Question: One of my parishioners recently wrote me about a dilemma that is certainly common to all of us today.
“I received email from 6 organizations wanting donations from me today. This is pretty much a daily happening and it’s causing me mixed feeling. The question is how do I handle this situation? I have my pet charities; but I don’t feel I should support them all. Some of them do grab at my heart when it comes to children and animals, and even disabled or blind vets. The list is getting longer and I feel guilty when I discard them. This is not counting the many calls I get via phone – please give me some advice.”
Answer from the Pastor’s Desk:
It is unfortunately part of the modern world that we are able to receive so many calls for donations. As you mentioned, some come by phone and some by email, not to mention TV. Many come from automated mailing systems. I’m sure before long they will figure out how to send them in other ways as well. Even at church we have plenty of fund appeals. There are twin spiritual and emotional dangers. On the one hand, we can become overwhelmed by them and laden with guilt so that we hardly know what to do. On the other hand, and this may be even worse, we can become immunized by the barrage of them to the point that our compassion atrophies and we can no longer respond when we should.
Here is a strategy that I recommend that I believe will allow us to respond in compassion appropriately while protecting ourselves from overload.
1. Pray about where God is calling you to help.
2. Then choose a few charities that are very reputable and that deal with issues that are dear to your heart. Use your passion for issues and world needs as a guide. For example, if you feel strongly that you would like to eradicate cancer, then you might choose the American Cancer Society as one of your charities.
3. The number of charities you choose may depend on your means but for most people, I think it will probably be from 3-6. Keep the list small enough so that you can respond occasionally to all of them every year. Don’t worry if you don’t respond to every call. I don’t think anyone does that. Most of us can’t. Married couples may decide to each add some favorite ones to a joint list or they may each have their own.
4. Your local church will likely be your number one charity.
5. I recommend that all Christians in developed countries like ours include at least one charity that ministers to needs in the third world in their list. It might be UMCOR or World Hope (the one JoAnne and I have chosen), or Samaritan’s Purse or World Vision, for examples (Gal. 2:10).
6. Consign all other email solicitations ruthlessly to the junk email box. For most of the repeated ones, you can get your browser to do this for you before you even see them. Trash both email and snail mail from other charities without even opening it.
7. For phone calls, tell the person up front if their charity is not on your list and if they won’t take “no” for an answer, they deserve a hang-up.
8. The fact that you are obeying God in generosity to the charities you have chosen helps you to not feel guilty in disregarding the others. Seek to be at peace with your level of giving. God does not want you to feel burdened with guilt about it but to be a joyful giver (2 Cor. 9:7).
9 Follow faithfully the charities that you have chosen, allowing God to use you to help them. Read their materials and become knowledgeable about them.
10. Annually evaluate your overall participation in your chosen charities. If you do taxes, that is a natural time to evaluate. Your ultimate goal as a Christian steward is God’s well-done for your handling of the wealth he has entrusted to you. A term that I have found helpful in measuring my response is to ask whether or not I have been generous. God loves generosity and his economy rewards it. As the Proverb says, “The generous will themselves be blessed” (Pr 22:9 NIV 2011).