Money and the Art of Image Maintenance

When you plant a church, there are always certain ideals you hope to achieve. One of those has been realized recently, and I want to celebrate it.

I'm not a very good fundraiser. I don't enjoy it. Our current income reflects that. But beyond my personal issues, it is important and necessary in church life and especially in church planting. We have some significant up-front expenses in our near future, and I've had to ask our launch team to give to this cause beyond what they've already been giving. I've been honest about my family's ability to give and publicly communicated what we're pledging to contribute, and I've asked each family on the launch team to do the same. Several have done so, but the pleasant surprise has not been in the amount of money we've raised (like I said, I'm not good at fundraising). In recent days I've had some of the most honest, candid conversations with people about their financial situations that I've ever had. It has been a refreshing experience, and one that I hope will set a tone for personal transparency for our church for years to come.

Generally speaking, people are about as secretive about money as they are about anything. Those who have a lot of it don't usually want that to be known, and there are always people who want you to believe they have more of it than they do. People in debt don't want anyone to know about it, and people who don't know how to manage it seldom ask for help. This is nowhere more true than in the church. As a person who has had access to people's giving records over the years, let me just say that who actually gives and how much they give is not the same as what people assume is true by appearances. It may be the area of least honesty in church life...again, generally speaking.

So honesty in this regard is an especially refreshing thing. I have been thrilled to listen to friends as they've honestly laid out their financial struggles, their hopes and dreams, their mistakes and their plans for growth in the future. I've been impressed by people's desire to be in a place where they can be better givers. I've been equally impressed by people of significant means who take seriously their responsibility before God to be good investors, who have asked me the right questions to ensure that an investment in the Springs is a good one. The money is a gift, but even more so the conversations have been a gift. This is the way it should be, and it's made me feel privileged to be a part of this church.

We may or may not have a lot of money to work with, but we obviously have a more precious and rare commodity: people who don't want to play the game. I hope this is true in every area of life for us, not just our financial lives. Conversations are happening daily among the Springs right now that have in them the potential for real life change. They are the kind of transparent conversations that God uses. This is where the kingdom is really built. Thanks for the glimpses I've seen.