Okay, I’ve got to get this off my chest. The church is not called to save dollars! It’s called to save souls! We can either spend all of our time trying to keep lose change or we can invest ourselves in changing lost lives. The goal of every church should be to be penniless the day Christ returns.
I certainly understand that we need to be good stewards with what the Lord gives us but stewardship does not automatically mean doing everything the cheapest, crappiest way possible in the name of the Lord. Many times, the Lord calls us to love expansively AND expensively. He calls us to spend ourselves, and our funds, on behalf of others.
If you care about someone and invite them over for dinner, you don’t feed them fish sticks. You make something nice to serve them. Unfortunately, often in church settings, people have this weird fish stick mentality and they honestly believe that they holy thing to do is to be as cheap as possible. Again, I’m not saying that we need to be serving lobster and steak all the time in our churches but there’s more to life than fish sticks.
At C3 one year, Ed Young said that if a business man can look at your church budget and understand it then you probably aren’t budgeting correctly! We are called to invest the temporal in the eternal. Our budgets should statements of faith.
Growing up, I had a great-uncle that we called Uncle B. He was a nice enough fellow. He never married and he lived a long life. He lived in the same house for a long, long time. I always enjoyed visiting him except that his house was so very cold in the winter. He seldom turned the heat on and there was almost no food in the house. I remember looking at his empty refrigerator and feeling sorry for him. I would wonder at times why my family members wouldn’t help him out. He loved peppermint sticks and they would occasionally bring him a small bag on them but that was it. It seemed sort of cruel to me.
It was later in my life that I learned that Uncle B actually had money but he was too scared to spend any of it so he lived as if he was desperately poor. I fear that many of our churches in America today are like Uncle B. They act as if they are some of the poorest churches in the world when they’ve got money in the bank.
Let us determine to use what we have to further the Kingdom and change lives. Let’s invest our talents instead of burying them. Don’t let money or the fear of lack keep you from doing what God has called you to do.
Awesome encouraging post!
I agree- and this is one of the best things about Mill Creek. However, I also belive there are areas where it’s possible to “Save” a few pennies. Not to be stingy, but to put the money to the proper use.
Example: (Not that you guys do this, I’m just pulling something out of thin air.) When buying office supplies for the church office, getting the $3.00 a box store brand ball point pens instead of the $4.00 a box brand name allows you direct more of the money into missions, not operations. However, I would not skimp and use store brand pens for an outreach program where you are giving them away to people, hopefully with the Church info printed on them.
There is being STINGY, and then there is just being a good steward of God’s money.
I look at churches that build the huge, “Glittery” buildings, but then shop at “Dollar general” for craft suppies for their childrens ministry. That’s just backwards to me.
Not that the Lord does not deserve a nice “Temple” – but I think Jesus put it best in Mark 13
” 1 As Jesus was leaving the Temple that day, one of his disciples said, “Teacher, look at these magnificent buildings! Look at the impressive stones in the walls.”
2 Jesus replied, “Yes, look at these great buildings. But they will be completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another!””
Buildings, office supplies, cars… these things are temporary – souls are forever. And the church should spend whatever it takes to invest in people. It’s not possible to OVERSPEND on those. The Store brand pen -vs- the name brand does not matter, in a few weeks, they are both going to be in the trash with bite marks on them.
Spend the money on the outreach to the people and you don’t have to worry about the money for a building, it will come.
Thank you.
Tell it, Tony!!! Love it…great blog!
I just wrote one about churches who make their kids stand on street corners sell donuts just so they can go on a mission trip! Why can’t we teach our people to be cheerful givers and give what God tells us…then, we’ll have enough to send kids AND adults out.
Keep up the great work!!
Joe Case, Sr. Pastor
UpRising Church
Nashville, TN
Tony you are so right about the “fish sticks mentality” I go to a lot of car and motorcycle shows at churches and I have noticed that churches are always the ones who go cheap on soft drinks, even if they are charging for them. I mean how much could it possibly cost to buy real Coke, Diet Coke, or Mtn Dew instead of some off brand funky stuff? What I really love is when churches host VBS and go buy those gallon jugs of colored sugar water from the local convenience store and then tell us how they are investing so much in children’s ministry.
Popped in from another link. Late to respond, sorry.
I spent a lot this year as committee chair, out of my pocket, which I don’t mind doing. The church’s budget for us was 1/7th of what it should be, but that didn’t keep them from loading us up on the events. Everyone likes a party. I submitted the estimates for the next year, and their eyes popped. Of course, they can do/spend whatever they want next year. It’s not my call. But I’m getting grief for trying to do the right thing. They have sticker shock, I know. But when I did the math, all the events, total, came to $8 a head (that includes decorations and communications and mailers and everything). The only thing that’s eating me is that all the parties were for us. I suggested doing more outreach, but they loaded up the calendar with so many self-focused things that there was no room for true outreach. I had one shot with one event, and I’m making the most of it. I’ve come to the conclusion, though, that church’s have too much overhead, and that a house church is more effective in building disciples. Most churches are just social clubs. You hear about Jesus in the pulpit, but most people want to talk about politics and the weather at the potluck or picnic. If you talk about Jesus, you get shocked silence.
Oh! And I totally agree with you about the poor quality of nutrition/food. I hate those neon sugary drinks for kids. Nasty. And it’s only because it’s cheap. Nasty stuff. But the typical potluck at church has some of the least healthiest stuff around. I don’t know why. If you eat too much of that stuff, you’ll really harm your health. In my mind, loving one another also means preparing healthful, or reasonably healthful, foods for social get-togethers. When I broached starting a healthy-twist on the traditional favorite campaign, my team had a favorable response, but it didn’t really get off the ground. I fault myself, though, for not having gotten the word out.