Funny about money

So the twelve apostles called the whole group of believers together and said, ‘It is not right for us to neglect the preaching of God’s word in order to handle finances. So then, friends, choose seven men among you who are known to be full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, and we will put them in charge of this matter. We ourselves, then, will give our full time to prayer and the work of preaching.’ (verses 2-4)

Read Acts 6:1-15

If you go to a congregational meeting or a church convention, more than likely there will be a difficult debate about money. It seems as if the church can never do adequately what it wants to because of financial restrictions.

Ever since the earliest times, as witnessed in the book of Acts, the church has needed to collect and manage money in order to perform its tasks. As a result, there has always been a tendency for business to become the business of the church. It isn’t. The preaching and teaching of God’s word is the core business of the church. That’s where you need to allocate your top talent and most ardent efforts.

People are funny about money. They will put their money where their faith and values lie. If money is the priority, the gospel is preached less and then the dollars dry up too. But, praise God, preaching his word can be done free of charge by anyone at anytime.

Dear Lord, help me, as a member of the church, to give freely of what I have but also to speak ardently about what I know of your great gospel. Amen.

by Richard Hauser, in ‘Guidance for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2002)

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