This morning, I felt like I should pray to have an opportunity to help someone out financially.? We aren’t loaded with extra money, but we both have our jobs, can pay our bills, and have some left over at the end of the month which I know is more than a lot of people.? Within a few minutes, I checked my Facebook and there was an opportunity right there. BAM. Love it when that happens.
I know many of us in our churches pray that we will have opportunities to share grace and truth and hope with our communities.
I am thinking the biggest opportunity we’ve ever had is staring us right in the face and we don’t even realize it.
We are living in a financial crisis.? We all know our economy sucks right now.? I see a lot of emails about people losing their jobs, not being able to afford heat or food (food pantry/food stamp usage has gone up 32%).? People are living in cars.? On the street.? Wherever.
What are we doing about it?
Seth had a post today along the lines of thinking creatively in order to produce a different outcome.
Creativity changes the game, whatever game is being played. “We’re going to run out of cash by the end of the year,” is accurate unless you count creativity into the equation. Then the accurate statement is, “Under the current rules and assumptions, we’re going to run out of cash…” Big difference.
Let’s face it…churches tend to get stuck in ruts.? We do things because it’s the way either we’ve done them before or someone else has done them before.? We look for safety.? We want protection.? We want to be guaranteed success.? (Whatever that means.)
We ask for opportunities…WELL, HERE WE GO.
You want to “reach people?” What are some ways you’ve done this before? Sending out postcards? Investing in something fancy that will wow people when they arrive?? Sure…those things have merit.? They’ve “worked” before, so let’s stick with them!? That’s what we think.
RUT ALERT.
We, as the church, have a HUGE opportunity to help our communities.? What if you didn’t send out that mailer and instead, spent the thousands of dollars paying people’s heating bills or stocking up a food pantry?? What if we held off on an expensive purchase and threw a block party and got to know our neighbors?
The truth of what we communicate doesn’t change.? But how we communicate it SHOULD change, because part of how our message comes across is what we use to give that message!
We always talk about the televangelists who begged for money.? Oh, how they so desperately needed it…as they paid for premium airtime and wore fancy clothes.
That message? They don’t really need the money.
Our message is one of love.
One that puts others first.
But what are our mediums of communicating that message saying?
Does the way we do things line up with our message?
Are you willing to get out of the rut of safety and change it up?
Comments
20 responses to “Will We Step It Up??”
I know a church in Minnesota that grew very quickly. They needed a new building and raised the money to put it up for their 50th anniversary. But they started reading about the Biblical jubilee year, and decided that they didn’t need a building as much as the world’s poor needed help. So they decided to use those millions of dollars helping others all over the world. They bought a machine that costs several hundred thousand dollars for a hospital in the eastern Congo. That machine counts T-cells in HIV/AIDS patients and is critical for their care. It’s the only machine like that in the region. They did all kinds of things like this all over the world, and you know what? The church is stronger than ever. Without the extra space.
Amen sister! I am all about creative innovation+helping people who really need it. Preach it.
Good word!
So, so true. Thanks for this…
`Arianne
I.e. Be the difference that Christ wants to see in the world. We are, after all, His hands and feet.
Love it, Anne. Thanks!
Our church has an event every year called Lifegiving Weekend. That weekend, there are no worship services or other activities. Instead, everybody goes out and does various projects in the community, such as painting fences, feeding firemen, helping out area schools, whatever.
When we first started visiting, we couldn’t believe it. “What do you mean they don’t have worship services that weekend?”
That’s just one of many things we do to actively give back to the community, and it’s why we instantly fell in love with this church. Our old church talked a lot about changing the world, and we collected money for lots of foreign missions, but that was about it. Another church we visited sends out mailers constantly, but when we actually visited, we realized that although the service was entertaining, there was absolutely no substance there.
This is my favorite post I’ve read of yours, and I’ve loved them all. My husband is preaching messages at our church on this very thought. We began our church two years ago, and in the first year we gave away a home. We had zero resources, but no one had to doubt where the home came from, because our Father provides! We invested in a food truck and we are taking it into local communities handing out free food. We are also taking every fifth Sunday and giving our people money to go and invest it in others, but if they need it (if they are the “others”) they are free to take it and go invest in lives in other ways. I am telling you…when anyone asks about where I attend church, it is so much more joyful and freeing to tell them that we are BEING the church.
We hope to spend way more time outside our doors than inside! Thanks again for telling it like it is!
I’ll be sharing this with our team today Anne. We’ve had to cut a couple of positions here at the church and repurpose some of our funds. Great thoughts and how and where we spend.
you communicated your thoughts very well! i just sent this to the leadership of my church :)
i love it. this goes way beyond a “benevolence” fund that most churches have.
i think our world will look very different in the next few years. we have to adjust and meet the physical needs of men and women in our communities first if we EVER want to have their ears to listen.
great post, anne.
i actually almost bust into tears reading this. i’m losing my job in a couple of weeks because of reduced donations at the nonprofit i work for. not being in a position to help (financially, anyway) is one more sucky thing about the situation i’m in…
but yes, i do hope the church steps up…
Does the way we do things line up with our message?
Communication is a HUGE factor in the preemptive planning for establishing a vision that spills the message, we are aiming to send, all over the way in which operate to motivate that vision and it’s counter parts.
Basically I think that we have to talk out, almost unendingly, our vision in everything we do.
Andy Stanley is huge on visioneering and recasting the vision so much that everyone knows it by heart so there’s no misconception about how or why they do the things they do.
We talked about how we handle benevolence today at staff meeting an we ran around circles making sure that the way we communicate our service to the community lines up with the message of Christ and the vision we believe God has given us for our church in this community.
It is certainly the glass egg on the top shelf and must be handled with care.
Good post Anne!
Excellent post Anne. I’m so glad to have “out of the box” thinkers like you around me. You challenge me and keep me on my toes.
We are SO on the same page today. Reached out to some other area churches to help with a ‘need’ and figuratively had the door shut in our faces. I blogged this same vibe this evening… Time to wake up CHURCH, stop drinking the $5 coffee and start smellin it!
Re: the point that a “televangelist” doesn’t need money because their program may run during an airtime that’s considered premium…I believe that God calls some of His followers to effectively use television, radio, internet, and print to reach many people throughout the world with the Gospel message, or to minister those needing Bible-based spiritual encouragement, inspiration, and teaching. I can testify to how my faith has benefitted numerous times from a television, radio or internet sermon/program. Therefore, I don’t begrudge ministries who raise the necessary funds to worship and serve the Lord through media, as long as they are held financially accountable to use money responsibly. I also happen to believe that Christ is worthy of premium airtime :-)
I love this. When I think of people who were looking for Jesus… it doesn’t seem that many went to Him because they wanted to have all their sins washed away. Most went to Him for a physical need. I think of the lady who grabbed his robe so her bleeding would stop.
Maybe we need to focus more on ways to stop the bleeding. Who knows, meeting them physically may very well lead to opening MORE doors for Him to meet them spiritually.
Has the church perhaps missed this on accident? We?re always so focused on the spiritual in salvation but could the physical be the better way to begin?
Amen, Anne! WE are Jesus with skin on. WE are the ones that pick up our feet, and driven by the Spirit of God, provoke the rest of the body to movement – a movement that will touch the nations and change the world.
And we unfortunately forget that God’s blessed us with a wealth of resources (including finances) to bless those around us. When we give (in any way), He is poured out.
If you know anyone who wants to support a missionary who ministers locally, nationally, internationally, and is committed to awakening a generation to change the world for KINGDOM… let me know. I’m looking for supporters…
this is why I read your blog. what a radical idea! it’s time for the church to take a look around and see their neighbors’ biggest needs. most likely, it’s not the new projection system or glossy postcard in the mail…
I really liked what you had to say about this–and I think that it has to apply to people as well as churches. Keep using my old tried and true financial ways instead of allowing God to be creative with it…
I’ve been really struggling with my journey towards tithing lately–and the fear of the economy along with the pretty empty savings account make it even harder to let go of that control over my finances. I’ve been holding on to my tithe until the next paycheck comes around as a buffer–because I don’t to have a zero balance in my checkbook. (You know, in case I need to buy the extra cup of coffee from Starbucks or go out for lunch again instead of bringing leftovers from home…) Basically, I’ve been using my tithe as a buffer and not letting go and trusting that God will see me through.
this is, i think, going to be a great opportunity for the church to show the world just exactly how big our God is. i just hope we’re up to it.