I work in the church. It is my vocation. I am convinced that if I were not able to receive a salary for working in the church, that I would still have to do it. It is compulsory.
That being said, I understand that many of the things in church that I write about have bias. You see, I really believe the local church is the hope of the world. I am not talking about a building or even a cool brand; but the people that make of the church of Jesus.
I really love the church; I haven't always been able to say that. I love my church. I think we get a lot of things right. Every church (and the word every makes this statement inclusive of all) functions as an organization. Whether you like it or not, the church of Jesus Christ uses the same systems that organizations worldwide use: business principles, marketing, conflict management, etc. This is not a very popular statement with "would be" purists (I am talking about idealistic people who believe that money and economic stability should not be part of the conversation of the church). But, if you have ever led in the church setting, you understand. That being said, I really appreciate and love the way my church spends her money (and not just because I take a paycheck, for which I am grateful and I do enjoy).
At my church, our budget covers common things like: salaries (duh), facility stuff (like electricity and running water), insurance (because it is a public place, and it's like common sense legality stuff, ya know?), and the like. But unlike other organizations, my church pays for things like: utility bills for people on hard financial times, medical clinic establishment in third world countries, counseling for troubled marriages, teaching and training for life development, relationship enabling like groups of people that do life together, school facility renovations, food and boardning for the homeless, and the occasional gift card for the volunteer that has worked hard to enable mission and she deserves a full time salary (but, deep down, the fruit of her labor is worth more than any salary or gift card to her). Stuff like that.
There's a question that goes through my mind from time to time that I was first asked about ten years ago: if your church were taken off the map and didn't exist any more, who would notice? I love working for/with a church that matters. So much so, we shouldn't be surprised when we see God's faithfulness and providence in supernatural (don't worry...I'm not getting weird...think extraordinary and "this normally wouldn't happen" type of stuff) ways.
Case in point: we had to cancel our weekend services the first weekend of February due to 75,000 feet of snow being dropped on us multiple times (it was more like 3-4 ft overall, but ya know...). Now, understand that our services (we like to call them celebrations) are the most common source of income for our organization. We don't exist without the church (think people) buying into the mission of who we say we are (think giving money, time, energy, and prayer). We have online giving, and many people take advantage of that, but honestly, we were a bit concerned. To add to the concern, we already had 40 homeless men and women living at our facility, and dozens of volunteers taking care of them (we were spending money, time, energy, and prayer).
You know what happened? Not only did my church EXCEED our budgeted giving over the first weeks of February, the homeless guests decided to conduct a church service regardless of anyone else being able to be there. Many of our volunteers work on other teams, but this weekend, they preached, sang, filmed, recorded...why, it was as if they refused to allow the weekend snowstorm to stop them! Supernatural.
Just sayin...
