BIBLE DIGEST -
Number 56 November 1995
THE "FOUR SPIRITUAL LAWS" OF CHURCH FUND RAISING
By Allon Maxwell
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Our Church has
discovered THE ABSOLUTE BEST CHURCH FINANCIAL STRATEGY EVER DEVISED! It is
GUARANTEED to work! ........ AND IT IS FREE! However, this
FREE LUNCH does come with some special conditions. The conditions are easy to
apply ....... but they won't necessarily make everyone happy! Our fund
raising policy is simple. YOU WILL NEVER
BE ASKED FOR MONEY! Instead of
setting budgets, asking for money, or calling in the professional fund
raisers, to meet our targets , we concentrate on what we call: "THE FOUR
SPIRITUAL LAWS OF FUND RAISING" THE FIRST LAW *
As far as we know how, we seek
God's dominion over our lives, ...... and obedience to God's righteousness
..... as our first and only priority. (Matthew 6:33) THE SECOND LAW *
What we have freely received, is
freely offered. (Matthew 10:8) THE THIRD LAW *
For our finances, we ask God alone
, in the secret place, where He alone hears. THE FOURTH LAW *
When we do either give or receive,
we do not publicise it in any way. When we do
THOSE FOUR THINGS, then we have authority from Jesus to be confident that God
WILL provide ALL that is needed. (And we can
also believe that, no matter how much, or how little is provided, THAT IS ALL
that God thinks we need!) Of course,
humanly speaking, this method has its "limitations". (But speaking
from God's point of view, ........ does God really have any limitations?) If we ask in
the secret place for a million dollars, for our grand "spiritual"
scheme, and God rewards us openly with only 10 cents, we will have to learn
to accept that 10 cents is God's valuation of our million dollar project! In practice,
this means that: We ask God
alone, in the secret place, to supply our needs for all resources required to
do WHAT HE WANTS TO DO. WE leave it in
the secret place. We do not "go public" about what we think God
needs. (no "deputation meetings", or "newsletters", or
"prayer requests"!) We work within
the limits of what is provided in this way. We do not
commit funds which we do not already have in hand. i.e. We resist the devil's
temptations to "jump off the temple", (Matthew 4:5-7) We do not
borrow, or run an overdraft, to do God's work. (Some would call that lack of
"faith". We think that we are rejecting just one more subtle form
of covetousness!) We do not
canvas members (or non-members!) to remember us in their wills. That also is
covetousness. We do not set
long term goals, which would require “faith pledges”, or continual preaching
about "giving to the Lord's work". We do not try
to raise money by investing (gambling?) God's money in the share market, The
"best" investments are all usually linked in some way, to things
that God condemns. And in public
companies, the policies are decided by the unbelieving majority of the
shareholders. We call that "unequally yoked with unbelievers". We do not
accept even unsolicited offers of loans from any source. God's kingdom does
not run on borrowed money! We do not
accept gifts from sources which we know are tainted by sin. e.g. dividends
from companies engaged in arms production, cigarette manufacture, etc., etc.,
or proceeds of gambling, prostitution, theft, tax evasion etc., etc.. God, who owns
the cattle on a thousand hills, is more than able to provide from resources
which are not corrupted by the mark of the Devil's kingdom!! We obtained
this Financial Policy from the teachings of Jesus. We have put it
to the test, and we are here to assure you that it is NEVER impractical or
impossible! All we have to
do to make it work, is match our goals to God's provision! .... (not ask God
to meet our goals!) If there is any
"shortfall", we do not call in the FUND RAISERS to make up the
"shortfall" in God's provision. The problem
does not lie in any inadequacy in God's provision. If WE start
with the assumption that God got it right , we will be free to admit that the
real source of the problem is the spiritual inadequacy of OUR prayers which
produced the "plan". (If our hearts
were a little purer, our "spiritual hearing" would be a lot
clearer!). Instead, if God
is slow to provide, then WE ALSO go slow. (or shut down!) If the Lord is
not building the house, it is better not built at all. Many churches
and para-church organisations seem to regard this policy as
"impractical" for these last years of the 20th century. Indeed, to
listen to some of them, you could easily gain the impression that God will be
declared bankrupt, TOMORROW, unless we all give to their
"indispensable" project TODAY! And they can produce all sorts of
clever "spiritual arguments" to justify what they do and explain
away what Jesus said. Of course if
men had always done just as Jesus said, then maybe some of our famous
cathedrals would never have been built. And if today,
WE all did just as Jesus said, some church building plans would fail, and
some really big "Christian Works" might have to close! What an
"interesting" possibility!!! The wise will
listen carefully to Jesus and understand that nothing less than obedience to
ALL of His teaching, can truthfully proclaim Him as LORD. That includes
what He said about THIS subject. |