Finances, OUCH! The Way Church Does Finances!?

A Message To A Church About To Go Underground Due To Persecution

 Watchman Nee, did not realized it, but prepared the Christian Church in China for days where it would have to go underground due to persecution. Watchman Nee Who Prepared The Christian Church in China for Upcoming Days of Persecution.Over three decades ago, being introduced to the Holy Spirit, and deciding to live “by the Spirit”, I became hungry in knowing how the Spirit actually worked in my life and among His people, the people of God.  In my search I came upon a book that taxed my thinking entitled The Normal Christian Church Life by Watchman Nee.  It had a chapter in finances and the Church and one on Storehouse tithing.

Actually the book is taken from lectures Watchman Nee gave the Christian Church in China, preparing it for one of the most severe persecutions that would come in my lifetime to any Christian Church that I know of.  The living Christian Chinese Church would have to go underground and operate differently  than the “blessed” Church in America.  The Church is alive today in China, and stronger in faith, grace, mercy, love, generosity, etc. than its counterpart in the United States, yet often, we in America snub Watchman Nee’s teachings of being led by the Spirit as being influenced by “eastern thought” while we cling on to the intellect of “western thought and reason” for our answers and faith. 

After sitting through a series of sermons on “generosity” and exposing the “financial need” of the current congregation that I am attending, I noticed that 88% of the church’s budget went to local church salaries, local church expenditures, and building mortgage. 1/10^th of the budget, equivalent to a tithe, went to outside our walls of influence ministries.  I have heard multitude of sermons about tithing over the years, to the point that tithing becomes an obligation, not a spiritual gift of giving.  The local church needs my tithe in order to operate its projected “budget” for the year, and the members of the church feel guilty if that projected budget isn’t met.  Are “projected budgets” biblical? 

We read in the Old Testament that we should give our tithe to the “storehouse”, but I must admit, in almost every church that I have attended over the last 50 years, there is little if any storehouse.  Churches are always asking for money as if broke.  They always appear as paupers. Nothing is “stored up”  in good times to be given as ministry in lean times.  Joseph became great, second only to pharaoh, in Egypt because he set up a “storehouse” system that saved not only a nation, but also his personal family and reestablish the strained relationships between he and his brother.  Joseph directly benefited from his “storehouse” philosophy by just being obedient to what and how the Spirit was leading him.

I know that Nee is addressing his church from his frame of understanding during his life time period, but some of the truths he exposes should make us in the West question how we do finances, ministry, missions, and how the church is run like a “business”, like an “organization”, with America’s C.E.O. pyramid mentality of leadership rather than the reverse pyramid of service that the Kingdom of God requires.

If you have time, right now, here is a must read.  This teaching helped prepared a Church that today is persecuted, underground, but spiritually healthy and alive.  A lesson, we in the West, should learn, for we do not know the day when we, too, will face persecution that will test our faith.  Maybe we in the West, who have become cold in our faith, can learn from those who have to “live by faith” in China. 

http://www.ministrybooks.org/Chapter.cfm?id=%21%2D0%20%20%0A

Wouldn’t We Love To Be Accountable To Those Who Serve Us?

Service/Accountability Series: Part 6 – Accountability Through Service

Instead of having the feeling that we are accountable to an individual or group who is “above” us, would we not feel more comfortable being accountable to someone who is in relationship with us as our “peers” but whom we respect?

With most bosses there is a distance, almost a self imposed alienation, because of the pyramidal hierarchy of leadership we have come to know in western civilization.  Even the westernized church has fallen for this type of leadership.  Some seminaries teach not to get close to your parishioners because you will be moved every five to eight years.  The Gospel is all about an intimate relationship made with God through Jesus Christ and what he did on the Cross.  The “family of God” is all about relationships with each other, yet the higher up in leadership one climbs in church hierarchy the more distant one becomes from God’s people.

The five fold pluralistic model I presented in my last blog breaks down these barriers of distance.  One becomes intimate friends with other people who have different points of view and passions than oneself, but are willing to use their gifts to serve you.  It is dynamic to have someone motivated about the “new birth” and the birthing process around you, someone to nurture and disciple your daily walk, someone to teach you the Logos Word, and someone to translate it into the Rhema or living Word, and even someone to guide and coordinate everyone’s gifting toward serving you!  Would not your natural response be to submit to their service?

How does this submission look like?  Basically, the giving back of your gift to impact their life causes a bonding, or a relationship, through Jesus Christ.  If you are accountable to four different points of view and passions than your own, there is a better chance of someone seeing you drifting off the mark and gracefully brining correction before there is a crisis.  Your service to them also opens their eyes to your point of view or passion bringing unity in uderstanding.

I have been taught that sin is “missing the mark”.  There are times that I have sinned, missed the mark, because I did not have a true spiritual shepherd walking me through daily tasks in my life to guide and demonstrate how to walk in faith and love.  I have missed the mark when making the Logos Word the final word through my legalistic interpretation, only to have someone theologically correct me or someone point to the Rhema or living out of the Word.  I have missed the mark because I did not have someone give me proper over sight, helping me work with the different passions, points of view, and mindsets to bring unity instead of division.  I have sinned……

There are four steps to accountability: 1) Stop, 2) Look, 3) Listen, 4) Be Obedient To What You Have Seen and Heard!  The Cross demands accountability:  Vertically – Stop, look to the Father, listen for His heartbeat, listen to His still small voice, then be obedient to the revelation that you have seen and heard.  That is how Jesus functioned as a human while on earth.  Horizontally – Stop, look to others in the Church, the Body of Christ with different points of views and passions, listen from their perspective of point of view though different from yours, then be obedient to what you have seen and have been told.

The result: Accountability at a new and greater level than the Church has experienced in centuries. A balanced, protective, growing discipleship that will continue to develop a believer into being more Christ-like, more maturing into the image of Jesus Christ.  That is the accountability that the Church needs today.

Accountability In The Church: A Five Prong Circular Model

Service/Accountability Series: Part 5 – Accountability Is A Multidirectional Street

Years ago I journaled asking the Lord what this Five Fold Ministry is all about, and he gave me a simple diagram for a simple mind (which fits me).  He showed me how each of the fivefold is to serve the other four, and in return, they serve you, thus a reciprocal back and forth of service through love.  There can be no greater love than “laying down your life for your brethren” (I John 3:16) to those who are “laying down their life for you”.  This selfless, sacrifice of giving and receiving brings an accountability the Church has not seen since its inception.

If you extend the fingers of that diagram from each of the fivefold to the other members, a five pointed star in a circle is created.  You now have an accountability structure between five different mind sets, passions, and points of view which together gives you a picture of unity.

Leadership with this model would be dynamic, for it would replace church counsels, pastor-parish committees, board of elders, strong pastor models, etc. because none of the five is “in charge”.  The Holy Spirit is in charge, and the gifting that is needed at the moment can arise, thus the wheel can rotate when needed.

For example: Hypothetically, let’s say a church with the five fold is seeking how to reach the homeless in their fair city.  Instead of using the “Homeless Evangelistic Model”, or the “Effective Intercity Church Model”, or some other model used by another congregation or famous speaker or preacher, the group actually seeks the Lord to speak to them in a time of fellowship, prayer, and worship.  The prophet speaks a prophetic word, confirmed scripturally through the teacher, affirmed by the pastor, and birthed by the evangelist with the oversight and approval of the apostle. An answer and strategy is reached in unity, and each of the five uses their gifting, strength, and passion in making the answer become reality and a success.  We just took the politics out of church politics, replacing it with sacrificial service resulting in unity.

The evangelist comes to the forefront in an effort to birth the project; then the wheel turns. The pastor comes forth with a plan to shepherd the new flock, to meet their daily needs and teach them how to walk in this new found faith, birthed by the evangelist. The wheel turns again as the teacher shares scriptures from the Word, the Bible, to build up the saints and five direction while the prophet speaks Rhema life into those words. The wheel turns again, and the apostle, who has done nothing but “seen over” this process gives his “oversight” and approval of the whole picture working together in unity and direction.

All this works only if there is trust and faith in one another.  Do we as a Church have the faith to trust the Holy Spirit to give us answers and/or direction?  Do we have the faith and trust in our fellow believers whom we have bonded with to release control of the situation and allow each of the five fold to use their gifting and passion?  Can I trust a brother or sister in the Lord who is different from me: one with an evangelistic heart and spirit to birth, one with a passion for shepherding to pastor, one with teaching talent to decipher the Logos Word, one with a prophetic heart and spirit to bring life to the Word, to the project, and to the group, and one who will over see, or see over what is happening without controlling it, only serving the others who are implementing, doing the work of the ministry? The purpose of the five fold in Ephesians 4 is “to equip the saints for the work of the service”. Doesn’t this look like “equipping” and releasing one another for the common good of the Church?

Can a model like this work in Christianity today? Only with faith and trust. Faith is the essence of things not seen but believed. Can we believe the Holy Spirit for answers and direction? Can what is not seen but revealed by the Holy Spirit be seen through the working out of that revelation through five different mindsets, points of view, and passions working in unity? Trust is letting go, not hoarding, not controlling, but freeing one to follow and serve.  Most of all, none of this will work unless we as Christians begin to “lay down our lives for the brethren.” 

Wow, faith, trust, love… write out of the book of II Corinthians. The first century Church at Corinth struggled with it, and the twenty-first century Church in my local town is still faced with it, unless we continue to ignore it!  Do we have the faith?  Can we trust?  Can we love?  That is the challenge of this blog!

Leadership Accountability

Service/Accountability Series: Part 4 – No “Blame Game”

Where is there accountability in the Church?  How often have I head from the pulpit about “those others who call themselves Christians, but … ‘They’ are false teacher who don’t believe the scriptures and do things differently than ‘us’ who are Bible believing.” No wonder there is division in the Church.  Each faction, sect, denomination, or group that claims to be Christian feels they have the truth and follow it, and the rest of the Body of Christ is in error, so they blame all of the Church’s ills on “them”, the "others".

I once heard a teaching that changed my life and mindset about leadership and the Church. The teacher explained that even though Jesus loved the Church, that is not why he died on the Cross.  He died on the Cross out of “obedience to the Father.”  When on the Cross he took 100% responsibility for your sin, my sin, the sins of the world, and he did not blame the Romans, the Jews, the Pharisees, his accusers, or you or me. Instead he proclaimed, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Here is the key to leadership and accountability as exemplified by Jesus on the Cross:  A true leader takes 100% responsibility for that which he/she is responsible, and blames no one!

If a platoon leader and his battle group accidently kills civilians during combat, the President of the United States, the Commander-in-Chief, addresses the nation and takes responsibility for their actions and apologizes to the nation and those offended and does not spread the blame even though he was not directly involved in the incident. That is leadership!

If each leader in the Church would stand up and take 100% responsibility for the Church that he so preciously believes in and supposedly loves, and doesn’t blame every other faction of the body different from him, he would earn my respect.

If a husband takes 100% responsibility for his family and doesn’t blame the wife or the kids, he earns my respect.  Most marital arguments and divorces are nothing but “the Blame Game”, the key to winning custody and postnuptial battles in court.  If the man took 100% responsibility for his family while giving out 0% blame, he would earn his wife’s and children’s respect.  According to the Bible, men are to “love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”  Women are to “respect” their husbands.  I contend that if men practiced this kind of love, their wives would not only willingly submit to them, but run to their arms because they would see Jesus in their husband’s life.

If an employer takes 100% responsibility for his business and doesn’t blame his employees for the company’s faults and ills, every employee would work their tail off for him and the success of the company with pride.

The Cross is all about accountability: vertically – being accountable to God by taking 100% responsibility for one’s actions and sphere of influence (John 3:16); horizontally – being accountable to fellow believers by not “blaming” them, but “laying down one’s life for their brethren” (I John 3:16).

This is the key to Church leadership and relationships within the Body of Christ.

Yo-Yo Effect – Back and Forth?

Service/Accountability Series: Part 3 – Give and Take Accountability

What is accountability in the church?  Is it to a board of elders or deacons, or to a pastor the pastor-perish committee, or to an executive council, or district of denominational board.  Most parishioners are accountable to their church’s leadership.  Most pastors are accountable to some kind of board or council, often limiting their efforts or thwarting them.  Most of these models bring conflict and division.  Church politics can be as ferocious as secular politics.  Many a believer is stung and hurt by the process and leave for another church body if they do not leave the church all together. It has been said that Christians are known to shoot their wounded!

The secular world has painted Christian leadership as the crying Jimmy Sweigarts wailing, “I have sinned”, or the fall of Jim Baker and the PTL Empire with its airconditioned doghouse, or the righteous evangelical spokesman Ted Haggard who fell to his own fleshly desires.  To whom were these men accountable? Sweigart and Baker are both back on TV influencing tens of thousands who watch them.  Haggard has made his way onto Oprah, Larry King, and other TV shows to tell his story.  Lack of accountability helped to bring their fall, and now what “new” form of accountability has been put in place if any?  How often has the downfall of a predominate pastor, teacher, or church leader brought the downfall to their empire or congregation?  How is the church to prevent this?  Can this be prevented?  What changes toward accountability has there been in the last couple decades to address this problem?

I feel the best form of accountability between brethren is the giving and taking of one’s faith, gifting, passion, desire, and point of view to another brother and receiving the same from him.  I asked a “giving” pastor of a substantially large church, “Other than your board or staff, who do you allow to give to you, who do you receive from?” And he stood silent.  If you give to those in your congregation, and you allow them to give back to you, you will build relationships, the golden nugget of Christianity.  The giving and taking is what produces “family”.  We talk about being the “family of God”, yet we keep our distant from other believers prohibiting the process.  Some seminaries even teach their future pastors not to get close to those in their congregations, as if that is not the function of a pastor.

Let’s just look at the evangelist and see how he can benefit by serving a pastor/shepherd, teacher, prophet, and apostle and receive back from them.  This give and take produces relationship, bonding, and trust.  Giving releases service; taking receives accountability from four different point of view and passions that want to serve you for your good and Christian growth.

What does an evangelist have to offer as service: 1) they are in the “birthing process” wanting to win all “the lost” to the Lord; 2) they are forerunners, for they are on the front line of birthing; 3) they also know of rebirth, for “you must be ‘born again’;” 4) They are always in the forefront of revival and restoration. A sign of revival is the lost coming to the Lord; 5) and they can “birth” new programs and new movements. This passion can strengthen and has a direct influence on the other four in the five fold.

What can an evangelist receive from the other four:  1) the encouragement of someone walking out their faith walk on a practical way from a shepherd; 2) the confidence that their theology that they are sharing in their evangelistic message is grounded in the Word of God, the Bible through a teacher; 3) the confidence of learning to hear from God in a very personal, intimate way from a prophet who can also use this gift through personal prophecy to win others to the Lord (Woman at the Well example); 4) and oversight and encouragement by an apostle who sees the big picture and encourages the evangelist to lead the “new” sheep, the “babes” to the pastor/shepherd, have them taught by the teacher, and developing an intimate spiritual growth in them through a prophet.

Although the other four may see from a different point of view, each part of view brings accountability to the evangelist that he never sees. He won’t get blind sided as many who have fallen. He also gets to serve them, and they get to serve him.  Relationships are birthed, trust is built, and a paradigm of accountability is being formed through service from one to the other and receiving of that service.  There is safety in trusting the other passions and points of view and giving to them.

A Parable of Passion and Need

Service/Accountability Series: Part 2 – Differences Can Strengthen?

A Parable:  There was a Christian brother, Ralph, who loved to serve his brethren, always taking time to invite another Christian over for a meal, slipping anonymously money to a brother in need, helping to baby-sit for a young Christian couple so they could preserve their marriage, etc.  Although his motives were pure, with time and continual giving, Ralph found himself experiencing “burn out”. Wanting to give, he found nothing left inside of him.  Recognizing his hurt and his needs, he became depressed.

One person he couldn’t understand, in fact felt repulsed by, was another Christian brother, Tim, who was rather young in the Lord, but was always evangelizing. All Ralph could see was dropped gospel tracks that now littered the street from the point where this young man had handed them to people the whole way to the end of the block.  Tim seemed not to care about what people thought of him nor the trail of litter as he would confront people openly about where they stood with their relationship to God or where they would go upon death. In fact Ralph thought Tim could be quite obnoxious.  Didn’t he know what image he portrayed of the Christian life?

In his ingrained drive to give as part of his Christian walk, Ralph decided to invite Tim to dine with him, which he accepted. While talking over the meal, the young evangelist poured out his passion for the lost; how every moment another person could die and be lost from the wonderful eternal relationship one could have with God through Jesus Christ.  When asked, what he does with young converts, he stood flabbergast. He did not know how to answer. Ralph opened up to tell this young evangelist how he loves new converts too, for his passion is to serve them and help them “walk out this new found faith in Jesus”.  “They are new babes in Jesus,” he chimed, “and I want to walk by their sides just as Jesus did with his disciples.”

“Wow,” the young evangelist gasped. “You are awesome. I wish I could do that, but I am driven to save the lost, so I do not have time to disciple them. You know what? I need you, the Body of Christ, the Church needs you, or all those babes I birthed will leave the Church and could even die. As an evangelist I do not want to see anyone perish, especially these babes in Christ.”

All of a sudden Ralph realized that he was receiving hope, encouragement, and worth from this young evangelist.  Most new Christians are enthusiastic, and an evangelistic spirit brings newness, hope, and new birth.  Ralph reached out his hand to his fellow evangelistic brother and said, “Tim, we need each other. What can I do to help you and those who you are help birthing.  What do you need personally?”

Two kindred spirits, though vastly different, were grafted that day: the newness of the new-birth that an evangelist can give and the caring that a pastoral shepherd can give. They discovered they could give from their strengths to shore up the other’s weaknesses.  This bonding of giving to one another and receiving from the other strengthened and vitalized both believers.

Who’s the Greatest?

Service/Accountability Series: Part 1 – An Overview

The disciples got into a power argument and requested Jesus to settle it. They ask if they could sit on Jesus’ right and left side in the kingdom which would demonstrate their position of power and influence in this new kingdom. This request created quite a fury, and rightfully so, because Jesus instructs his disciples that the one who “serves” will be the greatest of all in this new kingdom.  Jesus also told them that He came not to be served but to serve, and that he exemplified during his whole earthly life, even though he allowed people to serve him, like the woman anointing his feet with oil and drying it with her hair.

The Church boast that it is built on service, but is that so?  Often it has been told me to me, “If you want to be a church leader, you first have to learn or know how to serve like doing janitorial chores (implying that it will prove your servicehood). I am not sure where they got that philosophy, for I know very few Sr. Pastors who do janitorial chores if they have a large staff and building to maintain. Oh, and the janitor, who is part of the staff, gets paid only a fraction of what the Sr. Pastor makes for his “service”.  I question, “Who is doing the most service for the church?  Do the monetary rewards signal the answer to that question?”  The Church also propagates “sacrifice” so it can promote volunteerism, or “free service”.  That has also warped the minds of many church-goers. This “sacrifice” mentality has been so ingrained in Central Pennsylvania, that any service oriented job (pastor, teacher, nurse, caseworker, etc.) is expected to get lower wages than what industry prescribes because they are “service-oriented”, thus they should expect to “sacrifice” for the sake of society.

How does service work. I, as a church-goer, had the mindset that service meant to always give, give, give!  Unfortunately, I was never taught how to receive. If anyone wanted to give to me, I got religiously proud, thanked them for the thought, but I really didn’t need what they were offering me. I rejected their gift. I thwarted their attempt to serve me. I have had to repent of this attitude over the years.  Receiving from someone serving me is often as rewarding as when I serve them.  Serving one another produces a bond of friendship, a relationship with one another, and the gospel is all about relationships.

So how does this principle of “serving” affect the five fold?  It is the keystone to the success of the five fold.  It is built on the principle of serving other believers who have different mind sets, points of view, and passions than my own. I John 3:16 principle of “laying down your life for your brethren” is the key to service.  The reciprocal to all this is to allow those with different points of view and passions than my own to serve me, and I learn to accept with open arms their service of love.  This reciprocal two-prong principle of giving and receiving through service brings accountability between brothers in the kingdom of God, something that is drastically missing in the Church.

In the next several blogs we will look specifically at how to serve other believers with different giftings, points of view, mind-sets, and passions, and how to receive their service. We will hopefully discover the power of I John 3:16 at work and a new paradigm of accountability to the Body of Christ by dynamically challenging to the way the current Church thinks about leadership and accountability.

I invite you to continue with me on this journey over the next several blogs.