Preparing for a nuke or church taxation

I remember in the fall of 1969 receiving a booklet at school.  The teacher told us it was important and that we should take it home and talk about it with our parents.  It was a book on being prepared for “The A-Bomb”.  Over Christmas break that year we moved and in the spring in my new school I received another copy of that booklet.  This teacher was a little more conscientious; we spent some class time for a couple of days going over this booklet.  To this day, I can tell you that if you have a basement, you should cover any windows with sandbags rather than plywood; it will help keep out the radiation.

Let’s be honest, in the event of an all out nuclear exchange most of the advice we were provided would have been pretty useless.   Rural KY was not likely a hot target for Soviet Missiles.  I’m also not sure that warning second graders about the threat of the Soviet atomic threat accomplished much.  But it did have an impact on me.  Later that spring I saw my first jet contrail.  Convinced it was a Russian bomber I ran to warn my family.  They didn’t believe me so I sat on the front step and waited for a bright flash of light and a gray cloud of radiation (the booklets were printed in gray scale and radiation was depicted as a ominous gray blob).

When faced with a potential crisis, it is possible to develop plans of action that are either entirely useless or even counter productive.  So, if we are going to prepare for the possibility of the taxation of the church let’s make sure that what ever we do will be beneficial to our churches whether we are taxed or not.  Here are three things your church should do that will be advantageous no matter the circumstances: 

First: Develop a mindset of flexibility in your ministry. 

·      Never build a space that can only be used for one purpose.  A purpose built sanctuary that could only be used for one purpose can only be used 3 or 4 times a week.  Can you imagine a business that uses its primary tool only 4 times a week?

·      Become indispensable to the community we serve.  If your church were to close, would the people in your community notice?  The primary purpose of the church space must remain a place of teaching and discipleship, but when not in use let the community use the space.  (A.A., C.P.R. training, E.S.L. classes to name a few).

·      Share your building with another church (or rent it cheap).  We once shared a building with a house church that out grew any living room.  There were many unexpected blessings. 

·      Think like the persecuted or underground church.  We need to focus the majority of our energy on those things that are most important.

Second:  Your church needs to become DEBT FREE A.S.A.P.!

For a multitude of reasons your church needs to eliminate any debt.  If you had to pay property taxes on your current facility on our current budget, could you afford it?  If you are servicing debt, how far would the monthly interest payment go toward that kind of tax bill?  The best time to become debt free was yesterday, but now is a good time to start.  Rather than go into detail now, if you have church debt drop me an email and I will send you some additional information. 

Third: Teach Biblical giving.

I recently was talking to a friend and she said that in the church where she grew up, they never talked about money or giving.  It was considered uncouth to discuss money.  Jesus talked more about money than any other subject except for the “Kingdom of God”.  For Jesus, money was a very practical way to address spiritual realities.  When we fail to talk about money from the pulpit we are failing to teach the whole council of God.  The motivations for our silence are numerous, but the fact is we need to speak frankly with our people about stewardship.  God doesn’t need our money, but we as His people NEED to give.  That is why stewardship is never really about dollars, but is always about Jesus.  If you would like a resource that will help present stewardship in a holistic way, I would like to recommend the “MX3 Project”.  Just drop me an email and I will send you some information.

The church built upon the rock that Jesus is the Christ will assail the gates of hell and prove victorious.  So, if we face taxation by our government, we will not be defeated, but we will need to adjust to this new reality.