"People Give Themselves"

A minister, last night, described to me the swift decline of a local Church. He said the decline kicked in when the Church sold its manse / rectory, and invested R1.5 million. Nothing else changed. But with that much money invested, people stopped giving. He said, "People give themselves when they give money. When they don't give money, they don't give themselves, and the life goes out of the Church." He gave the example of another Church, which similarly found itself sitting with a very large amount of money. They spent it liberally, and retained their life.