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 PrintableVersion Letter from AmericaFinances, the economy and the churchWhether or not — and to what extent, and at what speed — the international market economy is recovering is beyond the scope of this paper, and certainly beyond my expertise as a writer. But from the ground up it still looks like, to say the least, we are in ‘interesting’ financial times, and some list it as ongoing through 2010 at least (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932010). What does this mean for the church? Allergic to debtPrevious generations of evangelicals had a very different sort of relationship to financing. Charles Spurgeon deliberately ensured that his massive building expansions were only completed once all the money had been donated, allergic as he (and many other evangelicals of his generation) was to being in debt. D.L. Moody apparently felt the same, his legacy in this regard carried on by Moody Bible Institute which manages its enormous portfolio of donations and operating costs purely on an annual donor basis and without an explicit foundation. But in our day and age it is very common for churches to go to the bank to borrow funds, and I suspect that few of us would think that was wrong when well managed and appropriately organised, in much the same way that individual families have mortgages on their homes. However, the relationship of the Western world to ‘debt’ is surely more under the microscope than it used to be not so long ago, and it may be worth some of our best thinking to figure out exactly what the ancient biblical witness with regard to ‘usury’ means in contemporary terms now. Can’t give as beforeEven more to the point, perhaps, as our budgets feel the squeeze, from our evangelical organisations and Bible schools and churches and missions, what message are we to be sending about that squeeze? Certainly people cannot give what they do not have, and there are (certainly) opportunities for pastoral ministry related to those whose personal circumstances, through no fault of their own, have thrown them on the mercy of the truly biblical koinonia of the local church. But what about our budgets? Is this a day for pulling back, or a day for pushing forward? Each individual organisation and church must ask and answer that question themselves, but as I consider it I am again drawn to Paul’s teaching about finances and giving in the Corinthian corpus, particularly 2 Corinthians 8-9. There he compares the extreme generosity of the Macedonians, relatively poor we may assume, to encourage by their example the (probably) more wealthy Corinthians to give further. That comparison may not be entirely anachronistic today, for while I am, of course, no financial expert, anecdotally it seems while some are struggling financially others, given the way of the world and the markets, are finding rather unexpectedly that they are making good money on the downturn as much as the upturn. Time for generositySo Paul’s message to the (relatively wealthy) Corinthians from the Macedonian example is relevant. What does he say? ‘I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability.’ This was, ‘Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity’ (2 Corinthians 8.2,3). Perhaps Paul is having that common diaconate experience of looking with deep affection on the creased £5 note, and holding it up to the wealthier members as an example. Jesus did the same: she gave all she had to live on. So while some of us are wondering whether we still have six months’ worth of salary safely tucked away in these difficult times, others of us are wondering whether we will still own a house in six months’ time, and Paul’s call to Macedonian and Corinthian alike is out of ‘severe trial’ to be people who have ‘rich generosity’. Josh Moody,
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