Tuesday, January 27, 2009

A Question of Stewardship

Several years ago, I served a congregation in the south western corner of Pennsylvania. The church had a number of unique problems, which mostly revolved around money and stewardship. This was caused by a couple of circumstances, one of them was that a member had died and left them nearly a half a million dollars in her will.

Early on in my ministry there, I was speaking with one of the elders. He informed me that he was not giving to the church at all. While he believed in tithing, he had stopped giving because the church did not "tithe to missions". He was convinced that what he was doing by "voting his pocket book" was totally correct. He reasoned that since the church was not doing what he thought they should do, he was justified in withholding his tithe and offerings.

To be honest, I was a bit taken back by what he told me, and I did not know exactly how to respond. After some thought, I sat down with him and lovingly confronted what he was doing. I explained to him that there is no such a concept in Scripture as "voting your pocket book". In my opinion, if you don't financially support the church of which you are a member, especially an elder, then you ought to go to a church that you can support.

What he was doing clearly demonstrated that he had no concept of Christian stewardship. In his mind, he could use HIS money to manipulate the church into doing what he thought they should do. The problem is, of course, it was not HIS money, but GOD's. God blesses you with material wealth so that you can GIVE to support His church, not attempt to influence HER leadership.

In my message on vision, I said that we needed to equally value and honor every single member of this congregation as Paul wrote in Corinthians, "so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other" (1 Corinthians 12:25). This principle especially applies in the area of stewardship and giving. No one should use their tithes and offerings as a means of controlling the church. Doing so is dangerous both to the spiritual life of the member and to the future of the congregation.

This is why I never want to know how much a member or family gives to our congregation. How much you give is between you and God, who blesses you with ability to give. You will always get the "equal concern" from me regardless of your giving. To do anything else is nothing more than favoritism which the Scriptures condemn.

Withholding one's tithe and offerings is extremely harmful to the member as well. You rob yourself of the blessing that comes from giving as well as turning your heart away from the Lord. Remember what Jesus said, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:21). When you don't give, you don't care, and when you don't care, you can do a great deal of harm.

The fact is that every one of us could find some excuse not to give or not to give as much as we know we should. If we must agree with everything in church and in the budget before we can support it financially, then Crossroads is doomed. I have given faithful to Crossroads even though I had serious disagreements with some things. I did this because I am giving to God in support of HIS Church.

Leaderships change. Budgets change. However my obligation to the Lord does not. As long as I am a member of THIS congregation, I must support THIS congregation with my tithe and offerings. If, for some reason, I cannot, then I need to find a congregation that I can support.

This is not to say that the leadership of a congregation should ignore the membership. We need to be open to suggestions and willing to listen to your concerns. Everyone, regardless of how much they give, should be heard and treated with respect. As John Maxwell once said, "A leader with no followers is just man out for walk".

I would be the first to confess that, as a leadership team, we have not always done our best in listening to your input as a congregation. That is changing though. We are committed to pursuing the mission and vision of Crossroads Christian Church. We want and need for you to come along side us on this adventure.

In Christ,
Mike

Friday, January 23, 2009

Congregational Meeting Sunday

This Sunday, we will have a short congregational meeting to vote on a proposal to refinance our two existing mortgages into one single one. You might asking, "How did the church end up with two mortgages?" The answer is that when we built the addition onto our existing building, we took out what is called a "construction loan". This loan gradually releases funds to the contractor as the structure is being built. Ordinarily, this mortgage would have been combined with our existing mortgage when the building was completed.

What happened was that when the time came to combine the construction loan with our existing mortgage, the interest rates had climbed to 8.75%. If we had combined them, we would have increased the interest on our existing mortgage by 1.25% (7.5% to 8.75). Obviously, it was better to leave the existing mortgage alone, and simply take on a second mortgage for cost of the construction. The downside was that it more than doubled our monthly payment for our debt to nearly $6,000.00 per month.

Now that rates have come down, we can refinance both mortgages into a single mortgage and lower BOTH rates to 6.75%. This will mean that less money will be spent on interest, and allow us to put more money on the principle of the loan when we can.

Since we have paid tens of thousands of dollars on the principle of our first mortgage, some people have expressed a concern about increasing the length (term) of the mortgage. The proposed mortgage is for twenty (20) years, and the interest rate is fixed for five years. Lengthening the term to twenty years DOES NOT increase our debt at all. As with all mortgages, you pay interest on the unpaid balance every month regardless of the term.

The length or term of a mortgage is determined by how much of the principle you pay every month, not interest. You never prepay interest, only principle. For example, if you have thirty (30) year mortgage, and you pay twice as much as on the principle each month, you will pay it off in fifteen years. Regardless, you still paid the interest on the remaining principle balance every month.

This is an opportunity for the church to greatly improve our finances and our cash-flow. There is no practical reason not to approve this proposal. Without this refinance, it will be more difficult for us to weather the challenging financial times ahead. By paying less interest, we will have more funds to invest in the ministry and growth of our congregation.
That is good the church and for the Kingdom of God.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Our Vision for the Future

First, I want to begin by thanking all of you for your words of encouragement and support for my recent message on my vision for Crossroads Christian Church. It was a difficult message to preach given our challenging circumstances, but one I felt was desperately needed. When times a hard, it is really easy to become negative and pessimistic. This is why I believe we need to focus on a positive vision for the future.

I know it may not have seemed to be a positive message in the beginning, but I wanted everyone to know that I am not in denial about our current difficulties. Yes, our congregation faces some financial challenges. Members have lost their jobs and have had difficulty in finding employment. Yes, our offerings have dropped in recent months and it is reeking havoc with funding our ministries. These and other challenges make being a leader in this congregation tough.

However, I have been through such situations before. I am supremely confident that God is greater and more powerful than all these circumstances. It is times like these where true leaders rise the occasion. Our current leadership team is meeting these issues head on. We have made some tough decisions that will help us, not only to survive these things, but thrive in them as well. But it takes more than a few strong leaders.

We, as a congregation, can no longer rely on just a few dedicated folks to make this church work. Each and every member needs to take a good hard look at where they are and what they are doing in regards to this church. It is in times like these where every hour of service and every dollar given is critical. We cannot achieve our mission or fulfill our vision without the full support of everyone who is a member of this church.

For example, I said in my message that I believe we can have over 200 in worship every Sunday by the end of 2009. This is a very real possibility, but it would require all of us to genuinely commit to being in church every Lord's day. We have 113 actual members of Crossroads with 27 children. Add to that the 60 regular attenders with 12 children, and you have 210 people. This does not even account for the number guests and new members we will add in coming year.

This year will be a great year of opportunity for our church. As life itself gets more difficult, people will begin to question their priorities, and values. They will look around for answers. Just as the economy may cause us to lose some folks as they move to find work, it will also bring new folks to our community as well. We need to be ready to respond to these people when they come to us.

As long as we stand united as a church and work together to build God's Kingdom, we will grow under these present conditions. We have all the elements necessary for that to happen. We have the right staff and proper facilities. We have strong and visionary leadership. We have a good group of dedicated volunteers. But most of all we have God who specializes in making the impossible, POSSIBLE!

In Christ,
Mike