Very Personal Life of a Church Planter: Finances

Part Two of the Very Personal Life of a Church Planter:
by Jim Moon, Jr.

This is the 2nd half of a letter I sent to church planter friends in South Florida. The first half is here. 

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About the Very Personal Financial Life of a Church Planter

The apostle Paul notes in Ephesians 5 that most men long for respect and most women long for security. Both are ways to seek significance. Both are God-designed but sin-warped. Both respect and security will be challenged growth points during the process of church planting.

As with intimacy, finances can be a large but mostly hidden point of contention between you and your wife. You will face temptation to consider short-cuts or cheats that will provide you with the money or gratification you think you have to have. Like past sexual conduct, financial decisions made prior to starting a church plant can hinder intimacy, cut into available resources for rest and limit flexibility to give generously.

Finances are a more visible aspect of the very personal life that can impact public opinion of you and your church. Whether we like it or not, most people outside the church form their initial opinion of every pastor through the lens of what they see with TV preachers, read on the news, remember from past bad experiences or hear by way of gossip. It isn’t pretty. You are guilty by association until proven innocent by your faithfulness over time.

Take pains to set up your personal/family finances and church financial practices to be dependent on the Lord, above reproach, trustworthy and able to withstand scrutiny.

Personally

1. Avoid debt. Have a rigorous plan to pay off all consumer debt (everything except mortgage) before assessment. Seriously limit or avoid student debt even if it takes more time. The crisis of student loan debt may be the next systemic road block we face to getting church planters on the field. (See ‘I Owe U’ by Krstina Bell, TIME October 31, 2011)

It’s best to ask people to support a church planter who has paid off personal debts. Your wife should not be required to work to make payments on debt. There will be a lot of stress planting a church and you all have limited time for your marriage, family and church priorities.

2. Spend wisely within your family and church context. You and your family should live on a written budget within the context where God calls you to plant and the means he supplies you. Some planters have larger reserves and family resources than others. Be sure your spending adjusts to God’s call and provision for your family, not over-adjusts to the expectations of your culture.

There is a need to fit in. I hate TV but got cable. I bought different clothes and even learned to play golf to fit in. The temptation to get an upgraded car did pass through my mind, but really a used Accord is fine. It is wise to live on the humble side of your context.

3. Always tithe. You lead by example here. If you don’t tithe, you have no moral authority to ask others to tithe. And ‘tithe’ means 10%.

4. Save. You’ll need margin in your life and the flexibility to give to important projects. Can’t do that if you are scraping by month to month. Current wisdom is have three to six months of your expenses in reserve.

5. Raise all your support before you move or start public worship. This is your part-time job until it is completed. Raise at least 80% prior to moving to the field. Experienced fund-raisers will tell you people give to ‘anticipated vision’ so your urgent need to get support in place goes away after you move to the field and once you start public worship. If you are stuck here, find a coach who can help you.

Corporately as a Church Plant

1. Team finances. For the protection of the church’s name and those who handle the money, have a team where every role is double checked. A good sending agency will have these policies for you to follow.

Examples: Two people count the offerings, two people have access to all files, you do not have direct access to check signing or specific amounts people give. You will save yourself and your volunteers and staff much heart ache and potential scandal and rumor if you protect everyone by implementing these safeguards.

2. Open budget discussions. If you start with a launch team, discuss finances openly and frequently. Then quarterly open discussions about expenses and income build trust with those who join in after you start. People take notice when a church does not keep secrets!

3. Take offerings teach appropriately about money. Several scratch planters have found suspicions about money so high that they started public worship without taking up an offering. They opted for a locked box in the back of the worship space. This was wise for a season. However every church must be taught appropriately about money.

Take advantage of other programs to train people in budgeting, debt, spending, tithing, giving etc. Financial Peace University is more accessible to unchurched people but has only 1 of 13 lessons on giving. Crown Financial is a small group Bible study formatted series. Both are solid.

4. Preach about money as the Scriptures bring it up. Plus set aside annual times to emphasize giving. You can and should inspire people to sacrifice, but the pulpit is not the place for the nitty-gritty training so folks can get out of debt, live on a budget and free themselves up to give cheerfully. That is best done in smaller contexts and training.

And remember, tithing and sacrificial giving is part of following Jesus because it is our part of taking up our cross daily. We aren’t calling people to a life of comfort but to a life with a cross. We are called to bear one another’s burdens.


Who Bears Your Burdens?
One temptation is to put your faith in your finances. But that won't save you. Finances are a terrible savior, whether you have a lot or too little for your comfort.


Christ Jesus has taken the full weight of all your debts on Himself on the cross and knowing everything about your finances, God the Father punished Christ in your place. Trust Him, not your financial support. Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness bought for you on the cross and he will provide everything you and your family need.

Action Items:
1. What financial road blocks and speed bumps do you need to address this month? Or in your church plant ministry plan?

2. What resources do you need to find and implement for your family and your church plant in the next six months? Next year?
3. How do you need to think differently about finances in light of Christ's work on the cross?

Where Are the Bright Christian Leaders in the Middle of this Crisis?

So is it better to:

a) limit a corporation's ability to attract talent or

b) keep businesses from using government bailout money to pay executives?

I read this article about President Obama's decision to limit pay to executives in companies who take loans from the government with mixed thoughts.

On the one hand I'm against corporate executives taking government money and cashing in big salaries.

On the other hand I'm against hamstringing freedoms to attract the smartest people to solve the problems of a big corporation and pay them what they are worth.

So I'm thinking there has to be another solution, right?
O yeah, it's called 'free market economy' where companies that stink go out of business and others who can do a better job take their place. Yes, people lose their jobs and pensions. It's terrible. I must be a heartless har dass to want people to loose their jobs!

Who will help them out then? Nobody - but the government. Or will the Church step up?

What is worse, for a man to lose his job or his soul? What is more terrible than joblessness is this: people are putting their faith in jobs and government to give them life. And it won't work.

Where is the church in the middle of this? What do we have to offer people? What am I doing to alleviate the suffering of those who do not trust in God but in the plans of man? I'm praying. And teaching our men how to lead their family and their coworkers to faith in Christ. I need some laser sharp men to take the lead here. Only a community of men and women applying Scripture and wisdom is going to lead this nation out of its depression - both economic and spiritual.

Where are our bright, educated Christian leaders to lead this nation to repentance and a solid economy? Believers should be leaders in the midst of this crisis! We are all created in the image of God to transform the world in which we live!

Get off you asses Christians and let's get to work transforming this mess!

Prosperity Idol Worship

Found this on I Speak the Truth and it brings tears to my eyes. Tears of anger and deep sadness. This is bondage and slavery to which hundreds of thousands are enslaved in our nation and around the world.


And this sort of teaching is the most visible face of Christianity to a lost and dying world. Is it wrong to pray imprecatory prayers against this shit?

Oh wait, I am no better. I want money and ease more than I want You oh Lord! Who do I think I am? Just because I seek money in more 'appropriate' ways, am I better when I worship an idol? Oh Lord My God Have Mercy on Us!

With Obushama, the Rich Get Bailouts and the Poor Get Poorer

Obushama! Is something wrong with the picture? Its the same thing. Obama and Bush Obushama are doing the same thing!

The old and new administrations are essentially the same. They are both trying to bail our way out of an economic downturn by giving more money to the rich and powerful. Today I hear it's going to be another $800 billion in bailouts? Is that 1.5 trillion now - to the rich, to try to keep companies afloat so people can keep their jobs and keep consuming stuff on credit. Great. Thanks Obushama! That is really going to help the poor!

And according to Time online not one dollar will get to the rising number of people living in poverty.

Granted, poverty in America isn't poverty in Haiti, but the injustice of it all irks me. Where is all the change?

Are Lunatics Running the Asylum Obushama? Where is all the change?
Now Obushama tells us he is going to cut 'wasteful' government programs. Yeah right, wait until those special interest groups start complaining! How does that help the poor learn job skills and character that will enable them to work with dignity? It won't.

The churches and welfare agencies are going to see HUGE increases in people needing help with finding jobs and feeding themselves and Obushama wants to start massive infrastructure projects building roads and bridges. Guess who is going to get awarded those contracts? Not the poor!

How is that a change?
Real Change would be to help the churches help the poor learn character. Learn SPECIFICALLY NOT to go into debt! Instead, there are 10 million more poor people now than in 2007 and Citi Bank - who hands out credit cards to people like a drug dealer trying to hook new users - they get a bailout!

The poor have dignity and are created by God to work. Government programs that increase availability of credit aren't going to help the poor!

Okay, I need to breathe. Sorry, I get so worked up when I see solutions offered by our government that make the situation worse.

Financial Frustrations in Perspective

I'm just mad right now.

As I think we all should be. See, we are sure going to miss all that money we have to spend bailing out banks and insurance companies...

According to this article in the Marietta Daily News by Don McKee, this financial bailout has been anticipated by many over the course of the last five years, but CONGRESS has stalled attempts to reform.

Does it make you want to know how your congressmen and senator voted?

Does it make you want to vote out the bums who waited around until it was to late to do anything?

An Article Among Many

In September 2003, President Bush recommended what even the New York Times described as "the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago."

Bush's plan called for a new oversight agency for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage industry giants that urgently needed reining in. Immediate opposition came from such groups as the homebuilders association and Democrats in Congress concerned about low-income and affordable housing.

This was how Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, then the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, put it: "These two entities - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - are not facing any kind of financial crisis. The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing."

Republicans had a majority in Congress but only by the narrowest margin in the Senate, which meant any measure opposed by the Democrats could not get through, particularly since it would take a super majority of 60 votes to overcome procedural roadblocks.

When Congress convened in January 2005, then-House majority leader Tom DeLay of Texas predicted regulatory reform would come. The House approved a reform bill that included affordable housing funding, while the Senate Banking Committee voted 11-9 in a party-line vote for a bill that did not include the housing provision.

In a Senate speech on May 25, 2006, Sen. John McCain pointed to Fannie Mae's self-serving accounting manipulations by senior management, resulting in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal that included phony earnings to trigger big payoffs for the former CEO.

McCain called for reform "without delay." As a co-sponsor of the Senate reform bill (S.190), he urged quick passage. He told the Senate:

"If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system and the economy as a whole. I urge my colleagues to support swift action on this....reform legislation."

But for the third straight year, regulatory reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac foundered, "derailed by partisan disagreements over investment portfolios and an affordable housing fund," Congressional Quarterly Weekly reported. The Senate bill never made it to the floor because of those "partisan disagreements."

In August last year when the financial system was rocked by big losses in Europe on packages of U.S. mortgage securities, Bush rejected a plan to let Fannie and Freddie go over their mortgage investment limit. First, he said, Congress should reform the agencies.

No, said Democrat Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and a presidential candidate: "There is no reason why such reform is a necessary precondition to a modification of the cap."

Now we'll see if they can put Humpty Dumpty together again.

Indeed.

Debt Perspective: URGENT QUESTION!

URGENT QUESTION! Should anyone with a credit card be smiling?

For a bit of perspective, six months ago if you had added up the grand total of every American citizens credit card debt was almost a trillion dollars.

According to Howard Scripps News Service, as of February 2008, the Federal Reserve reported the total revolving consumer credit debt in the United States at nearly $950 billion.

That was before the economic downturn got as severe as it is now. The 'Plan' now is to rescue an entire financial system with $700 billion dollars of taxpayers' money. Taxpayers' money. Our money.

It gives me the heebie-jeebies to think about it. What is wrong with our leaders? Are people really that greedy or gullible? Evidently.

I'm Just Saying - It Ain't Easy Being Broke
If you are one of the millions of people in America in consumer debt, you are in a very precarious position and our government is putting us all in deeper. Time for a gut check!

I was raised in a low-income household but my parents were stubborn (or smart) and wouldn't take credit from anybody. Sort of old-fashioned I know. Off and on we qualified for reduced lunch but they wouldn't take it. Always took a PB&J, fritos, an oatmeal cake and an apple. (It was hard being broke but I survived.)

My parents came from stock like my Papaw who worked every day since he finished WWII at a dry cleaners until the day they made him retire - over 45 years. They never went in debt, paid off the house way early and saved up his money. He's 83 now. He lives simply and looks like a financial genius now.

When my wife and I got married fresh out of school, her parents gave us a book called Master Your Money that outlined how to handle your money the way the Bible has taught for millenia.

It's Easier Out of Debt
It has been so hard to 'suffer' without new cars, new furniture, new clothes every season. But its sure not as hard for us now. It really works. I want you to know how you can do it too.

This article in the local Marietta paper about Dave Ramsey is on the radio 640AM 3-7pm in ATL (a real radio station, not a 'Christian' station). Every day he's helping people do what the Bible says with their money. I like that - a lot. We want to help a bunch more people get freed from the slavery of debt. Or never get in it at all.

Interested in helping? Let me know.

Need a hand? Crosspoint offers two programs each year designed to help practically. Jobs for Life teaches essential job skills to help people find earn a livable wage and Financial Peace University teaches people how to get out of debt and handle their finances the way the Bible teaches.

Financial Bailout is Serious

So after reading about our government's 'jaw dropping' financial bailout plan, I'm wondering:

1. In the Paulson/Bush plan will mortgage and credit companies continue to be allowed by the Bush (and future administrations) to practice predatory lending that got us in the this mess in the first place?
2. What penalty will individuals have to pay for signing up for loans that they could not pay? Is there going to be personal accountability or an 'I'm a victim' excuse making?

Moral Response REQUIRED
Will Americans learn their lessons or just keep on living undisciplined, unbiblical, rebellious and unwise lives?
Will churches boldly teach financial truths and train people HOW to live morally upright financial lives?

We will at Crosspoint. This is a serious matter. Jesus said, 'You either serve God or money.' (Matthew 6)

Crosspoint will be offering 'Financial Peace University' beginning in January. It has helped 50+ families and singles locally get out of debt, save, avoid making stupid decisions and live wisely in this culture that lies to us all saying 'you can have what you want now and pay for it later.'

Here's a great short piece reminding us that praying for our economy is loving our neighbors.

Listen to Dave Ramsey's radio show in ATL on 640 WGST for solid biblical teaching every afternoon 3-6pm.

Fear Grips Markets and Millions World Wide Panic

I popped on Yahoo and this is what I see:

Morgan Stanley in talks as fear grips financials
2 hours, 10 minutes ago
HONG KONG/LONDON (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley topped the list of major financial firms scrambling to find a buyer, while central banks rushed in $180 billion of extra liquidity to bring some calm to panicked stock and money markets...

Central banks turn on funding taps to tackle market squeeze
29 minutes ago
FRANKFURT/TOKYO (Reuters) - The world's top central banks joined forces on Thursday to throw a multi-billion dollar lifeline to global markets in a dramatic effort to free up bank-to-bank lending, frozen by the upheavals on Wall Street....

Are you getting TIRED FROM ALL THE PANICKED TYPEFACE!
The Stock Market is crashing! We are headed to another Great Depression! Unemployment is at its highest in five years! Thousands loosing their homes!

It's amazing how all this news, all this data effects us, whether it directly impacts our lives or not. As I wrote last Friday in anticipation of Hurricane Ike - I'm numb. Most of us are news numb.

But there is something else I missed in my own heart and in the hearts of people in our church as I talk to them.

A greater peace
We may be numb to this data.
But to the degree that we are secure in the Great News of our Great God, we have peace and security that can not be shaken.

Many of us have been preparing our lives for this kind of situation - like God's revealed Word has told us to prepare on earth. We are out of debt, we don't borrow money, we don't put our faith in our insurance policies. We work with excellence whether our job is teaching, sales, running our business or making art.

The lack of fear is not because I'm good, or better than the folks panicking in the financial markets. Not because I have a huge stash of gold bullion in my basement either. There are times where I feel my heart getting the jitters. Times when I can't focus.

But our hearts and minds are trained by this: our citizenship and our inheritance is in another land.

We really actually rely on Our Father who is answering the prayers of His people all over the world to bring His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

A stock market tremor or crash is all under His divine reign.

I think there's much bigger and better news that gets reported...