Results 1 - 4 of 4
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | would the church need to tithe to missio | 2 Cor 8:8 | Hank | 143734 | ||
Ed, I'm in total agreement with you about the local church's allocations of its income to missions and related giving outside its own walls. The church of which I'm a member gave well over half a million dollars to missions and other outreach programs in 2004. This figure represents approximately 20 per cent of its total income. It's a healthy church financially and, more importantly, I'm happy to say, a healthy church doctrinally and spiritually as well, and even though it is an old "downtown" church, it is a (numerically) growing church too. I continually see clear evidence of God's rich blessings of my home church, First Baptist Church of my home town, and I'm nourished and strengthened in the faith by the fellowship and sound Bible teaching and preaching that I have come to cherish and prize so highly. What a joy it is to break the bread of life with so great a number of committed Christian brothers and sisters. .... In sharp contrast, the church of which I am a former member gave essentially nothing to missions or anything else outside their own walls. What they took in they spent on themselves and did not share it with anyone else. They hoarded everything for themselves, storing up the surplus in interest-bearing bank accounts. The time eventually came when their attendance dwindled and with it their income. As the well began to go dry they were forced to tap their savings accounts until they too were exhausted. That church, now crippled financially and essentially bankrupt spiritually, is struggling hard to survive at all. ...... Perhaps all churches should take a lesson from the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea takes in a steady supply of good, sweet water. Having no outlet, it keeps it all for itself. It gives nothing. But it is dead. It will not sustain life. --Hank | ||||||
2 | would the church need to tithe to missio | 2 Cor 8:8 | BradK | 143742 | ||
Hank, I read with interest your summary of what's happening in your church. Awesome! I'd like to offer some personal reflections as well. Similarly, I'm blessed to attend a local (non-denominational)"Christian Church" that is growing and gives around 20 per-cent of it's budget to missions. We also send mission teams each year to Chile and Mexico. (Strangely this costs money?). As a result of our church giving, being doctrinally and spiritually sound - characteristics you cited- we're growing. Plans have been approved, commitments made, and we're starting construction on a new 450 seat worship center. This is not being built because of greed or ego, but because we're bursting at the seems with 3 current services and we desperately need the facilities! As I've been involved there for over 7 years, we've seen over a 50 per-cent plus growth. I attribute this to the above comments as well as a solid, cohesive, and united leadership- which I support. We're evidently meeting a need in our local community- as your church is- and God is blessing it! Speaking the Truth in Love, BradK |
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3 | would the church need to tithe to missio | 2 Cor 8:8 | EdB | 143753 | ||
BradK Don't view this as criticism but I wonder if instead of building a new building had they parented a few new churches around your city what would have been the result. Look at stores and restaurants when they are successful, rarely do they expand the current facility, they usually open a second, third or fourth. I think this is where many many churches go wrong. Instead of dividing and multiplying they seem to want to grow into something that become unwieldy. I know a pastor in California that never let the church get much bigger than about 250 each time it approached that number they opened another church. He raised up leadership for the new church from within and before long people that longed to work in the harvest field were being used. At the end of about 10 years they had parented 8 new churches in the area. Of course this opened all kinds of doors for people that wanted to get involved in ministry filling the leadership needs. The 8 new churches followed the same principle of opening other new churches as they grew and they between them had opened 5 or 6 more and raised up new leaders. So the total from this effort 10 years ago was 14-15 new churches with new pastors, staff and other ministry jobs filled from within putting new people to work for the Kingdom. Plus they were all coming together supporting missionaries and as of about 10 years ago were totally supporting 20 full time missionary teams. EdB |
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4 | would the church need to tithe to missio | 2 Cor 8:8 | BradK | 143755 | ||
EdB, No offense taken. Your comments are not without merit. I was not a part of our Building Team that spent well over a year considering many options- one of which was "church planting". Again, many options were discussed, debated, and prayerfully sought. This one seemed to have the most merit:-) Our Church had the (blessed) hindsight decades ago to purchase several acres- of now prime real estate- on what is a very busy, well-travelled street in our city. This allows us to expand existing facilities without having to purchase additional property. Since I'm not integrally involved in this aspect of our church, I can't speak to future plans, but church planting may well be one of them:-) Blessings Brother, BradK |
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