Here is re:post part 3 from 2010, on my thoughts if the Chilean mine rescue were operated like the church. You can read my other posts on the home page of the blog:
So, what if it were performed like the church? If the Chilean mine rescue were performed like the church, they might not have taken the financial risk to rescue the lost miners, instead they would have “saved their money for a rainy day.” I can’t tell you how INFURIATED I get when I hear Christians or Churches use that statement. And YES, I’ve heard it said before. I assume the price tag on the rescue was fairly hefty, but I also assume that EVERY one of the 33 miners AND their families and friends would agree that EVERY dollar spent was well worth the money.
I was at a city pastors prayer meeting one time when a pastor was sharing a frustration with his church board. The church had a fairly large nest egg (Around $250,000) in a savings account that had been sitting there for quite some time unused. The pastor wanted to use SOME of that money to attempt a project to reach new people in the community with the Gospel of Jesus. The elder board told this pastor “We really feel like we need to save that money for a rainy day.”
We prayed for the pastor…for wisdom, clarity and discretion in dealing with this church board. We rallied around him as fellow brothers in the Lord. But inside I wanted to scream to his elder board “SAVE IT FOR A RAINY DAY??? TODAY is your STINKIN’ rainy day folks. People are dying and going to hell ALL AROUND YOU. How much more rain do you need before you start USING the resources God gave you to RESCUE PEOPLE?” MAN that gets me going.
I had someone from another church in another town talk to me one time about some of the outreaches we do here at Element Church and how much MONEY they cost. Their response was “Well yeah, but what if no one comes to OUR church because of the outreach?” SERIOUSLY? We don’t do outreach so people come to OUR church. We do outreach because IT’S THE RIGHT STINKIN’ THING TO DO, and we want people to come into GOD’S KINGDOM not into OUR CHURCH!
I’m not saying we should just blow every dime that comes across our desk. We are called to be good stewards and managers of EVERY penny that comes to our care. AND we take that responsibility VERY seriously here at Element Church. We will stand before God some day and be accountable for how we managed HIS money. However, I hope that on the day I die or the day Christ returns I can stand before God and say without hesitation that I utilized EVERY AVAILABLE RESOURCE at our churches disposal to RESCUE people from the flames of judgment. It sure seems to be the ONLY reasonable thing to do. Kinda like when those 33 miners were stuck below ground.
In the rescue,
Jeff