Kurt and I have a problem. Our house needs painting. I don’t know how much that will cost. Let’s say $5000. Maybe not that much, but trust me, we live in the Old West End, we have at least $5000 in little projects that need to be done to our house. Here is the problem, we are not the kind of plan-ahead-home-owners who set up one of those home maintenance savings accounts. We do not set aside money so that when we need to do the big things like paint the house or replace the roof, we can just go to that nice savings account and pull out the money. So, we don’t have the money.
Did you hear me say that? “We don’t have the money.” Now, here is what I know. Most all of us have money: some money. And most of us, at one time or another say, “we don’t have any money,” or we say “I don’t have enough money” and what we often mean is this: “I’m not choosing to spend my money that way.” Sure, most of us don’t have enough money to buy a mansion, or to fly to Paris every weekend, or to drive a Maserati. But Kurt and I make enough money to pay to get our house painted, if we would choose to do that.
Because, you see, I took a little time to see where we spent some of that money in 2010. We spent well over $5000 going out to eat. More than $5000 sending our kids to private school. (we could have sent them to public school – and gotten our house painted) More than $5000 on vacations. We gave more than $5000 to The Village Church.
So, as I look at some of this discretionary spending, where could I find the money for the house painting in the 2011 budget? Well our kids’ education is important to us. Now that Becca is going to Toledo School for the Arts we are not spending as much money on tuition, but we need to sock that savings away in the College Fund, so we can’t save any money there. We can definitely cut back on the going out to eat. We will be healthier if we eat at home anyway. So we can find some of the money there.
Then it comes down to some hard discussions about vacations, (because we really value our family time on vacations.) AND what we give to the church. Here’s what I can tell you about that. Kurt and I are committed to giving to our church. Since the day we got married, we made a commitment to work toward tithing our combined income, that is giving away 10% of our income, mostly to our church (and some to other charities). Since we started planting The Village back in 2008 most of our charitable giving has been going to The Village. In 2010 we gave away about 10% of our income, and most of that came to The Village. Sure, that would be enough money to paint our house. Yes, when things get financially tight around home, it would be easy to say, “We can cut back $100 a month from what we give to The Village.” But we don’t.
And here is why: Because we know that everything we have comes from God. We are blessed. And we know that we can live on 90%, and we can give 10% back to God. We can share 10% so that God’s work can be done in our world. And we give, because we believe the work of The Village Church is so very important. You know this. Look around this room. Look at who is here. Think about the amazing community we have here. Think about the people that come here week after week to experience the healing message of God’s love. The simple fact is, it costs money to have this ministry. And Kurt and I can’t think of anything more important to invest our money in. So, we are willing to let the paint peel on our house another year if we have to, in order to keep giving in a significant way to this ministry.
Which brings me to our scripture for today (for those, like Kurt, following along on the internet today, Joshua 24:14-16). The prophet Joshua said these words: “Choose this day, whom you will serve, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” You see there were lots of gods to choose from those days of the prophet Joshua: fertility gods, and gods that would help you have a good harvest. They built idols out of gold and would pray to those idols. But Joshua and his people chose to serve Yahweh, the One God, Maker of Heaven and Earth. This scripture has always been helpful to me when I find myself getting seduced by material gods of this world, when I get caught up in thinking I need to have a house that looks good, or have better clothes or some new gadget. When I find myself having trouble setting priorities, or making a decision about what is most important in life, I think about this scripture. “Choose this day whom you will serve Cheri.” Will it be God – with a capital G, or some other god – with a lower case g – something less important – something that draws me away from the purpose the Creator of the Universe has for me?
I was talking to a member of The Village this week, who said she has decided to double her monthly financial gift to The Village because she believes what we are doing is so important. She and I were talking about this scripture and about choosing what is important. She said she sometimes thinks about what will happen when she dies. She wonders if she will go to heaven and meet God and if God will ask her why she spent money on cable TV for 30 years rather than giving that money to her church, to help more people. Ouch!
I don’t really think God wants us to live with dirt floors and survive on bread and water. But I do think we all have choices to make. We can choose which gods to serve. Every day we get to choose. And in this world, in this economy, our personal budgets reflect our values. Our financial choices reflect whether or not we serve GOD or the gods of the world.
Today, our Village Lead Team is asking all of us to make a financial commitment to The Village for the next year. Kate Whitmore, our treasurer is going to come up in a few minutes to give us some information about our budget and our giving, and to tell us why she gives.
I know some of you have never made a financial commitment to a church, but I want to invite you to do that today. Here is why. Just like every other commitment in our lives, it’s a way of saying, this is important. If you value The Village Church, and our ministry, and you want us be here week after week, ready to open our doors and reach more people, even on the weeks when you can’t be here, then let us know we can count on your financial support.
There are so many people out there like the people in here – imperfect people who need to hear the message that God loves them and accepts them the way they are. God is using The Village Church to reach out with that message. I pray that you will make a financial commitment to support our ministry so that together we can walk with Jesus and change the world!
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