How often should a pastor talk about money?

Last Sunday at Sanctuary, I preached on money and the Christian life. I hadn't planned a money sermon. It was just the next parable in Luke after the parable of the Lost Sons. The sermon raised a question in my mind. How often should an American pastor talk about money? Consider the following facts:

  • We Americans have a lot of money. Regardless of the recent economic downturn, Americans still do extremely well on a global scale. 
  • American culture is deeply materialistic. We tend to measure success and failure in terms of financial advancement, possessions, and comfort. 
  • American evangelicals hardly ever talk about money in church. Pastors tend to preach on money once or twice a year, and that's only to check a box on the annual "necessary sermon topics" list. Either that or pastors want to move a building program forward so they preach on money. I may sound a little cynical here, but I don't think I'm too far off base. The pastors I have been around don't like to talk about money.
  • Jesus talked about money a lot. It has been observed that almost half of Jesus' parables mention money in one way or another, and that he talked about money more than heaven and hell combined.

Now it seems to me that if these four things are true at the same time, maybe it signals something is wrong. Should American pastors talk more about money? What if our culture is really cynical about how the church handles money? Should we not talk about it as much?

Comments

  1. KirkJune 3, 2011 at 7:43 AM

    I think they should talk more about money. Money is nearly the most talked about subject in the bible. God wants us to be good stewards of his gifts, money is one of them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousApril 13, 2012 at 12:54 PM

    American pastor's dont talk bout money? Where have you been latley? Pastors may not talk deliberatley about money often but more and more they are dropping strategic hints about money in their lessons that are designed to impart guilt on the listener and they apparently have no idea how transparent, manipulative, decieving, and downright slimey they come off. And that is the reason why I left the institutional church and it is one of the reasons why the church in america is dying.

    ReplyDelete

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