Church Economy

Sounds like an oxymoron huh? You may be wondering why I even brought this up. Well, I have recently had more than a few conversations with young adult non-Christians about what bothers them most about the “Church” and Christianity. I was trying to find out what their turn offs were and what keeps them from making Christianity a part of their search for things spiritual. What was one of the big reasons that each had on their list? Money. (Remember that I am in the USA, these folks are, and their experiences are with Christianity in America. I know that it’s not like this everywhere in the world.)

They tell me they can’t trust an organization that takes in so much money and does, in their opinion, very little with it. I realize that they may not be totally fair when passing this judgment, but there is some merit to it.

They tell me that the way the Church and its people handle money is no different to them than the way anyone else handles money. They see the Church as offering goods and services in exchange for money. And while they know that churches are nonprofit organizations, they see big fancy buildings, preachers in thousand dollar suits driving cars that cost more than $50,000 dollars, and youth groups making money for what amounts to fun trips to the beach. Hard to argue with these observations.

They tell me that the “ministries” they see on TV ask for a lot of money, live the high life, and make no noticeable difference in the world. They see elaborate sets and again, expensive clothes and wonder if that’s what it’s all about. They see these folks as taking advantage of othes for the sake of the almighty dollar. I can't disagree here either.

So here is my take. I understand that any organization that takes in money, will inevitably end up with an “economy”. And while I enjoy and agree with capitalism in our secular realms, the description in Acts sounds a little more, gasp, socialist, to me. See Acts 3:44-45. That verse doesn’t sound like capitalism to me. Am I going to go sell all my stuff? No. But I think totally ignoring this has lead to the government taking over the role of the Church through social programs. Now we are in a mess. Why has the Church in America dropped the ball on this?

Do you think the overall way money gets handled in churches and the Church might be problematic? If so how? Do these folks outside the Church have a point? Is even something we are obligated to address with them? How would you respond to their concerns?

Comments

[Daniel Nairn]

After reading this post, I had to sit and let some of those questions sink in. You're totally right that how the church spends it's money is as much a part of its witness to the world as anything else.

I've recently found myself in the position of "stewardship elder" at our local church. In other words, I need to encourage people to give money to our church. But I've found myself having to ask the question "why?" Maybe God-says-so should be enough, but it's hard to settle on that. What I'm discovering is the simple fact that people want to be a part of mission. A static church is not worth investing in.

I think your friends do have a point, but I would also challenge them to question some of the media's more sensationalist Christian personalities. I've known a few remarkable exceptions to the normal free-market decadence, but they don't have their own TV shows.