So i’m trying to process something here and was wondering if y’all (my loyal, fairly good sized, and yet completely invisible readership) had any insight.
When I’m a lead church planter i want to be supported by my church. There are many reasons both Biblical and practical for this, but for what I desire to do it seems like the most effective and best way to plant a new church. Obviously in the beginning there will be a need for outside financial support, but the goal would be to get paid by those to whom God has sent the church to.
So while that is true, I’ve also got this other idea germinating in my head. What if the church that is planted in downtown Vancouver carries some of the early churches tradition of using the money given to the church to distribute among the poor and needy. In the early church we see a tradition of people taking money to the apostles feet to be shared among those in need. Renovatus shares some of these values too, which is wonderful. But what if we took it to the next step and made a huge portion of the “first fruits” of the churches income go toward those who are in need. Could a church pay its bills? What sacrifices would need to be made? Is that incongruous to paying a lead ministers wages?
Let me see if I can paint a picture a bit more clearly. Using percentages, money offered to the church might be broken up like this:
- 10% would go to Kairos church planting support– so that we will always be involved in planting new churches and reaching more people for Jesus.
- 70% would be considered benevolence (please give me a better synonym!) and would go to those who are poor and in need, first within the faith community and then those outside the church.
- 20% would be left for wages, facilities, printing, advertising, etc.
Some implications of this would be less print, less advertising, less cool and functional equipment (sound, computers, etc.), less potential for additional staff members, less money for the lead minister, restrictions for potential facilities, and lots of other things like that. I can tell you one thing, for better or worse it would not lend to being a “cool” church…but I don’t do cool very well anyway!
I’m not certain this is even feasible and I’m only just now thinking about what something like this would look like as a discipline rather than just an ideal or idea.
Any thoughts.
The only way this would be possible is in a new church. Established churches are too caught up in the system of putting the majority of their money toward sallaries and buildings. If you're not used to having all that stuff, then you won't miss it.
One thing that we have found at Agape is that staff comes to do good work. We have six staff people and all of us are on external support of some kind. If you are doing something good, the people will raise their own funds to come and work with you.
I think that using the majority of your money for social justice is very much in line with the heart of God. I like the idea of using percentages so that no matter how big your church gets you still have some idea of how to spend your money.
I really like what that Dave Householder guy said at the Alpha Conference – if you plant a church that flows out of your passion, then things will work a lot better than if you try to plant the church that you are "supposed to" plant. If this is what God is calling you to do, then do it. Let God sort it out.
Did the NT Christians just give out money to the poor? I got the idea that they gave money and other items to those among them who were poor, orphaned, or widowed.
We are having a similar discussion at our church, our budget greatly out numbers our historical pattern of giving. We are discussing the idea of not having any paid staff, only vocational ministers, and we are searching for another church in our community who would let us use their facility for free on a Sunday afternoon. These are good thoughts to be thinking and is not a coincidence, the spirit is leading all of us to be on this path of thought. Good stuff.