Give and take

It feels like no sooner have we put away our Christmas decorations and crib sets from church, than we start getting ready for Lent.

It is a good spiritual discipline, though, and I have to admit that I need to cut down and lose some weight after my Christmas excesses. However, I need to keep reminding myself that just giving up a few chocolate bars now and then is not really the point, is it?

Lent is about giving things, and it is about taking things on.
Recently I read the latest finance statistics published by the Church of England. Nationally the average parishioner is giving £9 a week to their local church.
“In a time of significant economic pressure, the Church is grateful for the committed support given by so many to their local church.
However, this remains short of the five per cent of disposable income recommended again by the General Synod in the summer of this year.”

This sort of giving may not be very glamorous, but it is important – because our local Church of England is not funded by the Government, it’s not a part of English Heritage or the National Trust.

The painful truth is that if we don’t pay the cost of our church ministers and the cost of running our church buildings, then our churches will be faced with closure.
All we can do is to make sure our giving is prayerfully considered afresh each year, and proportionate to what we have. I hope this Lent we will each consider our own giving for this new year of 2010.

As well as giving, it’s a time for taking things on – spiritual disciplines such as prayer, fasting and Bible reading are all important. We will be running our Lent course this year, and there is the Good Book Club if you’d like to get into regular Bible discussions.

I pray that we will each be able to enter Lent, and have a good balance in our giving and taking.