MONEY

Unlike the New Testament Church, it has been calculated that today over 95% of Christian money is devoted to the maintenance of existing Christian institutions rather than looking towards outreach. So long as this maintenance mentality grips us, rather than mission, we shall shrink and deservedly so.

What do we spend money on that the New Testament Church didn’t spend money on?

First, they didn’t spend money on buildings as most of the time they met in the homes of the believers. Although the church was city wide i.e. the church at Corinth; the church at Ephesus, and they must have numbered in thousands, they did not fall into the trap of spending millions on buildings to accommodate mega churches.

Second, no one got paid to minister. There was no such thing as the clergy/laity divide as the ministry was in the hands of everyone as Paul makes very clear in his letter to the Corinthian church when he says “to each one the manifestation of the spirit is given for the common good” (1 Cor. 12:7).

Meetings of the church in the New Testament were all about the manifestation of the spirit, not well planned and well organised programmes concocted by man. No one came to a meeting with a planned sermon or half a dozen songs they were going to sing.

When they were not doing that, they were meeting in homes to share their lives and substance together.

These two measures alone would have saved them millions of dollars, or shekels as the case may be. Consequently, there was plenty of money to go around for spreading the gospel and taking care of the poor which is where the money went.

When Paul and his companions travelled to a new place to teach the gospel and establish a church, he was not able to support himself, so the sending church provided finance for living. Once he got there he always started his own business of making tents to pay his own way.

The seven deacons selected in Acts 6 main ministry was to look after the poor and needy, the money for which was provided by the church (Acts 4).

Had the New Testament Church put up buildings and or paid ministry, neither of which happened until the third century, the great advance of the gospel would probably have not happened and their impact would have been lessened as there would have been little money for the poor and needy which was one of their hallmarks.

Today, we spend our money on unscriptural and unnecessary leadership and buildings that are white elephants as most of the time they stand empty. Instead of following the New Testament pattern and meet in homes, we choose to institutionalise what happens and as a result we lose our spontaneity and every member focus.

Because of this fact, we are no longer a living organism as we have been replaced with a dead organisation, one that drains most of the money that should be spent on more essential activity to build the Kingdom of God.