Deficit

Posted in , , , , , , , By brigitte 1 comments

I sat in a business meeting of our church recently where several committee members shared all the nitty gritty about how and where our church dollars are spent. I had mixed feelings, to say the least.

Before you check out…this won’t be a post boasting the awesomeness of my church; nor will it be a church bashing or a shaking finger to hypocritical Christians because that would be like heaping hot coals on my own head. The truth is I have a great church family. We get some stuff wrong and some stuff almost right. In all our shortcomings, we just love Jesus. We are thankful to serve a loving God who meets us in our mess. We seek His face.

That being said …

It really amazed me that each and every member is privy to ALL the financial dealings of the church.  Seriously, every penny is accounted for, recorded, and put in my hands for viewing. Pretty cool. Yet as I scanned through the pages of data one rather large deficit hit me.

“Is that right? Bummer.”

When the floor was opened to discussion, a seasoned church member spoke up about this very deficit. He pointed out his observation of a rather large (ok, pretty huge) deficit between Christian enrichment and missions outreach.

Christian enrichment > Missions outreach

My heart fluttered as this man humbly proclaimed, “I think we can do better.”
I couldn’t help myself so I gave him an “Amen!”

We can do better. We HAVE to do better. While it is true that we have to strengthen each other in the faith (Prov 27:17)…it is also very true that we are to take the Good News to all nations (Matt 28:19-20).

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Love your neighbor as yourself. – Jesus (Matt 22:37-39)

How are you actively serving your neighbors? Is there a deficit between how much you are soaking up and how much you are pouring out? Pray that God will show you this week, this month, this year, a need that you can help meet. Pray that God will show you where He is already at work caring for the least…and join Him.