Hi OnFire Folks:
I'm back tonight from starting our very first contemporary service. We'll do this monthly in an evening service. For our church of 50, this is pretty significant. We hope this will grow over time and help attract some younger folks to our church. There are always intereting things that happen in new things. Tonight I stripped a tuner on my guitar. One man went home and brought another guitar. It provided for some comedy as I tried various ways of leading the service with and without the broken guitar until he arrived. All in all, it went off very well. I was proud of our youth band who led the music.
This week, On Fire turned 1
year old. Thanks for letting me share my thoughts with you.
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For the past several weeks,
we have been looking at the question, If your church
were given a million dollars, how would you like to see it used? Last week I
gave some of your responses which illustrated the various decisions to be
made by church leadership: to invest or not? tithe or
not? programming and/or staffing?
This week we finish off
with some responses from people who had vibrant visions of how they would
use the money. They had clearly thought about their mission and vision and had
a strong sense of direction for their churches. Here are their answers.
I was most impressed
by my friend Joseph, who outlined - to the dollar - how he would spend the
money on ministry to the poor, to aboriginal youth, non-traditional children’s and youth ministry, and other outreach. He said,
"This was fun! I pray someone sends me the money. I am ready!"
For MM, the primary concern
was to see the ministry multiplied. "I cannot help but think of the
parable of the talents. The primary responsibility of a steward is to multiply
the gift. Use it in ways that will grow the kingdom." MM has a vision for
that church which will not just increase it incrementally. They are planning a
new worship facility to seat 3-4 times their current congregation.
WG thought he would steer
his leadership away from their current building fund project to support ways of
meeting needs within the area. "I would look for something that would take
the church outside of its building and into our community. These would include
low rent housing, a low cost laundry mat, or low cost meal centre."
The question hit home for
Donna and Rick. They started Sequoia, a church plant in the
Community needs were also
central to MD’s vision. "I would use it to fuel
our community impact project. We want the church building to be central to the community’s needs - youth centre, larger auditorium, coffee
and book shop."
The Final Word
Thank you for taking the
time to respond to the "million dollar question." I hope it
has challenged you to think differently about how to use the money than you
might have thought before.
I think there is a bottom
line, one thing which is necessary in all of our churches - a clear vision for
the future. This gives direction for any spending decisions.
Let me leave you with this
quote from a friend. "I don’t think money is
enough to save a church, but I believe that most of our churches are paralyzed
because of small-mindedness, lack of vision, lack of unity, lack of
resources...If a church has prayerful leadership and a heart to partner with what
God is doing, having a ‘windfall’ would actually work right into the
vision....If, on the other hand, leadership is not clear about why they exist
and there is not a united heart and mind moving together in the same direction,
money will only complicate things and probably cause more distress, confusion,
power struggles, control. Money will choke this kind of church."
Hope this helps. Be On Fire,
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