy, and all methods must begin with reaching people’s hearts with the love of Jesus.
DS: In past years, the Spencerville SDA Church has registered significant growth in tithe and offerings. During a recent conversation, you attributed it to the stewardship model you are using. Can you highlight the key elements?
CS: Yes, the model is important, but let me first give credit to Jesus. He has used our model to grow our giving. And the stewardship model He has used is based on three principles: consistency, gratitude, and generosity.
DS: What do you mean by consistency?
CS: People forget. I help remind them because Satan distracts them if I don’t consistently mention giving as a pastor. Lack of consistency creates a vision leak, so I preach about giving at least three times a year. And I do that, at specific times, strategically. Recently, I preached a sermon on giving because we’re going into summer, and people’s giving lags during the summer season. Even when I’m not preaching on giving directly, I reference giving. I always discuss giving, evangelism, and spending time in God’s Word. I always return to these three themes, even if they are not my main topic. I reference them in my sermons. Teaching about giving is going to be a recurring theme. By being consistent in my teaching, I’m helping people to be more systematic givers.
Additionally, I have to be consistent in my giving. I can only call people to do what I do. I don’t mean that in the sense of an actual number or amount. Our church’s goal is 10% tithe, 3% local budget, and 2% capital budget. I can’t ask people to push toward that goal unless I am also doing so. I also encourage people to always extend their trust in Jesus by giving Him more of their resources. Christina, my wife, and I increase our giving either in percentage of income or in actual amount every year. I must be consistent in order to call others to be consistent.
DS: Would you also consider gratitude a characteristic of the church and its leadership?
CS: I’m not talking about others having gratitude toward God, although I teach about that. But I’m talking about the church’s gratitude toward its people. I thank people for supporting this church on a reasonably regular basis. I commend them. I will tell the church: “I’m so proud of this church; it is such a generous church. I love to brag about you guys. I love it when I go to the conference and hear and see the financial reports of your faithfulness.” Another way we show gratitude is if someone is a first-time giver, I send that person a letter to thank them for their first gift. I express appreciation and explain how that money is used and our whole process of financial distribution. And, of course, I cast vision in that letter as well, but my focus is to say thank you. At the end of the year, every single person, whether they give one dollar or one million dollars, gets a thank-you gift and a letter from this church. I never take for granted that our people will give or keep giving. Be thankful always that they’re giving, and say thank you.
DS: And generosity?
CS: I’m not referring to members being generous, although they are generous. Again, just like with thankfulness, the church is generous toward them. For instance, when I got here (Spencerville Seventh-day Adventist Church) years ago, our assistance to those in need was like $5,000 a year; now, we help those in need in our church from $25,000 to sometimes $40,000 a year. We had about $40,000 or $50,000 budgeted annually for tuition assistance for kids in our church. Now, we’re at $117,000 this year, 2024. When you get baptized in this church, you get an engraved Andrews Study Bible. It costs a lot of money, but we want to demonstrate generosity toward our membership.
DS: Besides consistency, gratitude, and generosity, is there another leadership practice that you consider as having a positive impact on giving?
CS: Accountability! We’re very transparent with money. Every quarter, each member gets a cumulated receipt from us for their giving, in addition to the one they receive at the end of the year. We don’t just do something at the end of the year for tax purposes. They can know right now where they’re at in their giving. If someone has given nothing during a quarter, they get an envelope with a message that says nothing. This practice also triggers accountability in members. After receiving an envelope indicating that they have given nothing, they'll reflect: “Oh, man, I’m a member here . . . and I haven’t given a dime to the church.” After receiving such a message, one person came to me and complained that the information was incorrect. He was convinced that his spouse was giving on their behalf. After confirming the information, the person apologized: “I’m sorry. I thought we were giving, but we weren’t. As a couple, we’re going to have a conversation.” Accountability is not a bad word!
DS: What is your satisfaction regarding members’ giving?
CS: Before I arrived at this church, the highest percentage of our givers were giving between zero and $999. And there were very few families that were giving a significant amount. When I came here, I made it one of my goals for more people to give at a higher level. Now, the largest percentage of our givers are giving between $3,000 to $8,000 a year. We’ve also grown the donor base. When I came, we had around 500 giving units, and we now have 900 plus giving units.
