Redirection of financial resources
Posted by ljoh3106 on April 26, 2009
This is the title of the latest newsletter from House2House. In this edition of the newsletter, Tony Dale says ”One of the great potential benefits of the simple church revolution is the redirection of financial resources. Hundreds of millions of dollars, once spent on buildings and pastoral staffs, can now be released for mission of all types (care of the poor, church planting both locally and globally, etc.). Unfortunately, this shift of resources isn’t happening yet on a large scale. At least one reason is the lack of models – examples of simple churches who are handling financial resources well.”
Tony then revisits the model used by Jim Mellon and the Association of Home Churches in Killeen, TX.
Jim summarizes their model: ”Over the last 17 years we have been able to deploy approximately one million dollars away from building payments and salaries towards benevolence and missions. We have helped plant over 450 churches in India, influence our community, and save a life through benevolence giving.”
Tony has begun a discussion thread on the http://www.simplechurch.com website. I encourage everyone involved or interested in home church to visit this website and join the discussion. Especially, take a look at the attached TheBigBang1.doc that explains some of the ways their pooled resources have impacted their city.
Here in Phoenix, I am very interested in how the various house churches, that don’t have buildings and don’t pay pastor salaries, spend their resources. I know in our group, each family supports ministries or causes that are dear to that family. We have occasionally pooled our resources toward a specific ministry or family need.
Please shoot me an email with any information on how your house church handles its financial resources. I will post the results in the future but I won’t indicate anything specific unless requested to.
