The eCrozier

I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy me love. – Lennon & McCartney

This fall churches will enter into the non-liturgical season of stewardship. It has more to do with the  fact our annual budgets are set to the calendar year than it has to do with  anything deeply theological. Whether we have a season of stewardship or not, we  do need to have regular, open conversations about money, our faith, and the Church. And maybe more importantly, we need some truth-speaking with one another in the Church about our individual relationship to money. Unfortunately, much of that truth-speaking wrongly uses Biblical teaching to try to induce guilt in church members “to give more.”

The Bible, of course, says  a lot about money. From the Old Testament teaching on a tithe of the first fruits to Jesus challenging listeners to keep their focus on the real treasure in their lives, the Bible recognizes the importance of money while also exposing it as a potential false god. After all, it is not “money,” but “the love of money,” that “is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). Jesus  does not employ guilt as a motive around money. He merely points out  continuously how humans wrongly conclude that acquiring more money or more  possessions will somehow make them happier or make their life better.

What Jesus and the Bible have taught us about money has been confirmed by empirical research again and again. Neuroscientist David Linden in his book, The Compass of Pleasure, showed how we actually receive more pleasurable brain activity from exercising generosity than we do exercising greed. And more recently, researchers in the Journal of Consumer Psychology have concluded that the relationship between more money bringing more happiness is surprisingly weak. They write: “Most people don’t know the basic scientific facts about happiness—it should not be surprising when wealthy people who know nothing about happiness end up with lives that aren’t that much happier than anyone else’s. Money is an opportunity for happiness, but it is an opportunity that people routinely squander because the things they think will make them happy often don’t.”

Sounds like Jesus, doesn’t it?

So, what does the research show about getting more happiness for our money? The researchers suggest that we’re likely to get more happiness by using our money to:

• Benefit others rather than ourselves
• Pay closer attention to the happiness of others
• Buy experiences with others rather than buy material goods for ourselves.

So, scientific research and the Bible conclude the same thing about the relationship between money and happiness. When we use our money for the benefit, happiness, and experience of others, we get more happiness. In the words of that wonderful Episcopalian, Bobby McFerrin: “Don’t worry, be happy!”

+Scott