Today I hand the Ticker over to my ministry partner Nick Peters for a personal story -- which is thematically related to our last post.
***
Years ago,
my wife and I were just married and getting into our rather strained financial situation. I am
sure it was in 2010, because it was a Sunday, and was in fact my birthday that
day, and while in town visiting my parents for the day, my wife and I went to
the church that I attended when I left town.
Keep in
mind we were still newlyweds then, as we would have been married just under two
months at that point. I did not have a job, having been laid off from where I
had been working three months before the wedding and we were struggling
financially with no income whatsoever. We had some savings and some wedding
gift money we were using, but that was it.
So we’re in
the church service and hearing the associate pastor share about all the money
that the church had raised for their mission project. How much was it? $2
million, and it took a long time. Now that the money was in, they could
continue the ministry that they were doing of….
Going on
mission trips to places like Peru, or going where Christians are being
persecuted? Nope.
Setting up
places to feed the hungry, and shelters for the homeless to stay in? Nope.
Giving aid
to women who are considering abortion and setting up areas of benefit so that
they will choose life? Nope.
Or dare I
say it...supporting an apologetics ministry that was started by a former church
member, who at the time who was in a serious financial situation? Nope.
The
ministry was….
Basketball.
Yes. All
that money was spent to focus on a basketball program.
Dare I say
it, but give J.P. Holding or myself even 1% of all of that and we will go to
town and start informing the masses about the faith once and for all delivered
to the saints, and drive our efforts to study more and more. You see, we’re
going to do the work anyway. If we were poor and destitute, we’d still be doing
the work. The reality is donations to a ministry like ours help us do it more.
Give us a little and we’ll use it for a lot, such as building good websites
and ordering books that we need and buying computer equipment to help us reach as
many people as possible.
For people
like us, our lives revolve around what we do. The support of others helps us to
rest easy and know that we can provide for our families. Both of us would keep
going into debt if we had to because the cause of the mission is that
important.
Afterwards, my wife Allie and I figured we’d try to talk to the pastor about this. Allie was more blunt than
I was, mentioning that we were poor and going broke.
Which was
immediately followed by a request of how they could help us out in any way. Could
they send a donation to us to help sponsor us?
Well. No.
It wasn’t followed with that.
Instead, it
was followed with a time of prayer together where we prayed God would open the
doors of Heaven and help His servants.
Well. No.
It wasn’t followed with that.
Rather, it
was followed with a voice of sympathy expressing sorrow for our situation and
the hopes that things get better.
No. It
wasn’t even that.
It was
followed with….
Nothing.
Naturally,
my wife and I left and we have never looked back. When we did move back to the same area,
we never even considered going there.
To this
day, we’re still in a strained financial situation, but we have a small number of donors
that give us some sort of support. But it’s a burden to me every time,
especially knowing we can’t support ourselves independently.
Note in
saying this I am not saying the apologetics ministry is the only ministry. By
all means, there are several ministries that need to be supported, but
we need to best prioritize the finances that we’re using. Is $2 million for
doing basketball really the best usage of the resources a church has been
given? Especially since many kids that could be reached could go off to college
and be talked out of their newfound faith very easily.
I look
forward to the day that the church wakes up to the waste that they have going
on. The church has not been faithful with the resources God has given it, and
it will be held accountable.
