I ended my urban ministry in my twentieth year, on the highest annual income in a generation, and the highest bank balance. The bank balance was over R250 000. This raised a classic question. Some members considered R250 000 very small -- prudent to keep in the bank. Others asked me why on earth they should give to the Church if we had so much money stashed away. At the time, I ran this question by ministerial colleagues. Some responded emotionally: "Why do you not spend it for God's sake?" or "You have that much money in the bank?" -- always with the thought of missions, outreach, growth. One colleague went so far as to suggest, quite seriously, that we should spend one-third more than we had. OBSERVATION: My own views have changed over the years. I'm more with my colleagues now than I once was. A Church needs to "run lean" to be healthy. I believe also that this is a litmus test of evangelical thinking: do we wish to serve, or conserve? Paradoxically, conservation tends to work against itself.
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