Bill,
I knew you and your wife were special people--even before you worked here. When I opened the card and saw how much $ I cried. I will use this money wisely.
God bless you and stay safe,
Love you guys!
(Not really her name) Betty, as is obvious from the note, is someone I work with. She is a very bright person who is only a little older than we are. She is divorced, has little contact with her children--and is in poor health to the degree that working about a dozen hours a week is more than her body can tolerate, so it breaks down from time to time.(Betty Bailey)
Not long ago, I noticed that when she came to work, Betty would already be dripping with sweat, looked pale and was hunched over. After about a week of that, she was on the list of people scheduled to work who had called in sick. This went on for more than a week. A manager eventually told me that he didn't really know anything other than she had been to the ER.
When she returned to work, I asked her what had happened and she really didn't say, other than to admit what was already known--that she had had to go to the ER and had missed a lot of work.
From past conversations, I knew a little about her health problems and that, financially, she lived on the edge, that she was living in an income adjusted apartment and barely made ends meet even though she lived very frugally.
Evelyn and I talked it over and decided to buy a gift card to be used at the grocery store where Betty and I work. I quietly handed the card to Betty on a rare shift that we worked together. The above note details her response.
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We ourselves live on a fraction of the income we had when I was a full-time pastor. In those days, we gave sacrificially but primarily to the congregation I was serving and, occasionally in small amounts, to other causes and needs we became aware of.
In more recent days, we have repented of being people of the church and have begun to live as people of the Kingdom of God. We no longer receive any compensation for the work we do in obedience to the Lord and we also no longer contribute to the work of a local church.
Instead of giving money to the institutional church, we look to Jesus to understand how we should conduct our financial lives. Two broad principles guide us: One is that Jesus supported tithing The other is that matters of "justice and mercy and faithfulness" are equally important and connected to how Kingdom people give. (Mt. 23:23)
Because we no longer give incestuously to the institutional church, we have a boatload of money to use for the causes of justice and mercy and faithfulness.
Our gift of mercy to Betty, which brought her to tears, is one example of what we understand Kingdom giving to entail.
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I fully endorse Lance's notion that the CGGC needs to recalibrate its focus from church obsession to the Kingdom
I suspect, though, that even the people of the CGGC who would most easily embrace the notion of Kingdom focus will find it difficult to turn their finances over to Kingdom values.
As Lance has pointed out, Jesus barely mentioned the church in the Gospel.
And, Jesus certainly didn't teach tithing to the church. He did talk, in the very same breath, about tithing and issues of justice and mercy and faithfulness. And, He said, "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,..."
There is no church leadership hierarchy to support financially in the way and teachings of Jesus. There is tithing but not tithing to the church, nor tithing of the church to a Conference. There are no staff salaries paid to Executive Directors or other members of a leadership hierarchy.
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Where I work, I am known to be a follower of Jesus and not because I can answer the question, "Where in the Bible does it say,...?" or because I am continually thumping the Bible, calling sinners to repent. I am known to follow Jesus because several of my coworkers have benefitted from the fact that we put our money where our mouths are and live out Jesus' teachings about justice and mercy and faithfulness. (And Evelyn is known to follow Jesus at her workplace for the same reason.) While we always do it very quietly, there is a good kind of gossip that spreads even that sort of news.
I am convinced that our body will never take even a baby step toward being a Kingdom people until our wallets become Kingdom wallets.
We must repent.
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