It is not surprising that “progressives” living in the early 1900s in an age they liked to call a “progressive” era would have spent considerable time talking about the signs of true progress in giving. More givers each year?  More money raised each succeeding year? Or more tithers or disciplined proportionate givers?

Among the Protestant leaders, the politically correct answer was tithing. The foremost interpreter of that cause in the 1910s was Harvey Reeves Calkins, a Methodist enthusiast for “stewardship.” You can become better acquainted with his thought by studying Resource 4.13 - Harvey Reeves Calkins, A New Generation and Its Struggles.

But Calkins worried that the churches would use tithing as a fund-raising strategy. His suspicion proved to be right. The major Protestant denominations wanted it both ways – tithers were sometimes lavishly praised in “stewardship campaigns” which were often churchly versions of fund-raising drives for the Community Chest or other worthy local and national causes. The tithers frequently received royal treatment –the best pews, for instance – since their example would presumably inspire other givers to be more generous.

(An aside: the same worry about blending tithing and fund-raising persisted to the end of the twentieth century in some evangelical congregations. For instance, sociologist Dean R. Hoge and his fellow authors of Money Matters: Personal Giving in American Churches (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996) recorded [p.113] the response of one pastor in a tithing church: “If we get into fund-raising, we’re dead. This is a God thing. We can’t just talk about raising funds for an institution. The church is not just a social institution. This is what God is all about. The Church is owned by the Spirit, and we’re doing God’s work here.” Those same sentiments are also evident in the nineteenth century story we told in Puzzles 2.2 - What Would be a Sign of True Progress in Giving?

This brief excursion into twentieth century history re-enforces the significance of the questions we asked in A Place to Begin 2.2 - What Would be a True Sign of Progress in Giving? What is the most nurturing setting for our education as givers? Is a Calkins-like contrast between the education of disciplined givers and what is usually learned about giving in fund-raising activities helpful? Where else do we learn to be givers?

The root question beneath all of these surface questions: How do we measure true progress in giving?