“There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”Ephesians 4:4-6 ESV
Reflection: why has the church become a lucrative business for some?
We took a drive into the countryside over the weekend, to a poor area in the outskirts of Tulsa. Houses were run down and in need of repairs; old and broken down cars in most driveways. And then suddenly, on both sides of the street, two very nice, and pretty large church buildings. It was such a contrast to what we had been seeing for a few miles, how the people lived. Which made me wonder, how in the world can that community afford these two nice buildings? They can’t even afford to fix their own house or car. And, if the money is coming from the outside, why isn’t it used to first help this poor community with their basic needs? Has the church become something else than to spread the gospel of Christ, and to help the needy?
Has the church become more of a business, as opposed to fulfilling the commission given by Christ?
Let’s think about this. Publicly traded companies have to prepare annual financial statements, to keep their owners (the stockholders) informed about how they are doing. It is a backward view, showing financial results over the past year, as well as a forward perspective, shared strategies and areas of investments. Why is this important? Because the owners, the stockholders, are free to keep their shares in the company, even invest more, or sell the shares if they don’t like what the company is doing, and how they are performing.
In many ways, many church communities have become like public companies, and the congregation like the stock holders. The churches try to “perform”, using all sorts of ways to “entertain” their congregation. To keep them coming back for more. Many of them have, of course, large expenses with staff salaries, buildings, missions, and so on. So they need a large income stream to keep that going They therefore need the people to give, in order to be able to function. But, this also employs a lot of people, like a business. And, interestingly, we also see people “church shopping”, or “church hopping” if they don’t like the performance of the church, behaving much like stock owners. While the number is not clear, but an estimated $600 billion is collected annually through tithing and giving, most of which goes to buildings and salaries. And, as a result, new church buildings are being constructed all over the place. While some churches will be open about how they spend all this money, many will not give the congregation the detailed financial statement they deserve.
In our focus verses today, Paul states the foundation for the church, the body of Christ, that it is ONE body; not many as we see in the world today. The body of Christ is not at all behaving as one body, but as many, independent bodies. What we see today among people all over, is the hunger for truth only found in the gospel of Christ. But it seems as some use this opportunity to build businesses. And, instead of using the generosity of their congregation to help the needy, it is being used to build buildings and increase salaries for an expanding staff. That is not what the Bible teaches. Not even Paul drew a salary from his work as an apostle. And, the congregations met in people’s homes.
Can you image how the needy in society would benefit from even a portion of the annual $600 billion? It might be good to start questioning where all the money goes, and better align that to what the Bible teaches.
