RICHES OF THE ROCK: FUNDAMENTAL PURPOSE OF CHURCH RESOURCES

It was the day of Pentecost. About 120 people including relatives and friends of Jesus Christ gathered together in an upstairs room in the city of Jerusalem. Suddenly they saw what looked like tongues of fire which spread out and touched each of them. Then they began to speak different kinds of strange languages. They were spiritual utterances given to them by the Holy Spirit. "Alas! The Holy Spirit has come!" He had just descended from heaven to fill each of the persons there in the upstairs room. 

People downstairs and all around the building heard them speak in their own native languages, meanwhile, those speaking were from Galilee in Northern Israel. Their bizarre spiritual utterances went so viral that it drew the entire community to the premises where they were gathered together and feasting in the Spirit. The eminent Apostle Peter was once timid, but after the baptism and infilling of the Holy Spirit, he was filled with boldness to address the large crowd. No human advertised for people to attend the crusade, the Spirit himself drew a throng of people to the premises. 

Peter explained what had just happened based on his new insight and spiritual understanding through the Spirit. He powerfully preached Christ to the crowd, leading to the conversion of overwhelming 3,000 souls and more. Thus, the church was born. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit marks the genesis of the church. The preaching continued and daily new converts were added to the church until the church grew to overwhelming 5,000 born again Christians. 

With such an overwhelming number, one would expect that administrative cost would increase. It is not difficult to figure out that much money would be needed to manage this overwhelming number. One would also expect that there would more needy Christians than wealthy Christians in the congregation. All twelve foundational leaders of the church were unemployed, and they administered over the church on full-time basis. A fiscal policy and a financial system would have to be instituted to generate funds for the administration of the faith community. 

Overlooking the shores of time and seeing deep into the future of the church, the Apostles who happened to be the foundational leaders of the church, came up with an idea that would uproot and oust poverty from the church. The idea was that the wealthy Christians would sell some of their possessions, and the resources pooled would be used to set up the needy Christians, so that in the process of time, no one would be needy and have to depend on others for survival. This idea pleased the wealthy Christians in the church. 

The idea originated right from Scripture. The Bible says that it is the Lord who gives power [ability, idea] to make wealth in order to confirm his promised prosperity to his people (Deut 8:18). Moreover, the Apostles had been with the Lord for three and half years and understood that deeds of love shown to people in his name, fully gratified him. The final words of the Lord to Peter, the foundational stone of the church, were that, "If you love me, take care of my sheep" (John 21:15-27). Peter was more than eager to obey the Lord by rolling away the reproach of impoverishment from over the heads of the less privileged Christians. The wealthy Christians in the church sold some of their possessions and brought the funds to the apostles who fairly distributed them to everyone according to their basic needs. What a tactful plan!

Since the beginning of the church, the Spirit has demonstrated that within the church, his utmost priority is to take care of God's children: to feed them, to cloth them and to give them shelter, just as a shepherd provides for his sheep. This proves God to be a Father. Church assets, that is, the resources belonging to the church, are meant to satisfy the basic needs of God's children. It is God who supplies the extraordinary abilities and the ideas to build a wealthy church. The Spirit supplies the resources, just as he drew the crowd on the day of Pentecost. The resources of the church are not meant to take care of only Pastor and his family, but also, the needy Christians in the assembly. Christian faith shows out by deeds of love, especially taking care of the needy ones in the church. 

During the first ecumenical council of the church held in Jerusalem to discuss Paul and Barnabas' ministry to the Gentiles (Acts 15), it was agreed that Paul and Barnabas should not force the Christians in the Gentile worlds to obey the law of Moses, instead, they should be generous towards the Christians in fulfilment of the Lord's new commandment. This, Paul and Barnabas zealously fulfilled as their duty.  

What do we see today? It seems that in today's churches, only Pastors and their families are the ones chosen to be prosperous. Some denominations leave no space for Christians to decide matters of their own well-being. The work to do, the person to marry, even the place to settle, are all decided by Pastor who portrays himself as the mouthpiece of God. Loyalty to Pastor is seen as loyalty to the Lord. This rising authoritarian style of spiritual leadership has produced burgeoning needy Christian youths. Loyalty and disloyalty seems to be the central gospel today, all because, spiritual leadership today is about who has the numbers, the influence and the affluence. It is about who gets to own properties within the shortest possible time, thus, proving that they are the blessed of God. 

The resources of the church are not making the conditions of Christians any better. Some churches own schools, hospitals, banks, insurance companies and transport companies among other assets, however, these assets do not reflect in the pockets of members of the congregation. 

Church leaders must sit to plan the prosperity of members of their congregations including empowering them to lead a prosperous life. The same way they plan crusades and implement policies to generate abundant funds to carry out the crusades, they must also plan and implement policies to increase the prosperity of church members. 

It seems that the prosperity gospel is raising more wealthy Pastors, and at the same time, more needy Christians. Some Christians are being trained to dispose of their possessions into the treasure chest of their Pastors in hope of getting blessings overflow. Unfortunately, the barns of these Christians are not overflowing but rather, are becoming empty. It is about time church leaders sat to plan and to implement policies that will transform the financial capacity of their church members in the long-run. Prosperity is the birthright of every child of God. 

Today's message has addressed the fundamental purpose of church resources which are referred to over here as Riches of the Rock. As the bedrock of the church, the Lord resources the church to provide for the needs of God's children. 

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