Money and the Kingdom: To Spend as One Blessed by The Lord

Disclaimer: The financial teaching below is what I believe to be true and accurate, biblically speaking. It should not be read like a "how to be a millionaire". It's also not whatcha call prosperity gospel, that stuff isn't really gospel to my way of thinking. The real reason for this disclaimer is, as of 2022, 1. I am not a millionaire, and 2. I am not able to give as much to the Kingdom as I want to. So, what follows is not so much a way I am teaching you to live as it is a way that I intend to live. I will lay this out fairly methodically and thoughtfully for my benefit and will do so publicly for your benefit. (Hopefully! :D) Check back in 2042 and we shall see how this went. :)

With this thing I speak of, several positive things happen, here are a few of them: 

1. Your time is valued by people in your life. 

2. You contribute to your community in a positive manner.

3. You have a place, a sense of belonging. 

4. Your mind is occupied and not idle.

5. Your skills and abilities are continually honed, refined, and improved in other ways. 

6. All your needs and some of your wants are met. 

So, this thing I speak of is your money maker. Perhaps it's a current job or management position. Perhaps it's the result of a job, ie, a passive investment that pays you. Regardless, those things listed are benefits from the money maker. There are a lot of struggles around the idea of purpose, and fulfillment in the workplace, and that's what this whole series of Money and the Kingdom is all about. As a refresher, this series is for Kingdom disciples who are willing to wrap their arms and hearts around 2 fundamental realities. 1. Whatever you are doing for profit is ministry. 2. God is providing for your needs, NOT you.

Consider for a little bit, a healthy family, and the meal table. The father goes out and grabs provision. The mother takes some of that provision and converts it into a delicious meal. Then the younger children do their job. What's their job? To come to the table, to lift their spoon, and partake of the delicious meal, lovingly prepared by their parents. (This is not to say that  the husband can never prepare a meal, and the wife can never get provision, but in light of the current political climate about gender roles, I wrote that illustration very traditionally for a reason.) God, is your father, and He is also complete in His ability to parent you, after all, men and women are both made in the image of God. So it is that He takes the complete parental role in your life for you. He has prepared for you, the adult, a meal table for your life. He has equipped you with a unique gift that you can take to the marketplace and get paid for. He has provided you with a culture to use it in. On 1 side claim and truly believe that God actually is providing for you just like Jesus said He does. (Matthew 6:25-31) On the other side, go out and do stuff, working with your hands, feet, and brain in the ways God gifted you. When you have both fundamental realities coexisting at the core of your belief system, you are the child of God, who is willing to go to the table, and pick up his spoon and eat from God's abundant provision. 

Getting practical:

Ask God for your percentage, and use that, but what follows is an example of the practical application for this spending allocation, and I am going to use a number for the sake of convenience. Keep in mind, that 100% of funds need to be split in 3 directions. Giving, Spending, and Saving. I have it like this: Giving 20% Spending 40% Saving 40% However, for you, practically applied, it might work better to do like this: Giving 15% Spending 50% Saving 35% I hope it makes sense that this is about the principle of intentionally turning God's provision table for your life into a ministry by giving each dollar a place to go rather than wondering where it went, and not about hard fast numbers. 

In part 2 we allocated a 5th or 20% of this abundant provision from God's table for us and gave it to God for Him to use to supply the tables of other people with both their wants and needs. Now, we want to allocate 40% to spend on monthly expenses. The groceries, the utilities, the clothes, and the wants. Let's see if we can establish a budget, and slow our monthly spending rate down to a point where we can live on 40% of our pay for the smaller monthly things that we end up buying. If you do it all intentionally, there is a decent chance you will be able to buy all the things you used to buy. Controlling the spending in this way merely paces it, so you don't buy it all as fast. 

 What about the big things that have to be gotten that just don't fit in the budget? Well, that's what the savings are for. So, what are big things that don't fit in the monthly budget? Anything that costs more than about half of the budget amount, or something that needs to be gotten right now even though the budget is already used up. So, big things, and emergencies should be purchased with careful thought and prayer from the 3rd portion of your God-given provision. We will look at that more closely next time. 

Church Problems are Fictional

 So, we have made a huge mistake in my opinion, and in this post, I want to explain what I'm seeing. I will do that by defining some terms and discussing each one. These terms aren't meant to be all in, dictionary correct, or end all be all of all things regarding their meaning. No, when I define a term, I am explaining what it means to me, and am entirely open to a better term for what I am talking about. So, let's begin. 

1. The Church. 

It is the people of God. It is what happens when multiple disciples of Christ gather in Christ's name. When that happens, you have a part of or a form of church. Yet we have made the mistake of believing that the church is something we create. We believed it was a ministry we started. Yet, the church is not something we can ever create. It's something God creates when His children meet around their mutual love of Christ and His Kingdom. The thing we have called the church is actually just a form of non-profit ministry or a charity. 

2. Non-profit Ministry.

It's an origination that belongs to God's Kingdom. It's not trying to make a profit, but it is trying to advance the Kingdom of God through things like teaching, prayer, counseling, evangelizing, and so on. Or, they might take disabled people hunting, but they are Kingdom focused, so it's for the honor and glory of God, and the advancement of His Kingdom, As a non-profit, it relies on funding from businesses and for-profit ministries. 

3. Charity.

It's a non-profit organization that works on what it believes are good causes but is not necessarily Kingdom ministry oriented. It might very well do the same things as a non-profit ministry. For example, a charity that makes accommodations to take disabled people hunting so that they might enjoy the thrill of the hunt is not trying to make money, and it is a good cause, but if it's not Kingdom focused, I am not prepared to call it ministry. 

4. Business.

This is an organization that is for profit. This is the type of organization that gets started to accumulate personal wealth, to build a personal empire. To be rich, to be important. Greedy people abound at the heads of these organizations. 

5. For-profit Ministry.

This is an organization that pretty much looks like a business, and in most ways, it is a business. Yet, there is one huge difference that makes all the difference. The management of this organization has given it to God and His Kingdom for His purposes. Practically speaking, this means that the organization cares about its people, both employees, and customers, as people, and not just as a means to profit. It also means this organization cares about raising funds for the Kingdom to give to Non-profit ministries, doing Kingdom things, and enabling the practical working of the hands and feet of Christ by His disciples. 

 So, now, we have discussed what the church is, and we have discussed the 4 different kinds of organizations people find themselves working in and operating, but what's that got to do with the provocative title? (It was suggested by a friend.) Well, at its core, the church is God's people meeting with and about Him. So, how can such a thing have problems? It can't. Now, the things we build, the organizations, and the people in them can have problems willy nilly, at any moment, without warning. So, there you go, that's the reason for the title, God's spotless bride has no problems. Our organizations sure do though...

 So, at the outset, I said we made a big mistake. What's the mistake? I believe it goes something like this. We arrange a nice little 2-3 hour meeting on Sunday mornings, we appoint leaders for that meeting, and in so doing we create for ourselves either a very nice, average, downright boring, outrageously heretical, or even toxic weekly seminar. (Now, I personally go to one of these things, and I'm thankful it's one of the nice ones. However, it does have its problems.) Yet, our big mistake is taking it so seriously. Here are some of the ways:

We tend to think that a person who no longer attends one of these things will die spiritually.

We tend to give the leaders of these weekly seminars something that amounts to a life sentence, a lifetime call to do and be someone truly special and impossible. 

We even give them special privileges and hold them up in high esteem as spiritual gurus who know God far better than us mere mortals can.   

When this weekly seminar has a big schism or hiccup within its people group, we take the offense very personally and even at times leave God over it. 

So, why do we do this with the weekly seminar and not so much with our other businesses, our other ministries, or our other charities? Because, we have, very arrogantly and presumptuously called the weekly seminar thing we created the church and even believed it to be true. Yet, it's very obvious if you think about it, that the church only resides within the weekly seminar. Want proof? How about this, if I called all of your congregation including the leaders to an outback steakhouse, by bribing them with free steaks, and they all showed up, then we would sing hymns and share testimonies to the Lord until the steakhouse kicked us out so they can go home and sleep. Would you be able to look me in the eye and straight-up honestly tell me? "The church is not here. Only the 2 hours on Sunday morning count" I didn't think so. In this case, your Sunday morning leaders would have gotten to be who they were this whole time, brothers in Christ. Who would have led this meeting of the church? Me, Because I had the idea and I paid for the steaks. Yet, the meal table at outback was not the church either, As a man, I created an event or occasion through my natural means, and God saw it, liked it, and supernaturally created church the way He wanted it. After this event was over, my leadership stopped, because this entire time, I was not a spiritual guru, I was also just another brother in Christ. So, I believe we should pray towards demystifying, simplifying, and humbling the way we look at our efforts, leaders, and Christ's church. How to get there? I don't know how to unpack generations upon generations of wrong thinking around this issue. I know that I am not the first person to wrestle with this dilemma at all. Many men who are much older and wiser than I have talked about this issue. Yet, I want to do my bit, to fellowship, and to see the church for what she truly is. I'm not quite sure what to call the Sunday morning thing now though.... 😕

Perhaps we can keep using the term church and remember that there are 2 definitions of it. 

Definition 1: Church: The bride of Christ, the people of God, getting together around and about Him. Both locally, and globally.

Definition 2: Church: The meeting of the church as defined in definition 1. The organization, plan, structure, and ministry, are designed to give God the platform so that He can form the church as He wishes. 

Ultimately, this whole entry was addressing the concern I have that we have made a 3rd terrible definition for the church that goes something like this: I will make the church, by my efforts at organizing, building, teaching, singing, etc I will make, start, or do church properly. Or, to put it another way, I will make Christ's bride for Him. 

Whatever God calls us to organize, build, arrange, or otherwise do, let us remember that we are merely doing a ministry for Him. God will build the church. I believe as disciples of Christ, we should only ever do ministry. Either for-profit or non-profit. Let's let the world keep the businesses and the charities, and let's let the Lord build the church. 

Photo Credit: Pastor Brian Moss.