As I was driving around doing those ambiguous arrends on my day off yesterday, I was listening to npr. On "All Things Considered" they did a story about one of the few Christian churches sanctioned by the Chinese government. NPR had gone to China originally to report on the growing number of Chinese christians in the athiest country, at the time of an interview with a local pastor, the devestating earthquake hit. The story then turned into one about churches after the earthquake, where they are meeting, what they are doing, how they are involved with the relief work. They reported that last Sunday with 30 people attending the church they raised 17000 yen, that is equivalent to 80 American dollars per person. Incredibly telling about Chinese Christians, no wonder the kingdom is growing faster there than anywhere else in the world.
Is there a church in America that could raise an average of 80$ on a random Sunday morning? No building program, no sermon series placing conviction for giving weeks in advance, no little kids creating Lotty Moon boxes...just raising money to completely give away...I'd like to see it.
3 comments:
Those are great thoughts. I would like to see it, too. I think it's a systemic thing. Church is what we do for a couple hours/wk, not a way of life... or if it is, it means we live in a building haha. Not to be too extreme, but the 42" plasmas, the suburban homes, the cars... they're destroying or souls... they have no more power than a little god made of wood but we give it to them and they, in turn, dictate an entire way of being that is not congruent with how God created the world. It's a dangerous delusion we dance with.
Hi, I'm Justin. I think I got to your blog via a world racer blog. I'm blessed to stumble upon thoughtful thoughts.
Good thoughts Kate. Giving is how much you believe in what the church is doing. It is challenging for me as a church leader because to me if people do not give, then it tells me that they do not believe in what we are doing. It is my hope that as a pastor, that we can create a church that people can believe and invest in.
I will say that our church has a kind of neat thing happening right now.... last summer our church had a lot of crisis things happen (several tragic deaths etc.). Our church pulled together a ton of money to help out those families. Because of that, the church budget is now suffering. People gave their tithe money to help those in need. I really have no problem with that at all. I think that is what tithe money should be for. I thought it was pretty biblical actually. Anyway, great thoughts. Long time no see hair twin! I hope life is treating you well
Post a Comment