What rubbed everyone the wrong way? A little thing called money. It was a subject many pastors and parishioners hated to talk about.

But times are changing. In some churches, a radical shift is occurring from the days when giving money was considered a duty. Some of today's pastors -- the knowing ones, anyway -- enjoy talking about money, especially about giving to the church.

This change couldn't come at a better time, either. At least one researcher has found that church members in the 1990s are giving less than those in 1916, once inflation is factored out.

"There's a sign as you enter Reedland, Iowa," said the Rev. Gary Langness, pastor of Augustana Lutheran Church in West St. Paul, Minn. "It says, 'Welcome to Reedland, Iowa, home of 560 wonderful, happy people and one old grump.' Now why do you suppose he was grumpy? Did someone jilt him or go to the county fair without him? No, he's grumpy because he hasn't learned to give. If someone had taught him the joys of giving he wouldn't be an old grump."

Langness says teaching about the joy of giving is one of the most enjoyable tasks he does as a pastor.

"It's just plain fun," Langness said. "It's a kick to do that -- to give your money away. If you think about the happy people in your life -- they're givers. Unhappy people -- they're controlling, they're suspicious, they're grumpy.

Others echo those sentiments.

The Rev. Doug Nichols, senior pastor of Woodbury United Methodist Church, says people have a lot of money and many choices in how to spend it.

"People have more discretion over their income than my parents had," Nichols said. "They also have more choices. So it's tough. It's tough to tell people they will have peace and happiness and prosperity if they give more to the church. But it's the truth.

"An underlying ministry is to help people understand that God is not a luxury," Nichols said. "We're trying to convince affluent suburbanites that they are blessed (and) to be a blessing (themselves). They are children of God, and they take it for granted. If you're going to address ministry in the 1990s, you have to believe there is a tremendous need for conversion in the suburbs."

Pete Velander, a layman and president of a religious publishing company, Logos Productions in Inver Grove Heights, Minn., endorses the conversion of giving in to joy.

"I think it fits into the paradoxes Jesus would speak," Velander said. "Jesus said to be free, you have to be a captive. To save your life, you have to lose it. There is an elaborate freedom in the discipline of giving -- in deliberate, generous and joyful giving."

But joy can't be the only ingredient in a successful stewardship campaign. Some denominations push certain principles to increase the level of giving.

Hugh Majors, head of stewardship for the Episcopal Church in New York City, encourages three guiding ideas.

"The first principle is that people don't give to meet the needs of the church," Majors said. "They give to meet their own needs. If you're telling them to give to pay the light bill, it doesn't work. They want to hear about lives saved and changed.

"The second principle is, of course, there has to be good clean accounting. In other words, it helps if nobody steals," he said.

The third principle is to encourage a climate of openness. Talking about money is hard, and it usually happens in small groups. Majors encourages candor and reflection.

"And you have to have folk who can stand up and talk about the joy of giving," Majors said. "I don't think people are that impressed with sermons from the pastor about giving.

"The stories of struggle are more effective than the ones where they've been doing it all along and have plenty of money."

Langness said the struggles of his mother convinced him to be a faithful tither.

"My father was killed in an accident when I was (a) 1-year-old," Langness said. "My mother raised four of us and gave us a debt-free college education. A long time ago -- this is my life, my roots -- that concept that 'it all belongs to God' has been with me. It puts the rest of your life in perspective. It shapes the kinds of cars we drive, the vacations we take.

"I remember, at our church when I was a child, everybody's pledge was published in a little booklet. I remember looking in that book and my mother, who was a tither, gave more than some doctors and lawyers. I was very proud of that. I didn't know we were poor."

One principle that Majors didn't mention is the importance of mission. The Rev. Chris Nelson, pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, says his congregation reaches out to the poor with programs such as Habitat for Humanity. Some 100 volunteers from the church build houses for low-income people.

"I think people get excited when they see their money being used outside the church and for the ministry of the church," Nelson said. "It's built into us. In each of us, there is a yearning to be generous."

Another of Bethlehem's missions is Spirit Garage, a Generation X church that meets in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis.

"I remember when we were talking about calling a pastor for Spirit Garage and I said to the council that we didn't have any money. And the president of the congregation said, 'Where there's mission, the money will follow.' "

Emphasizing the joy of giving couldn't come at a better time, because the story isn't all rosy for the Christian church.

Empty Tomb Inc., a research and service organization in Champaign, Ill., has found that giving is down in Christendom, once inflation is factored in.

"Giving has not kept up with income," says Silvia Ronsdale, one of the principal owners of Empty Tomb. "In 1916, Protestants were giving 2.9 percent of their incomes to the church. During the Great Depression, they were giving 3.3 percent. In 1955, just after affluence began to spread through society, they gave 3.2 percent. By 1995, when Americans were more than 200 percent richer, after taxes and inflation, Protestants were giving about 2.5 percent of their incomes to their churches."

Ronsdale thinks the drop in giving in the 29 churches she studied reflects a general attitude in our society.

"I give in order to get," Ronsdale said. "That's secular culture's take on money. It's all about self-gratification or self-improvement. Our culture's whole view is: What do I want? Yesterday's luxuries become today's necessities. We're not trying to do anything with our lives. We are just trying to be happy."

Another principle that may have an impact is that people will be about as generous as the senior pastor of the congregation.

"There are always the money counters, and they're usually older guys," said the Rev. Walter Sundberg, professor of church history at Luther Seminary, St. Paul. "They know what everyone gives, including the pastor. So that means everyone knows. If the pastor is generous, others will be generous. When the pastor receives an honorarium for doing a funeral, does he slip it in his pocket or contribute it to a memorial fund for the deceased?"

People will not be generous if asked to support a line-item budget, said all of the pastors interviewed for this story. And most of these clergy don't begin formulating a budget until all pledges are in.

"Who cares what the needs of the church are?" said David Hanson, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Stillwater, Minn. "The truth is, we need to give.

"Budgets can limit stewardship giving," he said. "People look at it as paying dues. They divide the budget by the number of members and they say, 'That's what I owe.' But none of this belongs to us. It all belongs to God."

Clark D. Morphew