This month, John Ellis on the pitfalls of wealth for the Church

Given how often the Bible addresses issues of money and wealth, financial discussions in our churches are curious. They emerge as church maintenance questions rather than discipleship questions. It is hard to imagine that any congregation where biblical tithing is the norm has any difficulty meeting its Ministry and Mission Fund (M&M) target.

Jesus would have been well aware of the Old Testament teachings but the sayings he added to them are wonderfully and notoriously ambiguous. Perhaps we can imagine him chuckling at the fun his disciples would have down the centuries trying to interpret them. Even when his words are clear, such as to the rich young ruler – ‘Sell everything you have’ – preachers are quick to reassure us that is not an instruction to people like us; although if you have even enough spare cash to afford a subscription to Reform, you are rich by the standards of most of the villagers around Jesus. The temptation to hear from Jesus what we want to hear is certainly applicable to sayings about money…

John Ellis made his first career in the Bank of England. For a decade he was the Treasurer of the United Reformed Church and Moderator of the General Assembly 2013-16

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This is an extract from an article published in the September 2024 edition of Reform