My church released its annual report this week, and I've read through it.
First let me say: I love my church. With all of me.
According to the numbers, it looks like my church spent about 7% of its total budget on "missions" this past year.
Most of that was out of the separate, not-tithes "mission fund".
Which means that we spent 93% of the church's total resources on ourselves, and we relegate most of that missions money to the extra offering that people are asked to make.
In perspective, our church spent almost as much money on our mortgage payment as we spent on all "missions" for the year.
From my experience reading about the Church in America, this isn't a problem with my local church. It's a problem with The Church as a whole. If our money is where our mouth is, then we're saying that the 20-years-ago purchase of a wooden building is almost as important as spreading the Gospel.
I'm uncomfortable.
I want you to be uncomfortable, too.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
New
2010 is gone.
In 2010, for the first time, I made a New Years Resolution.
It was to read the Bible cover to cover Four times, in Four different english translations.
I almost realized this goal. Over the past 365 days, I read the entire NLT, AMP, and MSG versions. And I'm exactly 2/3 of the way through the ESV study bible I started in October. It turns out that It's really hard to read a study bible cover to cover, especially in 3 months. And especially when you're busy. I made barely any progress in the past 2 weeks, due to having an irregular schedule and spending 57 hours at church last week, and about 20 hours at church this past tuesday and wednesday. Hopefully by the end of January I'll be done with 2010's goal.
And then I will move on to my goal for 2011:
Over the course of 2010, every time i read a bible verse that interrupted me, made me think, stopped my train of thought, i wrote it down. This year my plan is to re-read all those notes i took, and make sense of them on an individual basis. Maybe I will try to make sense of them on a collective basis too. But no promises. If i stay consistent, there will be more than enough material for 2 blog posts each week.
In 2010, for the first time, I made a New Years Resolution.
It was to read the Bible cover to cover Four times, in Four different english translations.
I almost realized this goal. Over the past 365 days, I read the entire NLT, AMP, and MSG versions. And I'm exactly 2/3 of the way through the ESV study bible I started in October. It turns out that It's really hard to read a study bible cover to cover, especially in 3 months. And especially when you're busy. I made barely any progress in the past 2 weeks, due to having an irregular schedule and spending 57 hours at church last week, and about 20 hours at church this past tuesday and wednesday. Hopefully by the end of January I'll be done with 2010's goal.
And then I will move on to my goal for 2011:
Over the course of 2010, every time i read a bible verse that interrupted me, made me think, stopped my train of thought, i wrote it down. This year my plan is to re-read all those notes i took, and make sense of them on an individual basis. Maybe I will try to make sense of them on a collective basis too. But no promises. If i stay consistent, there will be more than enough material for 2 blog posts each week.
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