What could the church do with 1 million dollars?

A few years back, when Francis Chan's church was booming in membership and budget, they were planning on a new $20 million dollar building project for a new sanctuary. However, one of the church's core values was modeling Christ's love for the poor. They came to the conclusion that it would be dishonoring to God to spend so much on a building when people around the world were in need.

They finally decided to build an outdoor amphitheater for much less than a huge worship facility. The reasoning was that in Southern California, the weather is beautiful most of the year, and on days with bad weather, people would be reminded of the suffering of those around the world. Today the church gives upwards of 50% of it's multi-million dollar income to the needy through organizations such as Children's Hunger Fund.

This video was made to explain their decision to the church. I've never been a big fan of mega-churches, but something about this reminds me that this is how church is supposed to be.



More about the building project.

Betraying Jesus

A powerful article from Jim Wallis. I don't always agree with everything he says, but I think he nails it on the head in this article. Since I've read the article, it continues to challenge my outlook on money, possessions and the message of the Church.

The life of North American churches has become utterly predictable on sociological grounds. Factors of race, class, sex, and national identity shape and define the lives of Christians just like everybody else. No one expects anything different of Christians. The predictability of the Christian style of life, or, more to the point, the loss of a distinctively Christian lifestyle, has severely damaged our proclamation of the gospel. We have lost that visible style of life that was evident in the early Christian communities and that gave their evangelism its compelling power and authority.