Money is our Idol and Stewardship is Our Repentance
Posted by Doug Foltz on Jul 1, 2011 in Church Planting, Fundraising, Politics | 0 comments
Our country is in a big economic mess and many churches are following close behind. Unemployment is high, the debt ceiling is being raised, states can’t pay their bills, home values are way down, etc. It’s depressing. But according to Will Cain of CNN, the number that matters is our debt to GDP ratio. GDP is the Gross Domestic Product. It represents the total dollar value of goods and services produced over a period of time. Basically it measures the size of the economy. During the great depression of the 1930s, debt to GDP was 300%. Today it sits at 350%. Still think we are just in a recession?
This is hitting the church hard. Fundraising is hard to come by for church planters because churches honestly just don’t have the funds. Many churches are struggling to make ends meet both new churches and existing ones. Money is the idol of the land. Sure there may be lots of religions in the US, but almost universally money is worshipped by Christians and non-Christians alike.
There is a solution. It’s called stewardship. It’s high time that church planters and pastors stop being afraid of confronting the god of the people they shepherd. The Bible is clear in Matthew 6:24:
No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
There are many good resources out there to help church planters teach their launch teams and congregations about money. This week I ran across a good on Ed Stetzer’s blog. The SBC partnered with Crown Financial Ministries to produce “It’s a New Day.” It’s a curriculum kit including a 4 week sermon series. Best of all it’s free. So go check it out and start teaching.
This is July 4th weekend. A time where we remember our nation’s fight for freedom. As a nation, we are in a new war. It’s a fight for our nation’s financial freedom. May the church lead the way in repentance of worship the idol of money and help direct our nation back to freedom.
