mgpcpastor's blog

Tomorrow I’ll post the Ministry And Mission 2012 document and draft budget that Mount Gambier Presbyterian Church adopted last Sunday.
One of the perennial questions we get each year is why our budget is always in deficit.
It’s because we plan it that way.
We do hold some invested funds, and that’s because folk either gave it to us as a trust to be used that way, or some of our funds represent the realisation of property, which is also a capital trust from generations past.
But, in general, I’ve never believed Jesus is going to return and want to know how much money we have managed to squirrel away in the bank.

We have more Gospel work that we can do.
I’m not interested in meeting a budget.
I’m not interested in maintaining a bank balance.
I am interested in local, nation and international ministry and mission.

We plan a deficit budget because we aim to carry out a mission which is beyond our resources.
God makes the difference.

We plan a deficit budget because there is so much to do.
If the folk here give beyond what we’ve budgeted for, we’ll increase our spending.

Maintenance doesn’t cost so much.
And death costs even less, as this poignant testimony from Don Linscott illustrates.

“I wish we didn’t talk so much about money,” is a comment I have often heard while working with churches to raise funds for their important purposes.  I understand the sentiment but hold an opposing viewpoint.  In fact, I hope my church always needs money.  Here is why.

My son, Lance, was born before it became acceptable for the father to be present in the delivery room.  (A fact for which I have always been grateful!)  I waited in the hallway just outside the delivery room.  At precisely 4:13 p.m., I heard the unmistakable cry of a newborn baby, Lance’s first sound.  The nurse emerged with a smile and said, “You have a baby boy.”  Only a new father can know the wonder of those words!

The wonderful glow of fatherhood was soon dimmed, however, when I was asked to visit the business office of the hospital.  They wanted me to pay for Lance!  In fact, it seemed to me that my child might be held hostage until the hospital bill was settled.

I wrote the check paying all the expenses in full, freed my family, and we made our escape. That check turned out to be only the first of hundreds, maybe thousands, I would write on Lance’s behalf.  Children are expensive.  There was formula and food to buy.  Doctor visits and vaccinations assaulted my banking account.  Diapers and toys took their toll.  And clothes were a constant drain.  Just when he would get a good wardrobe, he would grow a smidgen and we would have to start all over.

As Lance’s age and size increased so did the expenses.  Soon it was baseball gloves, Nike shoes and uniforms.  Then he needed glasses for his eyes and braces for his teeth.  And then, disaster struck.   Lance became a teenager!  Now it was cars, electronic gadgets, and cool clothes.

Then came college.  Lance had always, and only, wanted to be an architect.  To me it seemed he would be in school until he was forty‑two years old.  Expenses soared!  Tuition, books, and drawing tools led the long list of essential expenditures.

But, of course, just like loving fathers everywhere, I was happy to be able to help him and I did all I could to support his growth and his dreams.  I never thought of these expenses as “sacrifice.”  I was his Daddy and was prepared to give everything possible toward his life and dreams.

And then, one day, Lance died.

On a bright, beautiful, and horrible Halloween Day, twenty-one-year-old Lance was buried in his church’s little country cemetery.  That afternoon I walked away from his grave and since that day I have never spent another nickel on Lance.

That is how I learned it. Death is cheap.  Death can be sustained without expense.  It is living that is costly.  It is growth that is expensive.  Our dreams, visions, and hopes require resources.  Death doesn’t!  And that is why I am glad my church needs money.  A living, growing, thriving church will always require the continual, consistent, and conscientious financial support of its members.  And that’s the church I want to belong to.

HTs to J.D. Greear and Jud Wilhite for the link to the article above.