Feature Article: Fall 2007
The manna among us
A case study in mutual accountability
by Meg E. Cox
God wants to relieve us of the heavy burden of debt.
When Kellie, a lay leader at Living Water Community Church (a Mennonite congregation in Chicago), preached about stewardship and biblical financial management several years ago, Barb became very emotional.
“God wants to relieve the burden of debt,” Living Water pastor Sally Youngquist (then Sally Schreiner) said to the congregation after Kellie’s message. “Debt is a heavy burden to carry.”
“Finally acknowledging my problem was like pulling an arrow out,” Barb said.
Several other congregants also had strong reactions to Kellie’s sermon. So they formed an adult Sunday school class, which then became the Jubilee small group.
Though Kellie initiated the group, she gave one of the participants, named Ruth, the credit for making it work. Members of the group were under a lot of stress, Kellie explained, and it was hard to know where to begin, but Ruth took the bull by the horns, did research, and brought something each week for the group to discuss. “It was Ruth’s baby more than mine,” Kellie recalled.
Barb remembers Ruth’s role gratefully: “Ruth dutifully and lovingly put together information and made a meditation book for us. It was so important to her.”
Kellie’s role came to be more of a social one. She provided emotional support and helped group members resolve conflict. And she made an amazing promise that changed group member Lisa’s life.
For a long time Lisa had been battling a roach problem in her small apartment, where the group gathered. She remembered that one of the passages Kellie had preached from said something about God delivering people from pestilence if only they would bring their tithe to the storehouse:
Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing. I will rebuke the locust for you, so that it will not destroy the produce of your soil; and your vine in the field shall not be barren, says the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 3:10–11)
Lisa wanted to put the Lord to the test, but she was afraid of not having enough. So Kellie promised that if she tithed and then didn’t have enough for her family’s needs, Kellie would make up the difference. “If you can’t trust God to provide, then I will trust him for you,” she said.
“This money is not mine; it is the means God has given me to feed my family and give back to the community.”
So Lisa began tithing, and her pest problem disappeared. And Lisa’s family always had enough. Sometimes when the cupboards were nearly bare, a church member would stop by with food. Or Lisa’s child care costs would unexpectedly go down. Or a bonus would come through at work. But “Kellie never had to make up the difference,” Lisa said.
The group didn’t learn only about tithing. They also learned how to face their financial problems squarely and to respond wisely.
“One of the biggest problems that get us into debt,” Kellie said, “is not realizing how much we need. We feel like we shouldn’t buy into materialistic culture, and we think, ‘If soand- so lives on $30,000 lavishly, I can live on less. It’s wrong for me to spend too much.’ But we do have bus fare, grocery bills, all those bills everyone else has. That’s the harder point to get.” (Kellie credits Jerrold Mundis of Debtors Anonymous and his book How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt, and Live Prosperously for this insight.)
Kellie explained that only when people track their spending for a while and take an honest accounting of their needs can they know how much they need to earn—not just to meet dayto- day obligations, but to put money away for unexpected expenses. “There’s a lot in the Bible to encourage us to be wise about planning for the future,” she said. If you tithe, “you might think twice before you go out and get into consumer debt that’s unnecessary. That goes hand in hand with being wise and mature with your money.”
At first the group didn’t follow a strict format. They began by discussing tithing, then used forms from Larry Burkett’s book Debt-Free Living to take account of their indebtedness and make debtreduction plans. After a few months, the group disbanded, but some members still wanted help, so they started again, this time using a formal program from Crown Financial Ministries.
Barb said that some people she told about the group thought it sounded boring, “but we prayed together and thought of ways to solve our problems. It was good to be able to name it all.” Kellie noted that the social support did members a lot of good emotionally. Barb agreed. “You feel marginalized first as a single mom in a Christian church, and second as a person with money problems” she said. The Jubilee group helped to remove the stigma.
Kellie and Ruth have since moved on, Kellie to Baltimore with her husband and seven children, Ruth to retirement in northern Indiana. Lisa and Barb, the two single parents in the group, are still at Living Water, passing the Jubilee gift on to others.
The Jubilee group helped Barb to “get a handle on the concept that this money is not mine; it is the means God has given me to feed my family and give back to the community.” Barb gives back by serving as Living Water’s Mennonite Mutual Aid representative and by being available to help others who are struggling financially. Sometimes people are afraid even to balance their checkbook, she explained, but people who know she’s been there will approach her for help in taking account of their financial situation.
Lisa said that at first it was difficult to be openhanded because even food was scarce when she was growing up. But now she is a generous hostess who regularly invites guests to her home to enjoy her excellent cooking. Once homeless herself, she recently helped someone in the congregation to solve problems with benefits as a necessary first step to finding a home as well. The congregation has recognized Lisa’s skill and generosity by electing her to the deacon board.
The Jubilee group didn’t solve everything for its members. It’s difficult to make ends meet on a fixed income, as a single parent, or with a large family to care for. But over the years these four women and the others in the group have multiplied the blessings of Kellie’s challenging sermon many times over.
Meg E. Cox is a freelance writer and editor. She is a member of Living Water Community Church, a Mennonite congregation in Chicago.