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?!...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?
3 comments:
Excellent testimony, Zach. Thanks for sharing the link.
I've been thinking a lot lately about how our failure as the Church to meet the needs of those around us has contributed to the idea that most Americans (including Christians) have bought that it is the job of the government to take care of the poor - the least of these. I believe that is why many Christians are willing to overlook Obama's pro-abortion record. If only more churches were like Chan's church and recognized that Christ gave the church - not government - the responsibility of caring for the poor and needy.
Patricia,
I'm not so sure that Christ gave the church (as a corporate gathering of believers, not necessarily speaking of individual Christians in their personal acts of charity) the responsibility of caring for *all* poor and needy people. From what I can tell in the Bible, Christ charges the body in the church with the responsibility to meet the basic physical (and of course, spiritual, which I think *includes* emotional) needs of poor and needy *brothers and sisters in Christ.*
Of course, to show Christ's radical love and concern a lost world, Christians should help the poor and needy outside of the body of Christ as they (Christians) are able. They should also *share the Gospel* with these lost people, in order to meet their *greatest* need-- for salvation from God's wrath and forgiveness of sin and reconciliation to Him.
The primary emphasis in the Bible, though, seems to be on meeting the needs of brothers and sisters in Christ. (If a *brother* or *sister* is in jail, and no one in the church visits him/her, or if a brother or sister is cold and needs a coat and no one in the church shares with him/her, etc.)
Again, not that Christians shouldn't care about the physical and emotional needs of poor and needy lost people-- we certainly *should*-- but in the Bible, the more emphasized responsibility for the church seems to be meeting the needs of poor and needy brothers and sisters. It is largely through *this* means, according to the Bible, that lost people will say to each other, in amazement and wonder, "See how they love each other!" (as opposed to the often selfish ways of the lost world, in which people do not always look out for each other)
I meant to write, "to show Christ's radical love and concern *for* a lost world..."
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