TimSpivey.com

If We All Gave

If just American Christians gave a tithe (tenth), the world would be changed. I've been reading a rather amazing book, entitled, Passing the Plate: Why American Christians Don't Give Away more Money. It's not a lot of fun to read. It's a bit depressing. But, it's also insightful, incisive, and a real encouragement to me and my colleagues to preach and teach on giving. It will bless the life of each giver, and help change the world in Christ's name.

Smith and Emerson estimate that American Christians give away 1-2% of their income on average--based on after-tax income. If they met the tithe on after-tax income, it would free up another 40 Billion dollars for Kingdom purposes.

What would you do for the Kingdom with that much money?

Based on their analysis, here's what that 40 Billion Dollars could do (Imagine your own list):

Cost	Description
Global Missions
$330,000,000	Sponsor 150,000 new indigenous missionaries and pastors in nations most closed to foreign religious workers
$2,200,000,000	Triple the resources being spent by all global Christians on Bible translating, printing, and distribution to provide Bibles in the native languages of the 2,737 remaining people groups currently without Bible translations
$350,000,000	Provide 50,000 needs-based scholarships of $7,000 each per year for deserving Christian seminary and Bible school students in Africa, Asia, and Latin America
$30,000,000	Translate into four different languages (Spanish, Portugese, Chinese, Japanese), publish, and distribute 20,000 copies of 100 new titles per year of the best English-language Christian books for reading in Asia, Africa, and Latin America
$120,000,000	Hire 1,500 new Christian ministers to work in hospitality, evangelism, and discipleship with foreign students studying in U.S. universities
$9,000,000	Finance the organizational infrastructure of a major Christian research and advocacy organization fighting against contemporary economic and sexual slavery worldwide
$75,000,000	Provide funds to help build, expand, or upgrade 75,000 church and ministry buildings in Africa, Asia, and Latin America
$9,000,000	Finance the organizational infrastructure of a major Christian research and advocacy organization fighting for religious freedoms worldwide
$95,000,000	Finance 350 new Christian radio stations broadcasting Christian programming into the least evangelized regions of the world
$50,000,000	Finance 1,000 new interreligious study groups and travel tours per year to promote grass-roots mutual understanding and communication, particularly between Christians and Muslims around the world
$1,000,000,000	Quadruple the total resources being spent by all Christians globally on missions to evangelize the unevangelized world
Global Development and Relief
$2,000,000,000	Finance 5,000,000 grass-roots, micro-enterprise economic development projects per year in poor countries worldwide that employ revolving loan funds for needy entrepreneurs to purchase tools, materials, and equipment to start or expand micro businesses, which they pay back as their businesses grow
$500,000,000	Completely close the funding gap on resources needed by the current global campaign to eradicate polio worldwide before 2010
$2,000,000,000	Fund 1,000,000 new clean water, well-drilling projects per year in the poorest nations (25% of the world's population drinks unsafe water), dramatically improving the health of tens if not hundreds of millions of people per year
$1,000,000,000	Finance 10,000 comprehensive faith-based programs of AIDS/HIV prevention, education, and medication in sub-Saharan Africa
$3,900,000,000	Provide full resources needed for a global campaign to prevent and treat malaria worldwide
$2,000,000,000	Supply 1 heifer or 4 hogs (as needed and appropriate) to 4,000,000 needy Christian or other families worldwide per year
$4,550,000,000	Provide food, clothing, and shelter to all 6,500,000 current refugees in all of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East
$9,000,000	Finance the organizational infrastructure of a major Christian think-tank and advocacy organization working on creative means to reduce poverty and hunger worldwide
$480,000,000	Quadruple the current annual operating budget of Habitat for Humanity
$1,600,000,000	Double the current annual operating budget of World Vision, which serves 100 million people in 96 nations
$200,000,000	Boost funding to Christian organizations worldwide that provide free and subsidized eye exams, vision care, glasses, limb braces, and prosthetics to 1,000,000 of the poorest and neediest people of the world
$10,000,000,000	Sponsor 20 million needy children worldwide through Christian organizations providing them food, education, and healthcare
$810,000,000	Quadruple all resources currently being spent by all Christians globally on medial missions work
U.S. Christian Ministry and Church Finance
$750,000,000	Hire 10,700 new Christian youth ministers to evangelize, disciple, guide, and counsel U.S. teenagers
$750,000,000	Raise the salaries of 50,000 of the most needy U.S. church pastors by an average of $15,000 each, to provide for proven needs and to increase incentives encouraging the best and brightest young adults to consider callings to ministry
$75,000,000	Fund 500 new Christian Prison ministry organizations providing evangelism, discipleship, and education to prison inmates
$10,000,000	Translate into English 200 per year of the best Christian articles and books by foreign language writers for publication and sale in the United States and other English-speaking nations
$1,800,000,000	Finance the refitting of the heating, cooling, and electrical systems of 20,000 of the most desperate and inefficient U.S. church buildings per year, including the installation (where appropriate, in 1/3rd of the cases) of new PV solar electric generating systems
$1,100,000,000	Fund 5,500 new Family Counseling and Support organizations in the United States and major cities worldwide to bring affordable Christian support and counseling to families, marriages, and individuals in trouble
$4,000,000,000	Hire 50,000 new, trained, church-based adult Christian educators for the re-education of U.S. Christians in theology, discipleship, and ministry
$9,000,000	Finance the organizational infrastructure of a major Christian think-tank working on Christian perspectives and moralities of new biotechnologies and emerging medial ethics
$9,000,000	Finance the organizational infrastructure of a major Christian research and training center addressing Christian views on mass media and media production and consumption
$3,375,000,000	Provide the hiring of 45,000 church-based U.S. ministers to the elderly whose mission would be to provide Christian friendship, care, and support to millions of the most isolated, abandoned, disabled, and lonely aging Americans in their homes, nursing homes, or apartments
$75,000,000	Launch 300 cross-race immersion programs around the United States to provide Christians opportunities to live for 2 weeks in different race environments, to learn and build relationships toward more profound racial reconciliation
U.S. Economic Stewardship & Diaconal Ministry
$150,000,000	Provide financial and debt management training to 200,000 U.S. Christians per year who are deeply in debt, to help them get on solid financial ground in order to be able to make positive financial contributions in the future
$100,000,000	Provide church-based jobs training and career counseling to 100,000 unemployed or welfare-dependent Americans per year
$50,000,000	Finance 25 new U.S. regional faith-based organizations that would provide assistance and subsidies to pay heating and utilities bills to the most needy of the poor and elderly in the United States
U.S. Christian Educational and Scholarship Development
$15,000,000	Pay down the mortgages of 500 Christian middle and high schools by $30,000 each to reduce debt burden and interest payments
$150,000,000	Provide needs-based scholarships of $15,000 each per year for 10,000 needy U.S. Christian college students
$45,000,000	Provide needs-based scholarships of $15,000 each per year for 3,000 needy Christian seminary students preparing for ministry
$12,000,000	Provide research and writing fellowships to 150 of the best Christian scholars per year to work on scientific and humanities scholarship informed by Christian perspectives that holds promise for influencing higher education and academic scholarship
$202,000,000	Provide 101 $2 million contributions per year to Christian seminaries, divinity schools, colleges, and Bible schools for building campaigns, capital improvements, endowment building, or other demonstrated needs
$6,000,000	Provide graduate school scholarships for 300 of the most promising Christian Ph.D. students per year in various fields of study
$46,000,000,000	= GRAND TOTAL

Morning Questions - Generosity

I would love to get your thoughts on these questions, just for fun:

1. Why are some people generous and others are not?
2. Is generosity defined by action, a state of being, or both? Can a person give more without becoming more generous? And, can a person become more generous without giving more, showing more hospitality, etc.?

Top 10 Reasons Young Adults Drop Out of/Stay In Church

New from Ed Stetzer and the great people at LifeWay: Here are the top 10 reasons young adults say they drop out of church according to the latest research. Does anything surprise you? Anything missing that you thought you'd see?

Below that is are the top reasons young adults say they've stayed in church. Very interesting.

 

Princeton

I'm in Princeton, New Jersey.

I've come to Princeton most years since I was a first-year graduate student at Pepperdine. In November of 1997 I went to Boston for the Society of Biblical Literature Conference. Toward the end of the conference, I hopped in the car and drove to see some of America's most famous colleges. I was taken immediately with Princeton University and the little town that holds it. I began taking a spiritual/study break there the next year--and have done so most years since. 

Princeton Seminary (adjacent to the university) is also one of the finest seminaries in the world. It's library is second to none in the Western Hemisphere. Back then you could stay for 15$ per night in the Seminary dorms--including daily linen changing, continental breakfast, and use of the libraries. It's gone up a bit since then, but I keep coming back. 

I used to come in the late fall, early winter, when it was cold. That way, I'd have to stay inside and work/pray/rest. It was also great because the town was decorated for Christmas and there were all kinds of neat Christmas programs going on in the churches nearby.

I'm here in the summer this time. It fit the calendar better.

The annual Princeton recalibration has been a vital part of my spiritual and emotional well-being over the years. I spend the week fasting, praying, resting, and planning/studying for the upcoming year's sermon series. I also am able to do some long-range strategizing. Princeton is optimal for such a thing. It's beautiful, quiet, has amazing cultural opportunities and world-class libraries. It's geographically far away, and makes me feel contemplative (even smarter) just being here. 

Many of the few good ideas I've had over the years came to me at Princeton. Most importantly, I always come back spiritually-centered, full in head and heart. I come back with fresh ideas, and some much needed long-range planning that seemingly can happen only away from the hustle and bustle. So, as I begin several days here, I wait on God to do His thing. 

I have more tasks to accomplish this year. I need to leave here with the rough-draft of my DMin Project Thesis ready to go, and the final chapter of Jesus: the Word Made Flesh turned into the great, longsuffering publishers at College Press/HeartSpring. While on the one hand I fear that having so much task to accomplish may defeat the purpose of this retreat. But, then again, I think I'll be shocked to see how much spiritual/emotional energy getting those projects resolved will free up.

I'm so thankful for the opportunity to do this. Most of my friends in ministry have some version of my Princeton experience each year. It's essential for ministers and those who will be blessed or suffer through their ministry that these study leave/spiritual renewals happen...if only annually. My buddy Jim Martin has been a role-model for me in this regard.

If you are in ministry, I'd love to hear what some of you do. When do you go? How long? Where? What do you do?

10 Ways to Ruin Young Ministers - Jim Vining

Jim Vining wrote a great little post entitled, "The Top Ten Ways to Ruin Young Pastors." It is printed below in italics. Click here to read the comments.

This post can be taken a bit negatively. The intent here is redemptive, though. It seems pretty spot on to me. I'm getting to where I don't qualify as a youngster. I have some gray hair, literally, now. Even at 33, I've already been in ministry "formally" for 13 years--and have experienced many of the things Vining mentions at various stages--though I've always been blessed to work in great churches. I am also at an age that has allowed me to watch a lot of my peers exit the ministry. This saddens me, for the church needs all the young guns (and old guns for that matter) She can get. Here's Jim Vining in italics:

Here are the Top Ten Ways to Ruin Young Pastors. They have also been found effective on other ministry staff!

10. Promise big things in their interviews, and then pull back on those promises once the family is on site.

9. Do not bother mentoring them or investing in their personal or professional development.

8. Ask them to reach new people, but force them to think the same way as the existing staff.

7. Ask them to bring change, but do not allow them to do anything different.

6. Young Pastor’s Concerns = Never Valid. Member’s Concerns about Young Pastor = Always Valid.

5. Give them responsibility, but do not give them the authority to accomplish those things.

4. Give them greater workloads than other pastors, but also less respect.

3. Say one thing in private meetings, another thing in staff or elder meetings, and another thing in Sunday Worship.

2. Reject their ideas, tell them how to do it, and when it does not work … blame them.

1. Allow your personal insecurities to interpret the young pastor’s words and deeds as attempts to mock you or steal your job.

Thoughts?

Turnaround Churches 5 - Structure

Structure is a word that seems, to some, unspiritual on the surface. Perhaps that's why so many churches pay so little attention to it.

Church structure is spiritual for several reasons. However, the most important is that it allows for or prohibits the growth of the body--and thus the reaching of people for Christ. If a church refuses to change it's structure, it will not grow beyond a certain point. It's spiritual physics. You cannot plant an oak tree in a flower pot...or, you could...it just wouldn't grow past the size of the container. It's the same with a church. God can do anything. If a camel can go through the eye of a needle, a church can grow with a restrictive structure. But, I haven't seen it happen yet. 

We can see the counsel to restructure in Scripture in several places. The most vivid and obvious are Jethro telling Moses to delegate responsibilities to capable people, and Paul telling Timothy to appoint elders in every place. The greatest is Creation itself. Notice that in each case, it was understood that ministry needs leadership. But, leadership structure must adapt to it's context. 

Most churches are structured to be the size they are. This is part of the problem. Growing and "Turnaround" churches need structures that allow room to grow. Usually, churches that need a turnaround usually need a retooling of their structure. However, not all need to expand.

Some need a retooling because they once were big, but now are smaller--but maintain a large-church structure that burdens them. I call this condition, uncoothly, "Al Roker Syndrome." This is when a church loses a lot of people, but keeps it's calendar, resources, and ministry as it was...there's lots of leftover skin on a now-shrunk body. What is needed is a simplification and reduction...but it's hard to help the church view contraction missionally. It's hard to convince people that getting smaller for a time will help you get bigger later and that doing less will help you do more in the long run. However, until the church can get a bit leaner and meaner, a turnaround will be all the more difficult. This is one type of restructuring that can be helpful when a turnaround is needed. It's more typically needed by churches in precipitous decline, or churches who have experienced protracted periods of decline.

The other structual change is typically needed by churches that were growing but have plateaued. It is an expansion of structure. Notice I didn't say, "Expansion of ministry or activity." I mean a structure that decreases bottle-necking and hoarding of ministry at the "top." Such change frees up entry points for new people to come, and substantive ministry opportunities for more people. This means adding leadership, but changing it's orientation from doing to equipping.

To use a basketball image--as a church grows or earnestly seeks to grow, ministers should move from the guy or gal who takes all the shots to the Point Guard who looks to pass first--and pass to the right person at the right time. To use yet another athletic image--they should become more like a player-coach, and less pure player. 

Ironically, as the church grows bigger, the elders meetings and staff meetings should get shorter. They should move away from operations toward toward prayer, pastoral concerns and big-picture strategy. More time will be spent equipping others for ministry rather than feeling the need to do it all oneself--an exquisitely biblical concept. This doesn't absolve anyone from the need to continue to serve in a hands-on way. But, the focus must change or the structure will choke off growth.

If your church has experienced substantial decline, simplify, simplify, simplify. This is good advice for any church...but especially those in decline. If your church is plateaued or growing, structure yourself to be double or even triple the size you are...now. For instance, if you are a church of 100, ask yourself how you would need to function as a church of 300. And then implement it. If your are in a church of 500, structure yourself as a church of a thousand and keep expanding as growth comes. Again, this doesn't mean one should add the activity of a church 3 times it's size. Most churches are already neck-deep in activity. We're talking structure, here.

What structural moves need to be made? It will vary from church to church. But, look at assembly times, assembly space (try not to have a service more than 75% full at the most), elder/staff functioning, the essential calendar, what ministries you will need and need to take away, cultivating leadership from within the body, and infrastructural needs - facilities, web, things of that sort.

One other potentially helpful structural change has to do with the overall ministry system.

More on that in the next post.

Live from Big D

It was a little less than a year ago that the Spiveys bid adieu to Dallas, Texas, which had been our home for 6 years. I hadn't been back until 4 days ago. I didn't know what to expect. Would I be sad, happy, nostalgic?

In truth, there's been a little bit of all that. In many ways I'm completely immersed in my former life. I'm even driving my old car, which I sold to my father-in-law last summer. I've been hanging around old comrades, old friends...eating my favorite restaurants in the area. Emily and I even drove by the Highland Oaks building on our way to meet some friends. On the whole, it has been a low drama affair.

After 4 days here, here's how I would summarize my feelings: It reminds me a bit of how I used to feel when I visited Long Beach. It feels very familiar--and the memories are good. Rather than it being home, it's where we once lived and where family lives now. Dallas is a great city. Emily and I will always hold it in high esteem as a great place with great churches and great people. We will cherish our friends here always.

Home is San Diego for us now, and we wouldn't have it any other way. We talked today about how we missed worshiping at North County. Worshiping at Richland Hills this morning with Em's family was a great experience, and one that re-expanded (if that's a word) my vision for what God can do through NCCC. Nevertheless, we miss the people and the worship at NCCC. 

A  few  more days in  Dallas,  and then it's study time. I believe God will work mightily through that time. I would appreciate any prayers you might be willing to offer that God would grant focus, mental/emotional stamina, spiritual filling, wisdom and creativity during that time.

When we get back to NCCC...I get to preach on the victory at the battle of Jericho. How fun is that going to be :)

PS... someone needs to create a symbol that incorporates the smiley face and the Question Mark... See my last sentence. If you come up with one... I want royalties :)

Summer Break

For the next two weeks, the Spivey family will be heading out for some time away for R & R, family visiting, and, for me, study.

We begin in Palm Springs, then to DFW. I will head on to Princeton from there to spend some time finishing up the DMin Project Thesis, and sermon/strategic planning for 2009-2010 at NCCC. We would covet your prayers for safe and relaxing travels, and productivity for me.

I'll be blogging a bit more sporadically over the next couple weeks...but will check in as I can. Facebook and Twitter updates will be more plentiful.

But first, a great day tomorrow at NCCC...kicking off the series on Joshua, Stand and Shout. Looking forward to it.

Turnaround Churches 4 - Mission

Spring-boarding off of yesterday's post, I believe God wants all churches to grow...because real growth means the salvation of what was lost. Lost people preoccupy the mind of God...and should preoccupy of the church. Mission is about loving God and loving others. And, as wonderful as family feel is...it would be hard for me to justify to God a lack of desire to grow because I wanted to remain comfortable "in the family."

The family feel is something that churches of every size should strive toward. However:

Stagnant and declining churches tend to view themselves as families first. Families that don't reproduce love each other...and then die off.

Growing churches understand themselves a movement first...and ultimately provide Christian family to more and more people over the years.

This of course doesn't mean that dying churches have zero sense of mission or that growing churches do not value the family-feel. I'm talking about their primary self-understanding that shapes everything from programming to structure; from the "vibe" of the church to how it makes crucial long-term decisions.

Many churches do not, in their gut of guts, want to grow. They want to reach lost people, as long as things can stay how they are. They like the family feel or the fact that they know everyone and everything that goes on. This isn't altogether bad. It's only bad when such sentiments trump the church's mission to reach the lost.

Prevailing churches have a strong sense of mission - to love God with everything, and love our neighbors as ourselves. This is the value that makes true Christian family. It is in the service of Christ that we all grow together as family.

Mission first.

The rest comes together through God's blessing as we pursue His heart and embrace His mission together.

Big or Small?

I am a big fan of large churches.

I am a big fan of small churches.

For completely different reasons.

Small churches can bring with them a sense of family, close fellowship, and opportunities for inter-generational engagement, and close fellowship. They also bring opportunities to serve that allude some in larger churches.

Larger churches tend to offer better programming, higher spiritual vitality, the capacity to tackle huge challenges and opportunities. Frankly...tend to do more effective ministry.

Here's what I predict: those who hear those descriptions and prefer either large or small will think I'm generalizing...that big churches, for example, offer close fellowship as well. Others will say, "Small churches do just as good a ministry as the big ones." Let me say that these are generalizations.

I have served in churches with attendance of 70 up to 2000. All are awesome in their own way. Here's the question: What size, if any, should aspire to? My opinion is that it isn't a particular size that should be aspired to, but health, depth, and growth through conversions and "recoveries" (i.e, the "dechurched."). This should lead a church to grow with time.

Some believe that growth is virtually irrelevant. Some even believe growth can be harmful when it causes the church to get so big that the "family feel" goes away. What do you think? Is growth a part of God's plan for all churches, some churches, or no churches? And, is there a particular size that God prefers the church to be? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

The Turnaround Churches series will continue tomorrow.