Yesterday, I asked "What do you prefer? 100 small house churches, or 1 church of 1,000 people?"
We have 24 comments on that post so far (that's a lot for this blog) - here's a much tougher question: Why does this question generate so much discussion?
Maybe a better question is: Why does there seem to be heated debate on both sides?
100 small house churches, or 1 church of 1,000 people?
$1Million spent on helping the needy in your community, or $1Million building/running a headquarters to reach your community?
...
and why?
We've lost our minds! We are giving away an all expense paid trip to Catalyst West for our March Madness bracket winner! (and a host of other prizes...east coast Catalyst tickets, Catalyst CD's, DVD's, AND MORE!) All you have to do to enter is fill out a tournament bracket by clicking here.
The Catalyst team is entering their picks so you can see how you stack up against the competition, including my own picks.
Catalyst March Madness Giveaway Website
BONUS...our very own Chad Johnson highlighting the bracket challenge AND showing off his own dunking skills!
Catalyst March Madness from Chad Johnson on Vimeo.
(gotta love Jason Haynes' emotionally charged reaction to Chad's dunk, "good job Chad.")
Why do we need money to do ministry?
If we had no money, could we still do ministry?
...
What is "ministry" ?
What is the cost of doing ministry?
With belts getting tighter as the economy flops around, there's less money for ministry at many churches.
Does this mean we're limited in the amount or quality of ministry we can do?
InnovativeMinistryLeader.com recently bloggged about the cost of ministry:
"We honestly have to look at the amount of money that is put into new churches across the nation, when men, women, and children are starving worldwide. We admire Francis Chan, and his decision to move from a new building project to an amphitheater and then give the money budgeted for the new building to missions. Why can’t we build community centers or use community centers to Worship God? Why segment and spend millions of dollars to build a church that will turn more people away than attract?"
Maybe that's right, maybe not. But what is the cost of ministry?
It's interesting that our ministry costs so much, in general, while an estimated 400 Million Christians in China seem to have exploded underground with, presumably, a very limited budget. Not to mention the early church, which seemed to do very well without much financing.
How can we decrease the cost of ministry without decreasing the amount and quality of ministry?
Any cost saving ideas?
