The Million Dollar Resurrection Question
The Acts 8 Moment BlogForce question this week is “If you had a million dollars to help ‘proclaim resurrection in the Episcopal Church,’ where would it go and why?”
Having spent three days this week in a Program, Budget & Finance Committee meeting for The Episcopal Church, I have been considering this question a lot lately. The short answer is that I would bet it all on the Holy Spirit. Here is the only slightly longer explanation:
The Beatles were right that money can’t buy me love. And if money could buy resurrection, most of the upper deck folk who went down with the Titanic would still be among us. And a lot of money is not usually healthy in the church. If you want to hurt a congregation’s finances, give it a big endowment so people don’t feel they need to give back to God through support of their congregation. Yet, money can have a role in supporting the work of the Church and in that the key is to discern what the Holy Spirit is up to. Look for where God is already doing a new thing and then support that work of the Spirit with a little boost in funding.
Momentum is hard to get going. If nothing is going on, money seldom will get it going. I know this first hand from that portion of the Church that seems the most like we put in money ahead of momentum—church planting. But I know from first hand experience that even in starting a new congregation from scratch, one can readily see how the Holy Spirit was out front breaking ground in people’s hearts and getting things moving.
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Find where some momentum is taking place and add support. For a church start, that will take something in the $300,000-$500,000 range; working to support an existing congregation jump to the next level might take just $100,000-$200,000; a new ministry from a community garden to a homeless shelter can get a real boost from even $20,000. Don’t believe me, stand by for the reports due ahead of the next General Convention on the impact of church start and mission enterprise zone grants. While I wonder about the wisdom of sending money to a denomination and then applying to get back a grant, I do know that these grants have sought out opportunities to match local funds for mission to under-served groups. And the Episcopal Development Agency of Thomasville, the grant recipient here in the Diocese of Georgia, is a great example of resurrection. Three Episcopal churches in one south Georgia town created out of division have come together for some exciting community development. The Episcopal Church put in just $20,000 to support the resurrection already being lived out.
But in no case is the life-giving work of the Holy Spirit something that needs money alone. Resurrection is the work of the Spirit. Seeing where and when money can assist this work is not a business decision, but a matter of prayer and discernment. So prayerfully discern where God is already at work doing a new thing and then get behind that work of the Spirit with some support and watch it continue to flourish.
-The Rev. Frank Logue, Canon to the Ordinary (Assistant to the Bishop)
Episcopal Diocese of Georgia
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