Getting Radical With Your Church Budget
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Wed, October 22, 2008
- Viewed 180
- (9) comments so far
Read the rest of Francis’s nearly unbelieveable story here at Preaching.com...
What would happen if more churches became more radical in their church budget?
Get current updates from MMI and me here: http://www.twitter.com/toddrhoades
Francis Chan writes, "Many of my sermons in the early days demonstrated my ability to manipulate people through guilt. Words like suffer, sacrifice and serve were used often; and it left people improperly burdened. The mentality of "suffer for Jesus since He suffered for you" can easily lead us to an arrogance and self-righteousness. It’s an attitude far from what God desires because it draws the attention to us and our sacrifices rather than Him"
He continues: "In other words, put your money where your mouth is. I came to an elder meeting one morning with this suggestion: If we "love our neighbor as ourselves," then wouldn’t it make sense to spend on our neighbors what we spend on ourselves? What if we set up our budget so that half of our income leaves the church and goes to other ministries? To my surprise, the elders decided that morning to commit half of the budget to people and ministries outside of Cornerstone. It’s been almost a year now, and we’ve been able to give approximately 55 percent of our money away."
Shut up! Giving 55% of your money away? To THOSE people? You gotta be crazy.... don't you?!...
Comments
if you want a Globally Recognized Avatar (the images next to your profile) get them here. Once you sign up, they will displayed on any website that supports them.
Josh Hatcher on Wed, October 22, 2008
THAT’s what I’m talking about. Go Chan!
Mike Ellis on Wed, October 22, 2008
That’s the kind of sugar God likes!
Brian L. on Wed, October 22, 2008
I would be thrilled at something like that. As our church continues to grow and God continues to bless our finances, I’m hoping that our community will see us throwing more money into it in terms of supporting things like the Salvation Army and having our own benevolence fund to help those outside the church.
che of teak furniture on Thu, October 23, 2008
That would be great! I hope it will really happen. Supporting more churches will mean more support for the needy.
John Bunn on Sat, October 25, 2008
Love it! THAT honors God and God honors stuff like that.
PT on Mon, October 27, 2008
Love the concept, the faith and passion demonstrated. My question, from a practical perspective, has always been 1/2 of what? The gross? A determined net? If the latter, how is the net determined?
I ask this because I know for many churches, just providing for the basic necessities of the facilities and modest staffing can often require as much as 80% or more of what a church receives in offerings. No matter the desire, such a church could not possibly give away 1/2 of its gross offerings.
I know would argue this is why they think it is better for churches not to have large or any permanent facilities. But, you must remember, most of our churches are based in facilities that have been around a long time and it would not be appropriate, practical, or necessarily wise or good stewardship to just ‘abandon’ these God-given facilities. Where to draw the line?
Also, I wonder: how does a church define what involves “giving to ourselves” vs. “giving to others”? The facilities are the churches and used primarily for church functions attended primarily by church members. But are they not also used for community events? To provide a safe haven and place of deliverance open to all in the community? The same could be said of the staff. Or utilities and office equipment that is used both for internal purposes and for reaching out in various ways.
I’m 100% supportive of the idea, but I admit that I struggle with how to best and quantifiably define and measure it. Any suggestions?
Eileen Gray on Sun, June 28, 2009
the more you give.. much more will come back to you.. that’s the way of a generous person, an in your case, church.. : )
Eileen Gray
income tax preparation services on Wed, January 13, 2010
We have renters in our building and the rent used to go into the General Fund, but the elders would like to set aside some of that rent into a restricted fund to be able to use for special needs.
income tax preparation software
646-363 on Wed, February 03, 2010
To no one’s surprise, the aggregation came through big time, even as Warren took a clubbing in the civic media for the “sky-is-falling” accent of his cannonball and his abruptness that it fabricated news. A agent for the abbey after said Warren aswell fabricated bright that the admiral “never asks - 642-446 - or expects—outsiders to give.” Saturday night, in the aboriginal annular of weekend services, Warren appear added than $2.4 actor formed in through online offerings and envelopes delivered to the church’s Lake Forest campus 70-562, south of Los Angeles.
Page 1 of 1 pages
Post a Comment