Joshua 24 is a great passage. (I should probably be prepared to write that about any portion of what I believe to be the inspired Word of the living God, right?) In it Joshua does a bit of a recap with the struggling Israelites. He talks about the gods of their forefathers before they were called into relationship with the living God. From there he reviews with them all the amazing things that God has done for them. They are, however, forgetting these things and looking back towards the gods their anscestors left for YHWH. After this review of what was left and the faithfulness of the God who is real and loves them, Joshua issues a call in verse 15.
But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.
This has become a key call for us to consider at our church as we have spent the past few weeks talking about money in our adult class time (separate from the regular service). The world around us worships the dollar and things. Those brave souls that don’t often find their value in family or relationships. As followers of Jesus we are called to find our value in and direct our worship towards God. That’s who we are to serve. Sadly, much of Christianity (or churchianity) has been overwhelmed by the same philosophies and dictates of our capatalistic, bottom line worshiping culture.
Our discussion last week was about what the communal collection of the people of God was designated to in scripture. There’s great parallels between where the tithe was to go and where the church’s communal collection to go. In 1 Corinthians 9:13-14, Paul even uses the Old Testament use of the tithe to argue for how to designated the communal collection of money in the church. Basically the money that was collected by the church went to supporting the full time church teachers/leaders, provide for the needs of the poor (both in and out of the church) and supporting missionary efforts. What struck me, and we started to talk about it, is that none of their collective funds went to a building, discipleship programs or even local evangelism programs. One smart person (the former pastor) in the meeting pointed out rather than going to property or programs, all the money that was collected went to people.
We then began a discussion, which will continue this week, asking what precedent this New Testament practice has over how we spend our money today. (Is this practice prescriptive or descriptive?) Is our money going towards a building wrong? Is the money we spend on discipleship programs (especially children and youth specific ministries) appropriately spent? We only had a few minutes to begin the discussion on how we are to spend our communal collection, but I know that some people were already getting uncomfortable. The group wanted to continue it this Sunday so…if you have any thoughts on the communal collection perhaps I can bring them into the discussion this week!
Jon,
The question it seems you are asking is: Is it right for a body of believers to expend time, energy and money building an organization with facilities, programs and events (what most churches are today)?
I’d say, it depends. What needs to be done? Can it only be done with a building? Or a complex organized children’s program? Does God care more about whether we spend money on a building or whether we’re following him?
1 Samuel 16:7 says that God looks at our hearts, not our outward appearance. If we are seeking to serve God with all our heart, soul and mind, is building a facility just plain not an option? Ever? Can anyone say that?
In terms of “prescription” vs “description”, I would lean towards “description” when discussing what impact the early church model has on today’s church. I think that what is described provides great insight into how to deal with certain situations, but do not see it as God’s prescription for how all churches should function.
Some desire a pure organic experience when it comes to “how church is done”, attempting to avoid the bureaucracy, politics and overhead that come with an organization. The counter to that is that the early church started developing a structural basis for leadership and management of “services” (see Acts 6). I’m not sure there is any reason to consider that a further development of this to meet the needs of the group is wrong and to be avoided.
Bottom line, for the group of believers that you are part of, you (collectively) need to determine, with the direction of God’s revelation (Bible, Holy Spirit, experience), what needs to be done to meet the needs of your group. I don’t know of any indicators, scriptural or otherwise, that indicate to the contrary.
| provide for the needs of the poor
| (both in and out of the church)
Do you have any verses that show the early church helping the poor outside of the church? This is not an argument against doing it, just curious. I’m just trying to build a case for “description” vs “prescription”. Prescription would say, if the early church did it, we should too, and if they didn’t, we shouldn’t. I don’t buy that approach.
Ryan