Benevolence

In 1989 I was attending the Hillsboro church of Christ in Nashville. In January of that year the Elders presented the year's budget to the congregation. Two points still stick in my mind about that. It was the first time I ever heard of a church with an annual budget of one million dollars. If I remember correctly it was also the first year Hillsboro's budget was that large. Secondly, the Elders were not only proud of the fact that 50% of it was geared towards benevolence but they were hopeful they could increase that percentage. I don't believe it was a coincidence that Hillsboro was a growing church grounded in the New Testament.

I've personally dealt with two situations in the past four days where people needed money. I also became aware tonight of a lady who had a need for clothing a few days ago. With fuel and food prices rising as quickly as they are we're going to see an increase in the number of people needing help from both inside our church family and from the outside. I think we're already seeing it.

I'm coming to the conclusion that a "lack of money" is not a valid reason for not helping others. In the situation I dealt with tonight I would have liked to have helped the lady. Our church budget for benevolence is already gone for the month of may and there are 24 days left in the month as I write this. The lady this evening came asking for help just minutes before the service started. I would have liked to have gone to several individuals who were already there for the service and "passed the hat". In hindsight I believe I should have and hopefully next time I will. When we can afford $60+ a month for cable tv and waste money on countless other ways for our own pleasure I believe the problem is anything but a lack of money. It's a lack of priorities.

I've mentioned this in an earlier post but if we're going to continue to call ourselves the New Testament church we need to start acting like it. Act 2:44-45 show us the first example of how the early Christians cared for each other. Acts 4:32-34 of course is another example; one I discussed in an earlier post. I also like the example given in Acts 11:28-30. In that one a man showed the Christians a need that existed in another area and the Christians responded. There were no committee meetings. There doesn't appear to be much thought or discussion. There is only action, positive action shown. II Corinthians 8 and 9 are also powerful chapters we need to re-read.

I do see positives coming out of the current wide spread financial situation. Tonight in our adult Bible class we had a wonderful, positive discussion about giving and helping others in need. That wasn't the plan but as we studied Elisha helping the widow and her two sons in II Kings 4:1-7 the discussion took us down that road. We had tons of comments, some coming from people who don't normally speak up in class. Everyone also seemed to have the same general idea and thoughts; we need to do more and more importantly we can do more. The big test of course comes as we transform those words and thoughts into action. Here's hoping we do because I know we can.