ministry Archives - Page 7 of 7

There are only three ways you can spend money. You can spend money on mission, on life, and on yourself.

Churches only have two: on mission or on themselves. The trick is determining which is which.

Spending Money on Mission

Spending money on mission is spending money that accomplishes our God-given mission on earth. Ultimately, our mission is to make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20) which includes everything from serving unbelievers so they are drawn to Christ and saving Christians so they become more like Christ. It involves both developing relationships with unbelievers, and maintaining relationships with believers.

In your life, this may take the form of having families over for dinner, helping out financially with your neighbor’s medical bills, adopting children, buying and reading books that help you understand Scripture or culture, supporting evangelistic ministries, or sending money to support well drillers in Africa.

Churches can do these things as well. But a church might also spend money on programs, buildings, or audio-visual equipment if it will help them accomplish their mission better. But the hard question to ask is, “Is it really helping us accomplish our mission?”

Spending Money on Life

The second way to spend money is on life. One of the reasons God has given us life is simply to enjoy life.

This is our “secondary” mission. The book of Ecclesiastes shows this. Life is a blessing from God and is to be enjoyed and lived to the full. If this means going on vacations with your family, and buying a coffee at Starbucks, and going to see 3:10 To Yuma, then enjoy!

I am not sure that churches can spend their money this way, since when a church spends money on “life” they are spending it on “church life” which is actually discipleship. If a church runs a coffee shop, the purpose might be that they can develop relationships with the community, and have a place for small groups. This is mission. So a church doesn’t really have this category.

Spending Money on Self

The third category we can spend money on is self.

This is the tricky one, because if we are not careful, we can think that we are spending money on mission or life, when in reality, we are spending it selfishly on ourselves. Some people’s houses, for example, are not really for “mission” (despite the good intentions to have people over), and are way too big and expensive for life (Does someone really need 5000 sq. ft. and marble counters to have a safe and enjoyable home for your kids?).

It’s the same with cars. Is a Hummer really what is needed to help cart the neighbor kids to soccer practice, or would a caravan do fine? I’m not judging anybody who has these things…maybe they really do need them for their mission to reach out to the “upper crust” but if so, my question is “How’s that mission going?”

It’s the same for churches. Do we really need a $30 million building that sits empty most of the week? If the culture you are in won’t listen to you unless you have the giant building, then maybe it is money well spent. But on the other hand, maybe big buildings and expensive programs and high-power technology are the result of other motives. I’m not saying that buildings and high tech sound systems are sinful. It may be just as sinful to not have such things, if our mission demands it. Church buildings are not always wrong; buildings or a lack of buildings must help us accomplish our mission.

When Spending Money, Discernment is Needed

Of course, we must watch out for self-deception. Benny Hinn spends $112,000 per month on a personal jet, owns a $10 million, 7,000 sqft. home, and when traveling, gets hotel rooms for $10,800 per night.

Why? Hinn said something to the effect that ministry is stressful, and such things help him accomplish his mission more effectively. Even Hinn is convinced that he needs to spend money on these things so he can accomplish what God has called him to do.

Every person and every church needs to take a long, hard look at how they spend money, and ask themselves: Is this for mission, for life, or for self? Anything that is for self could be used better elsewhere.

Walking in a Pastor’s Sandals

By Jeremy Myers

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I got the following from the Secret Diary of Rick Warren, which is a blog by a fake Rick Warren.

The following is funny because it’s true.

Imagine what your office would be like if everyone had a job like a Pastor:

1. When your work day was over there would be a cassette tape or CD available of everything you just finished for sale in the lobby.

2. If your co-workers got sick they would expect you to stop by and pray with them, then act surprised you did come by and proceed to tell you that they look terrible and their hair hasn’t been washed.

3. Your wife would feel pressure from others that she should be doing things related to your job and be happy about it.

4. Your weekend would consist of something like a Tuesday and then a Thursday. Forget ’bout Holidays.

5. Instead of an expense account – every time you need to buy something more than $200 – you would be required to ask a group of people for permission, then justify why you need it.

6. You must remember what stories you told people – so you don’t use the same story over again.

7. Outside of the office your co-workers get flustered when you see them drinking alcohol or doing something they think you might not approve of.

8. Most of your meetings would happen at night in the basement.

9. You would have to stand up and gently remind your co-workers that it was part of their calling to give money to the organization – so it can continue to grow and fulfill its mission.

10. Most of your co-workers think you really only work an hour a week.

How Church can Solve the World Water Crisis

By Jeremy Myers

10 Comments

In a previous post, I presented a theoretical plan for solving the world’s water crisis. I proposed a way for churches to come up with that money by “taxing” themselves 1/3 of what their property taxes would be if they were paying property taxes. We could get the needed $10 Billion in one year to fully fund the work that needs to be done to solve the world water crisis.

Now, Todd Rhoades, over at Monday Morning Insight has got me thinking about another way churches can do this. He writes that according to a recent study, churches in America spent $8.1 Billion on sound and video equipment last year.

So we can either give a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name to every thirsty person on planet earth, thus solving the world’s water crisis, OR we can have state-of-the-art sound and video projection equipment in our churches.

Hmmm. World water crisis…. state of the art sound systems. Which to choose?

It seems like an easy choice, right? I mean, after all, to really be in touch with Jesus, we’ve got to feel the music and have our eyes massaged by the swirling lights on the screen.

If we don’t get those music-induced goosebumps on Sunday morning, how will we ever make it through the week? And besides, most people will stop coming to church if we cannot compete with the high-def surround-sound movie screens down at the Omniplex theater.

So I guess all those people around the world who just want a cup of clean water will just have to go thirsty a little bit longer.

Here’s the honest truth: When we sing worship songs on Sunday morning, we are listening to the sound of water being poured onto the idolatrous altar of music.

Of course, I’m in the same sinking ship, but on a smaller scale. I bought an MP3 player (a cheapo $30 job) last month, and purchased a few songs off iTunes. Jesus might be asking what I did with the $40 He gave me, but if He is, I can’t hear Him, because somehow, I got water in my ears.

Update: And there are so many innovative ways of helping these areas get water. Check out these:

Liquidating our Church Property

By Jeremy Myers

16 Comments

I attended a church planting Conference in Irving, TX a while back in which Todd Phillips shared that, according to current studies and using modern water purifying technology, $10 Billion could solve the world’s water crisis. This got me thinking about my earlier post related to Money, Missions, and Ministry.

Church Property Value is $500 Billion

I am not aware what the value of church property in America is currently, but I know that in 1931, the estimated value of church property in America was $4 billion. When you realize that the average home price in 1930 was $7,000, imagine how much churches are sitting on today? The average home value today is around $230,000, an increase of 3300%. So $4 billion in 1930 would be $1.3 trillion today. I have no clue how accurate this number is, but let’s say it’s less than half of that and call it $500 billion.

If only 2% of the churches in America sold their buildings, and put the money toward solving the world’s water crisis, we would have enough money.

But churches don’t want to sell their buildings. After all, where would they meet?

Churches Paying Taxes on their Property

Okay, then, here is another option. In 1930, it was estimated that since churches were tax-exempt organizations, they were being “subsidized” by the government at $250 million annually. In other words, if churches were being taxed, the government would receive $250 million from them annually (which is 6%). Again, I don’t know how tax rates have changed since 1930, but let’s say they haven’t changed at all.

If, in 1930, the government could have gotten $250 million by taxing church property (valued at $4 billion), then today, if our property value is only $500 billion, our taxes today would be over $31 billion!

So if churches in America decided that for ONE year, we would put aside only 1/3 of what we would owe the government in property taxes for that one year, we could solve the world’s water crisis in one year! Should churches do this (or something similar)?

Absolutely.

Will churches do this if made aware of the opportunity? Call me pessimistic, but probably not.

Maybe we could just spend less on sound systems.

Challenging my own Finances

So the question then becomes, “What am I doing personally to help solve the world’s water crisis (and similar needs) around the globe?” Rather than pointing the accusatory finger at the churches and their vast wealth, I need to take a hard look at my budget, and my possessions, and where my money is going. I may not have $50 million to put toward a building, but if I have $50 which I am going to spend on coffee this year (it’s probably more than that), maybe I should consider giving up my coffee so someone else can simply have water…

But that’s too convicting.

Money, Missions, and Ministry

By Jeremy Myers

42 Comments

A pet peeve of mine has been how much churches are willing to spend on buildings, all in the name of “ministry.”

I used to live in Dallas, Texas, the mega-church capital of the world. There are more mega-churches in Dallas, TX per capita, than anywhere else in the world. One street I was driving down recently contained four mega-churches in a one-mile stretch.

I don’t mind the number of churches so much. What gets me going is how much these buildings cost. First Baptist Church in Dallas recently spent close to $50 million to construct a new “ministry” building! They say this will help them better reach the residents and people of downtown Dallas. Truly, I hope it is money well spent, and I wish them well.

But I often wonder what that $50 million could have bought in Africa or Papua New Guinea. If they answer by saying they were trying to reach the people in Dallas, then I wonder how many meals for homeless people in Dallas that $50 million could have bought? If they answer that they were trying to build a place for people to come for education and instruction so they could better their lives and get a good meal, then I have to ask why the building has “clever accessories” (that’s their term) along with 9000 square feet of exterior glass, state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment, wi-fi hotspots, beautiful stain-glass windows, comfy couches and lounge chairs, etc., etc.

Don’t misunderstand. I am not condemning mega-churches. I attend a mega-church. Many mega-churches are doing a lot of good in their communities and around the world with spreading the gospel. I just wonder if all of us (big churches and small churches alike) could be a little wiser with our money.

I wonder if First Baptist Church in Dallas could have built their building for about $10 million less, and sent the extra $10 million overseas to plant about 2000 churches (It costs around $6000 to build a church in Africa). OR, what if they said to their donors, “This building will cost $50 million, but we need to raise $100 million so we can build churches overseas as well.”? What would happen if a church plant, from day one, decided to give at least 50% of it’s budget to missions?

The issue, of course, is “How do you define ‘missions’? By “missions” I mean anything that is helping you accomplish the mission of the church, which is to make disciples of all nations. If you can really, honestly say that you need a $50 million building to accomplish the mission God has given you in Dallas, then I say “build away!” It’s not what I would do with $50 mil, but if it is truly what you believe God has called you to do, go for it.

But here’s what really gets me going… I read today about a church that has alerted its missionaries that after this year, the church will not be able to support them any longer. Why? Because the church needs a new auditorium and can’t do both. You can find out more about this here. Certainly, I don’t have the whole story, and this church definitely does not answer to me for how they use their money.

But one thing I know: American churches are the richest churches in the world.

Yet our primary use of the funds God has given us seems to be to construct bigger and nicer buildings for ourselves and our “ministry,” I am just not sure this is what Jesus had in mind when He said, “I will build my church.”

So what does your church budget look like? What does your church raise funds for? Whose kingdom are you building?

UPDATE: FBC Dallas recently pledged $115 million for further renovations.

2nd Update: The final cost came to $130 million

How to Spend Money

Spending Money on Mission

Spending Money on Life

Spending Money on Self

When Spending Money, Discernment is Needed

Walking in a Pastor’s Sandals

How Church can Solve the World Water Crisis

Liquidating our Church Property

Church Property Value is $500 Billion

Churches Paying Taxes on their Property

Challenging my own Finances

Money, Missions, and Ministry

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