The Church of Money

I want to continue with the direction I started in the previous two posts so here are some thoughts I recently have had.

One of the greatest challenges that the church faces on a daily basis is what to do with the money it gets. How is it used and to what extent is it used for ministry purposes? I think of the “rich young ruler” who approached Jesus and asked what seemed a simple question of what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus responded and told him to follow the commandments. The man replied and said he has done that since he was a child, then Jesus’ response drove him away. You lack one thing, he said, go and sell all you have and give it to the poor. It’s a message that has haunted the church for hundreds of years now. What must we do to inherit eternal life Jesus? I believe he’s let go of what you have and give it to the poor, the oppressed, the widow and the orphan. It’s a message that has been lost in the desire for bigger and better. We spend millions on buildings, salaries and utilities while we spend only pennies on those who are in need. Our programs are even drained of their finances to feed the monsters that we have created. We often tell those who are attending our services each and every week that they need to be good stewards of the resources that God has given them, yet our churches are rarely good stewards with what is given. Each and every year around Christmas we are reminded to check out those institutions that are clamoring for our donations to determine how much of our money is actually going into the lives of those of whom it is designed to touch. We are skeptical of institutions that spend more than fifty percent of the donations on salaries and overhead expenses. Yet, if we were to take a close look at the percentage of the money spent at our local church we would be appalled at the amount of money that is consumed by the mortgage, utilities, denominational budgets, and salaries in comparison to how much is spent in the different ministry arms of the church which is directly impacting lives. I would venture to guess that it is far less than twenty-five percent of the total income for the vast majority of churches. If we didn’t feel obligated to bring our tithe and our offerings to the church, I doubt we could in good conscious give to such a cause. I am not saying that we should not tithe or give offerings, nor am I saying that buildings and salaries are wrong, but what I am suggesting is that we begin to change the percentages of what is staying “in-house” and what is going out. I, personally, would not have a problem with seventy-five percent of the tithes and offerings that I give to go to those areas and people of whom we are trying to meet with the reality of Christ, and twenty-five percent paying for overhead. I enjoy and depend upon our pastoral staff and the buildings we have to execute our ministry through and understand the necessity for them. Several problems arise, however, when we are so dependent upon the finances to pay the “bills” per se. First, the pastor is limited by what is said or done in the name of Christ. If, for instance, the pastor has felt directed to preach a certain direction or deal with certain issues in the church, but knows that in doing so, some people will withhold their offerings or leave, the pastor may be reluctant to head that direction, because the bills will need to be paid. I cannot count how little, we've in the church, have done to keep people accountable for things that should not be happening because we knew in the back of our minds how that would affect the church financially. (God forgive me) Another problem arises when a ministry needs funds to operate yet finds itself closed off to those funds because to fund that program or ministry would jeopardize the fiscal responsibilities that have been committed to set bills. While on staff at my last church all ministry branches were on a spending freeze for the past two years so we could pay the bills. A third problem that tends to arise out of this scenario is the body’s dependence upon the paid staff to be the spiritual ones in the church who are responsible for the care of the whole body rather than being one part of many in the body. I don't know how often I heard people upset because the pastor didn't make it to the hospital to see someone before their surgery or something like that. The people failed to realize that neither did anyone else in the church. (God forgive us all)

Now critics would argue that the buildings and the bills are a part of the ministry, in which they would have a valid point, but with only limited validity. As I eluded to above, I believe that we enable our pastors to “minister” to the people because they are paid through our tithes and offerings. This is how I made my living for the past 10 years or so and I am very thankful that I was allowed to minister to those of whom I was responsible for more freely because of my weekly paycheck. I also believe the resources that are at the disposal of those trying to minister, ie buildings, books etc. help create new avenues for people to grow in Christ. However, much of what is done in the name of ministry in both of these scenarios could also be done through other means. An example that I personally know of is a local church that is in the process of raising funds to build an extension. The extension would be a gymnasium, classrooms and storage. The have raised $300,000 in cash and pledges, but the project will cost $500,000 to $600,000. Across the yard and directly behind the parsonage is a building that has been offered to the church for $200,000 which includes the land that goes with it. The large building is in terrific shape and could easily be converted into a gymnasium, classrooms and whatever else they could dream of. And have it all paid for. But, they are going to build anyway because they don’t want to have to walk or drive the distance between the buildings. In doing so, they will have to take out loans and account for overruns. I guess my thought is if they really wanted to take out an additional $200,000 for something worthwhile they could really create a great food pantry, shelter home, or senior’s center. Think how many meals could be served with that kind of money and in the little town that this church is in, it could probably eradicate the hunger problem there for the next few years. Instead they want to make a $2,000 payment each month for the next 30 years. Even that would be $24,000 a year toward a worthwhile ministry. What youth ministry couldn’t use that kind of budget?(If you haven’t added that up yet, that equals $720,000 over the life of the loan compared to the original $200,000 that was taken out)

Anyway, my argument is simple; money rules the church when Christ should. It dictates almost every aspect of the church. We may want to believe something different, but our church treasurers can tell us differently. If you don’t believe me, how long would your church survive if your attendance dropped in half if that represented half the finances and what would be cut from the annual budget first, the mortgage, the electricity, the pastor’s salary, the denominational budgets or the ministry to the people? I know the answer. Do you?

Rob Bell 2

This question about whether or not our church would be missed is one, like Joyce said, continues to haunt me. (See previous post) It haunts me because I find myself having to try and find that one person that it would affect. This is not a question about those people who have come to our churches, but rather one about those who will never enter our churches. Would they miss us if we were gone? I find it disturbing that the concept that many people have in our churches today (remember this is blog, thus many gereralities will occur) that unless there is a payoff (someone will come to our church or Christ) that we shouldn't do some things. I've been in enough church board meetings over the years to hear the discussions about cutting out a program, because it's not bringing anyone to our church. I don't think that's what Jesus had in mind when he demonstrated love. Yeah, of course he wanted people to believe in him, but he knew that many wouldn't yet he demonstrated love for them anyway. This question goes all the way back to the garden when God made man and women in His image. We are to love people simply because they are made in God's image. Period. We are not to love them so they will attend our church or more harshly, so they will know Christ (though that would be great) The question goes to that heart of what are we doing in our communities to simply say that we love mankind and we want to alleviate some of the pain and suffering that people are dealing with. Would my community miss our church? I would say no except a few parents of some kids that are brought in on the vans each week. Do I negate those, by no means, but shouldn't there be an outcry by our communites that we left. If a large employer were to leave there would be because that employer pays the salaries of those who live here. If they leave the people suffer. If our church leaves, do the people suffer? I don't think they do any more than they already do simply because we are not in the practice of alleviating that suffering for the community. Because we are not in it. We tend to be more concerned with our needs in our church community than those needs outside of it. On the other side there are some churches in this community that would be greatly missed by others. A couple of them serve several thousand meals a year to people who cannot afford them for one reason or another. One has a clothes closet to help meet the needs of those who need some sort of clothing and I'm sure that there are a few others out there doing things that I don't know of. Unfortunately, many churches are so caught up in this mentality of do something to get something or do nothing because we need to take care of ourselves that they forget everyone else. Some day I would love to see some church decide to take all the money they would raise for their new building and instead use it to pay for people's gas bill one winter, or make sure their kids have enough to eat or help out the struggling single parents or you name it and not expect them to come to their church because of it. I guess my feeling is that the church needs to begin to dispurse grace as much as it counts on it. The gospel that Jesus preached/preaches is one that is fairly straight forward. We are to love God and love others. Jesus confirmed this as our message. What does that love look like? Love by definition is not selfish nor self seeking it's other's focused. Is that the definition that our churches are taking? I think that if it were then we would see a lot more of that love being poured out on the people in our communites that they would be devistated that we closed our doors. On a side note: we now have three churches for sale in town and not a peep has been heard from two of them and the other one decided to publish an article in the paper about it, but I have yet to hear anyone who doesn't attend upset. God help us!

Rob Bell Question

Here's a question that Rob Bell posed in a recent interview (it's not a direct quote).

Who, outside of those attending your church, in your community would be upset if your church closed it's doors today. Would anyone in your community be affected and would it make any difference in their lives if your church no longer existed?

Mull over that and respond if you want. I have some thoughts that I'll share in my next post.

Update

It's been a while since I last updated this blog, so I thought that today would be a good day to catch you all up on some of the things going on in my life. As for my previous post about being "called to preach", I have preached the last 3 Sunday's in a row at different churches and I'm preaching again this Sunday. I have a wedding that I'm officiating over this weekend too and I've been asked to preach at least one time next month so far. I've agreed to lead a new small group for our church for the young married group. I'm kinda excited to lead this group as it will open up good opportunities of conversation and friendship. Which you know I've been praying for. I've decided to go ahead and take the final two classes to get my Real Estate license. So, I'll take them starting next month. I've been struggling to figure out how God wants me to be involved in His work and haven't gotten too far in that process. I'm still certain that He called me out of my youth ministry position, but it's been 7 months now of searching for His direction. It's been a good period in our lives, however, as we've experienced tremendous growth spiritually. The bad part, however, is that Dawn has had to pick up a lot more hours at the hospital instead of being home with the kids. I'm extremely greatful for her willingness to sacrifice for our family. I'm hoping that the real estate will help alleviate that pressure on her in the near future. Reagan and Connor will start back to school in a couple of weeks. they can hardly wait. I can't believe that Reagan is already heading into the 3rd grade and Connor will be in Kindergarten this year. Time just moves along doesn't it? I guess that's a little picture of what's been happening here. I'm thankful that God has deemed us worthy to call us his children and that we can cling on to Him during this time in our lives! Blessings to ya.