Bright spot in a dark world.

Sometimes it feels that the world is so dark that it is beyond hope.  Apparently God does not share that conviction.  I will offer to arguments that all is not lost.  First the world did not end.  When it is beyond hope for anything good God will wrap things up.  Second the birth of a baby. You never know when a baby is born if perhaps this is the child that will be used of God to bring about a return to the Lord.  New babies are a good sign that the future can, in fact, be very bright.

So allow me to announce to you the birth of my new grand son.  As of this writing he is 25 hours old.  

Jesus dealing with fear

Mark 5:21-43

Jesus re-crosses the sea and on the other side has the occasion of a double miracle.  Both of these miracles involve women, who were little more than chattel in that time.  The first woman was, apparently, just an ordinary individual and the second was a young woman, Jairus’ daughter.  Jarius was a man of great standing.  These two people, the unnamed woman and Jarius, share a common theme.

For the woman her actions were very presumptuous.  She presumed the privilege of approaching a great leader who was a man; she presumed that she would be healed.  We have no way of knowing how complete her theology was, but she had one rock- solid conviction: Jesus can heal me.  She believed that the least amount of Jesus is more than enough.  Her cure was instantaneous, complete and dynamic, so much so, she felt it within. 

Jairus also knew that Jesus was his only hope.  The mourners were at the house waiting for the girl to die.  What takes a father from the last, possible, precious moments with his little girl?  Desperation and hope!  His theology would have been more complete than the woman’s, but in crisis theology is less critical than trust.

There is a common characteristic between these two that has great application for us: Jesus’ treatment of fear.  The woman, realizing what great thing has happened, is suddenly afraid to the point of trembling.  The profound power and person she has presumed to touch turns in her direction.  Healing was what she desperately wanted, but would her boldness now cost her?  Jairus was witness to this conversation, but without knowing the healing or the gravity of her situation.  We might assume that the conversation between Jesus and the woman was not impressive to Jairus.  While Jesus is talking to the woman, word comes of the girl’s death.  Jesus turns His attention to Jairus and addressed the fear in his heart.

Jesus’ response to fear is important to us.  To the woman who was on the completed side of the miracle He says, “Go in peace.”  This would have most likely reflected the Hebrew concept of “Shalom”, wholeness, completeness, and peace.  “Your faith has brought through.”  To Jairus who was on the “not yet” side of the miracle Jesus says, “Do not be afraid any longer, only keep on believing.”  Perfect faith will drive out any fear, but Jairus did not have perfect faith.  He had come a great distance by his faith, yet he was still afraid.  Jesus tells him, “Keep on believing.” 

In my heart that is filled with fear there is some faith as well.  In my mind filled with knowledge and some faith fear is mingled in.  Faith will not vanquish fear in a moment; we should not want that.  Should that happen we would need a daily sign or miracle with each new fear.     Rather Jesus calls me to choose to “keep on believing”.  Faith has brought me this far.  At this moment I may choose to “keep on believing” or sink into the despair of fear.  To “keep believing” does not mean I will get what I want.  It does mean I am confident that Jesus has a preferred vision of the future for me. 

When we mistake what we do for why we exist.

The church universal and the local congregation may do a great many things, all of which may be appropriate in their place.  But these things are not the purpose of why the church exists.  We often times become so focused on what we do that the “doing” becomes the reason for our existence.   We might see this in churches that are chronically busy.  We can see this in churches that are solely focused on some aspect of the Gospel’s social implication.  It appears when churches are driven by one special segment of Biblical morality.  We see it in full calendars, full fellowship dinners, full committee meetings and full bank accounts.  None of these are specifically evil, but none of these are why we exist. 

I once worked with a congregation that might be described as “neat hoarders”.  In the church building itself, they had three rooms dedicated to storage and beyond that they had two, fairly large, additional buildings also dedicated to storage.  Part of the youth building (once upon a time it was a parsonage) was used for storage and they were contemplating building another building to meet the challenge of having enough space.  They were not storing food for the hungry or clothes to be shared.  It was remnants of past events, old VBS banners, decorations and signs, an old PA system, trophies from softball seasons no one could remember.  They preserved their stuff like it was a time capsule for a great civilization.   At times, it felt like they existed to store the remnants of their past and they stored remnants of their past so they would continue to exist.  If the past was not curated they might not have a past or even exist. 

Another church I attempted to work with was so completely focused on protecting, preserving and promoting their remarkable heritage that their history appeared to be the reason they existed.  It found its way into every conversation, every motive, and flooded their website.  On their website I counted and found they mentioned their founding patron three times for each time they mentioned Christ, not counting the link to an outside webpage that was fully dedicated to her life.

We could go on endlessly, but it would only be cursing the darkness.  What is the candle that we need to light?  The great battle in the life of the church is to discover, “Why on Earth are we here?”  If Paul was right, and he was, in Acts 17:26-27 God put people in specific places at specific times so they would seek Him.  In other words, the answer to the question of “Why on Earth are we here?” is so that we can be disciples.  And the fulfillment of being a disciple is to replicate our faith, to make other disciples. 

We do not exist to worship, fellowship, shape culture, direct history, alleviate suffering, or have a great time being busy in really good deeds.  All of these things will happen as a by-product of why we exist.  In the great commission Jesus tells us to go and make disciples.  Part of being a disciple is worship and sharing life with other believers.  As we make more and more disciples we will shape the culture at a fundamental level and will redirect history, but that is only a happy by-product.  As we make disciples, our lives will be filled with joy (not the same thing as happiness). We will have a great time because we will love being, seeing and making disciples, and we will be busy (in the best sense of the word) doing not just good, but the best deeds.  But it all flows out of what Jesus said in the great commission-why we exist- “Go and make disciples”.

But as long as we mistake what we do for why we exist we will forever be frustrated. 

Whose idea was this anyway? Oh wait; it was God’s idea.

“Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this way,” says the Lord of Hosts. “See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure.”

God does not need our money, but as His people we NEED to give.  The act of sacrificial giving is not primarily about funding ministry, but about developing the character of God’s people.  When God’s people are not obedient in the matter of giving, they are deprived of Spiritual Blessings, the Joy of Obedience, and the Deeper Life of Faith.

In the Church, we sometimes are hesitant to address the issue of giving.  Since the P.T.L. scandal there has been a concerted effort to paint a call for giving as corrupt. When asking people to give, we need to do so with conviction and love because the church and only the church is doing the great work of the Gospel.  We need to emphasize that it is God’s idea to call His people to give.  And we need to remember that God doesn’t need our money.   But we need to give for our own spiritual, emotional and relational well-being.

Rather than speak boldly about giving and stewardship we, as church leaders, have been afraid.  We are afraid people will feel that we have ulterior motives, that we are getting too personal, that we have been too demanding, or for some other reason will be offended.  This reflects our materialistic culture that has, in some cases, crept into the church.  In the typical American Church, 20% of the congregation gives 80% of the offerings, 30% of the congregation gives 20% of the offerings and 50% of the congregation gives nothing.  Those who give little or nothing are missing out on blessings that God would give them.  Their giving may also reflect a spiritual problem.  Not to mention that our failure to speak honestly, faithfully, and Biblically about God's command to give is a failure on our part to be faithful as leaders.

Our stewardship training is designed to lead Christians to answer the call to Biblical stewardship and to commit themselves to the discipline of faithful, consistent giving for one year.  In that year, they will be putting God to the test.  And as they see that God is faithful to care for them their faith will grow deeper and stronger.

We Can Help You With Stewardship Development.
The objective of stewardship development is not to raise money, fund projects, or meet budgets.  The objective is to develop disciples who are obedient to the Lord and become life-long stewards of the life and resources God gives them.  Rather than a quick fix or sermon series, this is a congregation-wide challenge to take God and His Word serious.

Call us and let us custom design a stewardship campaign for your congregation.
Charlie Crowe
352-548-4837

If Everything Goes Just Right It Will Be Okay.

Operation Market Garden, the attempt to end World War 2 quickly via an airborne invasion of Holland, has been described as a “bad plan, poorly executed”.  Had Operation Market Garden worked it would have ended the war by Christmas of 1944, saving 1000’s of lives.  Only one thing was needed for Market Garden to succeed, everything had to go perfectly.  If any one thing were to go wrong the whole operation would fail.  Something, actually several things, went wrong and Market Garden was a disaster.

A church having a large debt is like operation Market Garden.  If everything goes perfect it will be okay.  The following story is meant as a cautionary tale and case study of the expensive lessons of church debt.  Names are changed but all the details are accurate.

A Dream come True

When the new preacher arrived at Butler Community Church it seemed like all his dreams had come true.  BCC was 6 years old and had an average attendance in the low 60’s to upper 50’s. The church was in a booming suburb, owned 11 acres with a farm house converted to worship space and held about $100K in debt.  Within a one-mile radius of the church, 2,500 homes would be constructed in the next 5 years.

With a full time preacher the church began to grow.  Soon 100 worshippers packed the little farmhouse every Sunday and on special Sundays they had to meet outside because the farmhouse was too small.  The Lord was blessing and the preacher was sure the time to build had come. The offerings were more than covering the expenses.

What was unknown to the preacher was that the church had begun with a very unhealthy start.  What had been described as a church plant was in reality a very ugly church split and no one had ever addressed some root issues. This unhealthy congregational DNA would manifest itself during the campaign to payoff the building debt.

Time to Build?

It was decided that the church should build a multipurpose building with a main meeting room (seating 375) that could also be used for fellowship, sports, and recreation, adjacent to the multipurpose space there would be 5 large classrooms.  Once in the new building the farmhouse would be updated with class, conference, and office space.  With an approach of “Functional but not opulent” construction cost would be about $400K and would give the church a total of 11,000 square feet of useful space.  Total debt would be just under $500K furnished; the cost would be about $45 per sq. foot.  The building would be highly useful, but easy to build and maintain.

Once in the building the growth of the church took off again.  Attendance jumped from about 100 to over 140 in about 3 months.  The church was seeing decisions for Christ and new families weekly.  It felt like this was going to be one of those church- growth, super stories.  At the same time, construction began on a subdivision of 800 homes next door to the church building.

New wine began to burst the old wine skins. 

The operational system of a church of 150 is very different from the operational system of a church of 60.  Stress began to develop between the founders of the church and the new members about the vision for ministry.

Where once a few good ‘ole boys and girls made decisions, the leadership had shifted to a board.  The result was a power struggle.  There developed an effort to get rid of the preacher who had advocated much of the change and who had brought in all these new people.  In protest to the new reality the old guard began with- holding their offerings until they were satisfied.

If this continued, the church would not be able to make the mortgage payments.  In a show down vote, the attempted coupe failed.  But a few weeks later, while the preacher was out of town, the board was pressured to make three concessions to the old guard.  The preacher would be asked to, “Preach sermons that made people feel good.   Not to change anything.   Not to try to get new people, but to take care of the ones we’ve got.”

Unable to accept these terms, the preacher left the church.  He was heart broken.  Not only because he was leaving a ministry he loved and hoped to stay with for the rest of his life, but also because he was well aware of what was in store for this church.

In the months that followed his departure, attendance declined rapidly and a number of ministers came and left. Soon the attendance was back close to 60, there were no new families coming in, and a new minister was called to a part time status.  It was only a matter of time before the death of the church.  Those who remained were faced with the terrible consequences of their decision.  The property was put on the market for the debt and the end had come.

Debt was not the Problem

The ultimate problem with BCC was not debt, but debt became the one thing that kept the church from surviving its problems. Unfortunately, unscrupulous people will sometimes use their financial position to attempt to control the direction of the church. When a church is heavily in debt and not operating with a strong margin it is very vulnerable.  In this case had there not been a large loan, the old guard would have had little leverage by withholding their giving.  They no doubt believed they were doing what was best for the congregation, but they also would rather see the church close than lose their power and control. 

The Danger of Church Debt

The danger of debt is two fold.  First, it prevents us from taking advantages of opportunities that may present themselves.  A church that is operating with little or no margins in its budget may have to turn down fantastic ministry opportunities because it has made financial promises to repay a debt.  There is no way to calculate the high cost of lost opportunity. 

Second, it allows for no margin of error.  While debt is not morally wrong, it is dangerous.  Debt is not a problem if everything goes just right, but, rarely, does everything go just right.  A down turn in the economy, a number of families moving, or an insignificant church conflict can be enough to compromise the whole congregation. 

What is a church to do?

First, if there is a level of debt that is adversely impacting ministry, dealing with that debt needs to be a priority.  While adjustment can be made inside the church’s budget the ultimate and only lasting solution is retiring the debt.  Part of the process is discussing how debt is interrupting the church’s vision and hurting its ministry future.  A stewardship campaign to retire debt can be very effective if it focuses on the ministry of the church in the long term, and not just the current budget cycle.

Second, if a church is planning to expand its ministry by adding building space, renovation, or augmenting staff do so from a strong financial position.  While it takes longer to begin construction when the church develops capital first it allows the church to have a stronger margin and makes it more able to survive difficulties WHEN they arise.

Call Us for World Class Coaching.

If you have plans for a new building or ministry expansion call us and let’s talk about enabling your vision for ministry and securing that vision from a confident position. 

Charlie Crowe

V.P. Coleman Stewardship Services

352-548-4837