[Ministry, Mission, And Money: The Role of Money and Its Impact on the Church And Her Mission]

by

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would take this opportunity to thank my research supervisor, family and friends for their support and guidance without which this research would not have been possible.

DECLARATION

I, [type your full first names and surname here], declare that the contents of this dissertation/thesis represent my own unaided work, and that the dissertation/thesis has not previously been submitted for academic examination towards any qualification. Furthermore, it represents my own opinions and not necessarily those of the University.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTII

DECLARATIONIII

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION1

Church and Finance1

Church and Money3

Churches and dependency5

Church and income6

Evangelism8

Freewill Offering10

Seed Faith Giving14

Endowments giving22

Legacy giving25

Estate Planning26

Life Insurance27

Investment Planning28

Fundraising31

Bill of Exchange35

“Church-state” relations and interest restrictions37

The Ministry Challenge39

Almsgiving39

Ministers, money and possessions40

The Theological Tradition42

A dialogue about faith and money46

END NOTES52

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION

Church and Finance

Resource dependence theory (hereafter, RD theory) explains the distribution of power within an organization by focusing on the organization's dependence on the environment. Organizations are open systems whose structure, functioning, and fate are largely constrained by the environment. Organizations import most of their needed energy and resources from the environment. Despite the various strategic actions organizations may take to minimize environmentally induced external constraints, they cannot free themselves from external influences. Therefore, actions within an organization, such as the distribution of power among participants, are consequences of the particular contingencies and constraints deriving from the environment.

Organizations come to engage in exchanges with their environment because they are not self-sufficient. The critical concern of organizations is how to survive, and the key to survival is how to manage organizational dependence upon the environment. Organizations are dependent upon their environment for three major resources: (1) material resources, including monetary and human resources; (2) information; and (3) social and political supports--legitimacy. This dependence stems from the fact that organizations cannot generate inputs for their own operation. RD theory states that no organization is completely self-reliant for its survival and existence.

Aldrich and Pfeffer (1976, p. 83) argue, "Organizations are not able to internally generate either all the resources or functions required to maintain themselves, and therefore organizations must enter into transactions and relations with elements in the environment that can supply the required resources and services." An organization's dependence on the environment varies depending on the scarcity of needed material resources and the organization's ability to obtain them. Consequently, organizational actors who aid in obtaining hard-to-get resources acquire power in the organization they assist. The church rate controversy has a further, deeper, significance for Victorian history, however.

The political attempts to abolish or modify it highlight the symbolism of a growing element in Victorian politics. This was the question of the accommodation of the rights of different groups within the polity to a public recognition and redress of their grievances, combined with a more practical elimination of a financial burden. For, although church rate difficulties were often being solved at the local level throughout the period concerned in this chapter, pressure on the house of commons to ...