Yesterday I had a very meaningful lunch with a pastor. He is a God's servant with integrity and leadership. God bless their church & they grow to about 200 people in 3-4 years. But they are now struggling if to recruit one more full-time pastor. Every month they use up $15,000 for renting. Their budget is too tight to recruit another pastor, though there's a need. What's more important? A church building. Or building people. All of us can reply with no doubt. Of course building people is more important & it's biblical. But in reality, our concern & our investment is reflected in our budget and spending.
In general, churches in N. America use up about 64 % of its budget in staffing ( Take it easy, Chinese churches are less generous!!!), & another 30 % for building(but we are higher on this)! This is truth! Ask any church. So it leaves less than 10% for ministry local & aboard. Richard Stearns, CEO of World Vision, said, "we find that just about 2% of it goes to overseas missions of any kind, whether evangelistic or to assist the poor."
What if we do not need a church building, rented or mortgaged? For my friend's church, the rent is $15,000/mth supported by 200 Christians. For operating an Christian orphanage in Madagascar (Africa Island country), it takes far less than $1500/mth to care for 57 African orphans. It is 10% of my friend's church rent.
What if these 200 Christians don't care where to worship God? What if they split into 10 groups of 20 people...4 groups meet in houses & apartments, 3 groups meet in school campuses, 2 groups meet in Starbucks or restaurant, and 1 group meet in office or factory? Then each group will save $1500 from rent. With this $1500, each (house/simple) church can adopt a whole orphanage like this one. Each church can make a huge difference in the lives of these 57 kids, who are fatherless & motherless!!! So the $15000 that should have been spent in renting will be impacting not 57, but 570 ( 57X10). 570 flesh & blood, with soul & spirit, human being. They will know Jesus there. Being taken care of. Discipled. Have future. Believe there still a Father in Heaven loving them so much & so real. This can be achieved easily through an incarnational & missional Body of Christ - house or simple church.
Does meeting in house, campus...not church building make us less Christian, less loved by God or love God less? No. Not a bit. It could even make us a better follower of Jesus. The types that preach the Cross & bear the Cross & marked by Cross. I'll show you later.
Building doesn't matter much to God. Building people does. Why it matter to us? Why are we not broken with the things that break God's heart? Let's matter what matters to Him.
You probably heard this. But it still speaks. "An old man was on the beach. He kept bending & picking up a starfish & throw back to the sea. Because of the retreating tide, thousands of starfish were left in the sand. They would die of dehydration very soon. This old man bent, picked & threw. Each at a time. A young man noticed him. He thought that was foolish 'cause they were countless in the sand. So he challenged the old man, "this beach goes on hundreds of miles & thousands of starfish washed up every day. Surely you don't think what you do is going to matter?!" The old man picked up another one while replying. "It matters to this one."
Look at the faces of the picture. The orphans from Madagascar. It matters to them! It matters to God! It should matter to us! Go Go, Go MAD( Go Make A Difference).
Pray that we shall be always challenged by God to think out of the box. Pray that we dare to express our love to God & to people creatively.
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