“Trails Through Tellico” Stewardship Kickoff

“The True Cost Of Being The Church”

1 Peter 5:1-11

CLICK TO LISTEN!

I suppose I was about 7 or 8 years old when I first got the chance to give away some of my wealth to help support God’s work in the world! At Adams Square Congregational Church, not only the grown-ups but the kids, too, were given offering envelopes. The children’s envelopes, of course, were smaller in size and usually jingled with change. I remember how hard it was trying to figure out what a tithe would be on my 25-cent a week allowance. So I just rounded it up to a nickel!

And I so distinctly remember how good it felt the next time the offering plate was passed in our row at church, and for the first time in my life I had something of my own to put in it. I was sure everybody in that church witnessed this event – my personal testimony to my little boy’s faith in Jesus, and – in fact – I was certain that even God in heaven was watching! How proud I was to ceremoniously drop my little envelope in that plate, adding my tithe to those of all the others, and in some wonderful way, joining my life to every Christian who has ever lived all the way back to Jesus.

I was so proud to be a contributor to the work of God!

What a wonderful gift that was to me, this gift of being able to participate in and contribute to the salvation of the world through my church! It is one of the most joyful and life-giving gifts that God provides to us human beings – the gift of giving our money away for heaven’s sake!

You would think then, that on the first Sunday of a Stewardship campaign, we preachers would feel happy to get up and talk about money and how the giving of your money and my money to the work of God through the church is one of the coolest things there is for human beings to do! And you would think that church people would rush to worship on the first Sunday of the Stewardship campaign thinking, “Oh boy, I can’t wait to get to church today and hear a great sermon about giving more of my money!”

But let’s be honest with each other. That’s not really how it goes. Like most other preachers I know, I have come to feel very uncomfortable preaching about money. And perhaps you are like millions of other church members who don’t much like hearing about it either.

I wonder how we came to be like this? How did one of the great joys of childhood turn into one of the negative experiences of adult churchmanship? How did something that started in our lives like a beautiful rose that brings us pleasure turn into something like poison ivy that we try to avoid, and that makes us itch pretty badly when we get too close to it?

I think our text from the fifth chapter of 1^st Peter offers some insight. The words are addressed to church leaders, but apply more broadly to all of us. Verse 2 says, first of all, that we are to take care of the ministry that is under our care not because we must, but because we are willing, as God wants us to be.

Last March, I flew into New Orleans to attend a Community Church board meeting. I hopped into a taxi at the airport and headed off toward downtown. The taxi driver was listening to a tape of some preacher and turned the volume down when I got into the car, probably out of courtesy to me. But I said, “Oh, do you like preaching?” She said, “Yes! Do you?” I said, “Well, I have an interest in it!” And with that, she let out a “Thank you, Jesus!” and cranked up the volume all the way! So there we were, zooming down the highway at 75-miles an hour, listening to some loud and enthusiastic preaching to which the cab driver every once in a while responded by taking her hands right off the steering wheel, lifting them toward heaven, and shouting, “Thank you, Lord!” I, on the other hand was hanging onto my seat for dear life as the cab swerved from lane to lane. And I was praying, “God, help me!”

But in the middle of that wild ride, I heard something said by the preacher that caught my attention. He said, “People think they can join a church. But they can’t. You can join a country club, or a health spa, or the Rotary, or PTA, or the Boy Scouts. But you can’t join a church because a church is not an organization. A church is a MINISTRY. You can’t join a ministry. You can only become a part of it!”

Could it be that one reason we’ve lost the joy of giving away our money is because we’ve transformed the church from a MINISTRY into an ORGANIZATION?

An organization consumes money to support itself. Who can get excited about that?

A ministry, on the other hand, uses money to help God touch peoples’ lives in ways that are healing and helpful and supportive of the life God wants us to have. A ministry uses money to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus and to lead people into a healthy relationship with God – it uses money to heal broken lives – it uses money to serve as a moral conscience for the larger community and world and to establish justice – it uses money to love our neighbors as ourselves.

I was speaking a week or two ago with a person from the local area, and we were talking about the relationship between Tellico Village and the rest of the county. He said that he could recall how much animosity existed in the early years as residents came to live here. Some of you remember those days. But, he said, things are changing. It’s a lot better than it used to be. And then he said, “And your church is the reason why!”

I disclaimed that, of course, because I think all the residents of our community work hard at building bridges to our neighbors. “Yes,” he said, “that’s true. Tellico Villagers are great. But you guys are the catalyst. Everybody knows that the Community Church is the leader when it comes to helping people in Loudon County.”

What a compliment to our church. What a compliment to you. What a compliment to God.

And what an illustration of the difference between an organization and a ministry.

Now churches have organizational and institutional needs, of course. There are costs associated with everything we do. And I’ll be completely frank with you this morning – it is your Christian responsibility to make sure that the money people give to God is wisely spent, that our leaders are held accountable, and that the outcome of our financial life is indeed ministry to others and not just organizational survival.

So in the second part of 1^st Peter 5:2, we are taught that we are to take care of the ministry God has given us, “…not greedy for money, but eager to serve.”

In other words, we give our money, and ask others to give their money, not to meet our own needs, not to keep the organization afloat, but in order to serve others in Jesus’ name.

I’m afraid, though, that somewhere along the line, many of us have lost this healthy Christian orientation toward serving others. For many of us today, American consumerism has invaded our faith to the point that the church is often viewed as a religious kind of Wal-Mart – a dispenser of goods and services designed to meet all my needs and make my life better. “What’s in it for me?” That’s the question that so often drives church people today, and that often forms the basis for how we decide how much money to give. And I think that takes the joy out of giving our money away. You know, there is a very big difference between giving to something, and paying for something. Don’t you think? Christian consumerism transforms the church into just another Village amenity.

But the church is a ministry, not an amenity. And it is a costly ministry.

What do you suppose is the true cost of being a church?

I don’t think the true cost of being a church can be seen by looking at the numbers in next year’s budget. Our 2007 budget is just over a million dollars, and to some of us, that’s a lot of money. But even a million dollars is not the true cost of being this church.

The true cost of being this church – I deeply believe - can only be seen when you look at the Cross.

That is what it cost…to be this church.

Christ’s life is what it cost.

And Jesus said it will cost us our lives too, to step forward as disciples of Jesus who, having experienced God’s love through the Cross, now lift up our own crosses to go and love others as he loved us – who having received salvation, now go and bring the Gospel to others – who having been ministered to, now go and minister in Jesus’ name to the world.

I know that for me, back in my childhood, when I so joyfully dropped my little envelope in the plate, I had not one thought that I was supporting an organization, a budget, utility costs, or that I would ever get anything out of it myself. Those things NEVER EVEN CROSSED MY MIND!

My only thought when I placed my offering in the plate was that somehow, God would take the nickel I had placed in that envelope, and use it in some miraculous way to save someone for God’s kingdom.

And the mere thought that I was helping God do that gave me more joy than I can possibly describe!

Someday, when I get to heaven, I think God will show me what that nickel did for someone else. The Bible says that our works do follow us to heaven. The good things we do for the Kingdom of God on earth become a part of our living legacy in eternity.

And I suspect that you and I both will be surprised and overjoyed when God shows us what our money actually accomplished in others’ lives for the sake of the Gospel. Oh, we will laugh and jump for joy when we see all the good we did though our giving! I am certain of it!

The only thing that may mute our joy that day, though, when we see all the good God was able to do with our money, is that we will probably wish that we had given more of it away!

So today, before we even get to heaven, I want to give you that chance.

If you’ve never before given money for the ministry of Jesus in the world, start today! If you’re already giving, resolve to give more. As the Trails book comes to your door in the weeks ahead, be prayerful as you consider how your gifts can change peoples’ lives, and extend God’s kingdom in the world.

Giving of our wealth to the work of God is one of the coolest things you can do in life! It is cool, you see, because it is the measure of our faith that what Christ did on the Cross counts for something.

What is the true cost of being this church?

It is Christ…who gave his life for you and me, and now sends us out to do the same!