Harvey First Lutheran has 4Easy ways to help support our Missions at First Lutheran Church. 1. Use this QR code to schedule when and what amount you wish to give from your personal bank account, credit card or debit card. You can change the amount or schedule at any time from your phone using the myVanco.com Mobil App.
2. Send a Check or Drop off at Church First Lutheran Church 1520 Advent St. Harvey, ND 58341
3. Text 2 GiveInstructions: Use Text To Give – Send text to 833-376-1678 with dollar amount in the text message field (1 = $1.00; 50 = $50; etc.). First timers will receive a link to tap on & register your contact and payment information.
You will receive a text or e-mail receipt to text your offering anytime you wish.
The church office will receive notice of your giving.
Future giving – text the same number which is specifically assigned to First Lutheran Church of Harvey.
4. Give Electronically through your bank. Call Karla at 701-324-2548 and she can get you set up.
We hope you enjoy these new way to share your generosity, and we thank you for helping our Missions at Harvey First Lutheran.
LIVING GENEROUSLY THEOLOGY OF FAITH AND GIVING THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION
A little history – THE EARLY CHURCH ON FAITH, MONEY, AND GIVING
In the later Roman Empire, Christian and Jewish charity was “a new departure…a new form of generosity.”
Caring for the poor (almsgiving) became a new social priority. Generosity reinterpreted as compassionate caring vs civic display The “incarnation in bringing God Himself into human society added dramatic power to the notion of giving alms to the poor.” The meaning of wealth was transformed as giving to the poor and the church, involving a transfer of wealth from this world to the next. Wealth became an instrument of piety.
Clement of Alexandria, a second century leader in the Christian church, in a sermon on money said, “Riches, then, which benefit also our neighbours, are not to be thrown away. For they are possessions…and they lie in our hand, and are put under our power, as material and instruments which are for good use to those who know the instrument. If you use it skillfully, it is skillful; if you are deficient in skill, it is affected by your want of skill, being itself destitute of blame. Such an instrument is wealth.”
CLEMENT’S THEOLOGY OF MONEY IS BASED ON FIVE PRINCIPLES:
Money is a gift from God and therefore not intrinsically evil. Like all other gifts, money and property are to be used in freedom for the service of God and the salvation of humankind. The paradox of Christian stewardship is that the God who became incarnate in Jesus Christ and required that He alone be worshipped and served, demanded this allegiance for the sake and service of the needy of the world. As Christian stewards generously use and give away their possessions for the well-being of others, they become “superior” to money and property as possessions become a way of “ministering everlasting life.” The Christian steward manages money and property in such a way as “to be able to, with cheerful mind, bear their loss equally with their abundance.”
“Generosity is grounded in a profound understanding that we are all in this together…it is only in fruitful alliances with others that we can do great things.” David Heenan and Warren Bennis