Over the past four years, we have been teaching through a series on Financial Freedom. This is such a difficult subject to talk about in church because the knock on church is that "they are always asking for our money." Let me take this opportunity to be clear... I believe that Jesus taught a lot about giving; about how finances are tied so closely to our heart. I believe that Jesus commanded his followers (us) in how to treat finances; how to make monetary decisions; what to do with those in need; how to be generous.
When the church instructs on giving, it is not to somehow manipulate people into giving for the sake of the church. When Jesus gave the Great Commission, He said to "make disciples of all nations" but He also said to "teach them to obey everything I have commanded you to." The church has the responsibility to teach what Jesus taught -- including finances. When the church teaches on financies, it is out of a heart of being obedient to Jesus teaching to His disciples.
If anyone decided to give financially to New Hope, our desire is that they be motivated by Jesus instructions, God's principles, and the leading of the Holy Spirit. There should not be compulsion from man -- only instruction on what Jesus had to say.
As funds are received, the church (like each of us individually) carries the responsibility to steward its resources well. New Hope has a purpose, "To honor God by making passionate follwers of Jesus Christ through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit." Everything the church does must move individuals toward that purpose... hardened hearts become softened, hopeless find hope, prisoners be set free, doubters become seekers, seekers become followers, and followers become passionate. Whether New Hope received $10,000/year or $10,000,000/year, the responsibility and commitment of the leadership is to pray, seek the leading of the Holy Spirit, and make decisions that can best advance that purpose.
Our job as individuals: read the Bible, listend to Jesus teaching, be obedient to God's instructions, and lean into the Holy Spirit on what we should give and where we should give it.
Our job as a church: pass on the teaching of Jesus and steward whatever resources come in based on the purpose of the church, Biblical instruction, and the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
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11 comments:
Steve
Yesterday afternoon at Caribou, several of us were discussing your exec role in our church. Confidence is high. But we had questions.
Your message on Sunday got the “financial leadership” conversation started. We hit on several leadership themes but spent most of the time questioning the position our church takes on leadership.
We concluded that we are becoming an “emerging” church. (Wikipedia)
1.We don’t neglect traditional preaching but use blogs, multimedia and general entertainment to attract.
2.We push back on negative absolutes and embrace positive experience.
3.Forgiveness is the message but performance is the mandate.
I spend a lot of time with young adults who will someday be the leadership of this church. We constantly discuss these variables.
Your feed back is anticipated by the group.
Here's a good write on "emerging" church. When I copy it to your comment box it does not break. So I broke it. http://www.the-next-wave-ezine.in
fo/issue100/index.cfm?id=23&ref=ART
ICLES%5FEMERGING%20CHURCH%5F347
Hey hoot (and others). Thanks for the response... I would say, "thanks for joining the conversation" but that might sound too emergent!
I'm glad "confidence is high" and I'm also excited that there are discussions going on about the ministry as that helps me gauge the level of ownership and passion in those attending the church.
I'll try to respond to your postings as best I can, but I'd be more than happy to get together with your crew and just talk about what y'all are seeing and give you some of my perspectives.
I'm not an expert on the emergent church movement, so I may be off base, but my impressions are these. The "emergent" church has received its name largely because of how sociologists view the current culture as emerging out of "modernism" into a state of "post-modernism." Life is not so linear; there is less need for closed-form solutions to everything; there is more embracing of the process rather than the conclusions; there is less willingness to just do things because that's how they were always done or believe things just because that's what was always believed; the emergent church often refers to this as the "deconstruction" of what is known and re-building it themselves rather than just taking everything at face value; that kind of thing.
That sounds kind of dangerous, but it is important to note that there are basically three levels of the emergent movement. The first "level" does not challenge or stray from the message/doctrine/beliefs, but utilizes alternative forms of communication (some of which you mentioned around technology, but also with the use of the more artistic - painting, dance, etc) -- this first level may also incorporate more things like creeds and crosses/icons during worship as had been done in previous generations. The 3rd level is the most controversial dealing with, in some cases, the changing of Christian doctrine even around such things as salvation. The 2nd is kinda in between. My point is that to label something as "emergent" is not comprehensive enough... "emergent" does not, by itself, imply a change in core beliefs, but can simply refer to stylistic changes (at least on the first level) aimed at trying to reach the new, post-modern generation.
In terms of your 3-part definitions:
1) The blogs are not meant to attract, but instead to create touch points and "do life together" as we dialogue around things (like this). However, I will agree that multimedia is used to attract, but not because it is "entertainment", but instead because it is culturally relevant. Jesus talked about agriculture, because it was an agriculture-based society. We use a live band because it makes sense to those who are unchurched.
2. I'd be interested (honestly) if you feel there is push back on negative absolutes. Perhaps I'm just not understanding this piece of it. New Hope believe there is a heaven and a hell; hell is the greatest of those negative absolutes. Anything short of God's eternal best is scary and motivates us to do what we do. We rejoice when lives pass from death to life. There is also the negative absolute of sin - sin separates us from a Holy God and it is only through the sacrifice of Christ that redemption is paid for.
3. Forgiveness is our message, but that forgiveness requires the confession of our sin which follows our recognition and ownership of our sin. God's forgiveness is rooted in His unrelenting grace for us; His desire to love & be loved and for us to be in communion/relationship with him. In the Great Commission (Matthew 28), Jesus commands His disciples to make disciples of all nations and then to teach these new disciples to obey eveything he commanded... that is our mandate. New Hope is doing the best it knows how to in order to make passionate followers (disciples) of Jesus Christ which includes instruction on how Jesus told us to live. If "performance is the mandate", it is because of Christ's mandate to make disciples, to pray for laborers, to do all we do in such a way as working for God and not for man, to be released into whatever gifts the Holy Spirit has given us (prophecy, teaching, leadership), to forgive rather than be bitter, to love rather than to hate, to serve rather than be served, to avail ourselves to the sick rather than to the healthy, and to be partners in the gospel.
I praise God for your personal story hoot; for your testimony of God's faithfulness throughout your journey and for the investment you are making in the young adults as well as your commitment that I know you have made to pray for myself and the leadership of New Hope. You are a tremendous blessing! I am so excited that the next generation has someone that can help them facilitate these discussion around the church. I'm so glad people are asking the questions. I hope I've at least scratched a little bit of the itch; I'd be happy to continue the dialogue.
I do not have time to look at the link(s) you've provided; this was just off the top of my head based on prior discussions and reading I've done.
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