Hugh Halter

I was sitting at a local Starbucks the other day and a pastor from a local church came and sat down to chat.  Somehow we got on the issue of how much money our respective churches bring in.  I mentioned that we had a whopping $5,000 come in during December and when he told me how much they had come in, I blew the head off my perfectly brewed Americano in laughter. He said, “our monthly mortgage on our church is $34,000 a month.” I replied, you’ve got to be kidding me. How do you pay that?” “Well, we get about $110,000 a month in.”  RACA!!!! is what I’m thinking to myself.  This church of 750 is three times as large as the Adullam network and brings in over 20 times as much in tithes and offerings.  They spend 15 times as much on rent.

Now you can look at this in many ways. Initially, I was blown away by how much it costs to reach one person in that church. My guess, based on my knowledge of their ministry and my relationship with the staff, would suggest that it costs about $50,000 per actual life conversion.  In Adullam, I figure it costs about $500 to cover the cost related to creating a community that gets to experience the joy and work of wooing one person towards a transformative relationship with Christ.

I know this is a crass way of talking about this. But I mean it to be.  Not in some way of comparison or competitiveness, but simply as a a question.  As we look at the call of the King to extend His kingdom, I believe we’ve turned a blind eye to the issue of cost and what it means to invest in the Kingdom.  Yes, the fact that this many Christians still give faithfully is something to be championed, but I do believe that the results of our investments should cause any leader, concerned Christian, or pastor to open up the question of what in the wide world of sports we’re putting our resources towards.  Believe me, non-Christians have already asked the question and their answer is ….”You Christians just spend it on yourselves!!”

Many of our most prolific historical spiritual awakenings (present day Christian church movement in  China, Latin America, or Africa; past movements of the Moravians, the Methodist, or the Celts, to name a few) happened primarily with unpaid, untrained leaders.  As far as I can tell, not that much was put into pastors, buildings or church vans.

Now, don’t jump to funky conclusions. I’m not.  In these cases it was a either a much different time or a much different culture than the west, but it does still loudly beg the question of where our money should go.  I’m a paid Christian leader ( 5 sources of income, four of which are outside the church I help lead) and I am trying to provide for the entry of several young leaders into ministry. In this culture, it does seem to still require that we replace some income they would make from the world to give them time to hold people together and lead them into mission.  As well, I do look to the gathered community to help provide for this.

Yet, I realize that the church communities that are forming around the country today won’t have the blind faithfulness of past generations. We deal with a much more skeptical crowd of believers and spiritual sojourners.   The means of provision must now be as varied as the tribes we reach into.  The commitment to work in the world will become a growing trend.  For sure, we must take seriously how much it should really cost to influence a life.

Should pastors get paid?? Yes. Is there biblical evidence to support that payment to clergy and buildings? Sure.  But we must also remember that Paul also set an alternative standard of working so as not to be a burden on the community.  Both are justified; both are options; neither are to be blindly accepted without exegeting the culture we’re trying to reach.

Last night I enjoyed a candid conversation with a great friend who planted a very successful church, wrote a few books and seems to make the who’s who list in the small evangelical world.  He had just come back from a session with his therapist.  We spoke about his “dad issues.”  He summarized a life without the approval of his father this way. “I’ve written two books  and my dad won’t read any of them.”  I end up in national news magazines and my dad doesn’t acknowledge my work.  When he comes to town, he won’t come to our church.  About the only thing I hear from my dad is how overweight I am.”

We talked about how so much of our ministry efforts and hard work are really a man’s search for approval either by key family or friends or even just God.  Deep down, however, we both acknowledged that very little we do really is about God…it’s mostly about us.

The same day I was coaching two of our MCAP church planters and both men spoke of the intense pressure they feel to “make it” work. They’re both talking about their respective churches. I’ve heard this story a hundred times if I’ve heard it once. It’s my story and seems to be everyone’s.  Each time, I try to warn them of the dangers, pitfalls, and empty search it is to try to please anyone in ministry.  It just doesn’t happen. It’s never promised by God, it’s not in the history book of our faith, and at the end of the day, it’s a mirage that leads thousands into “bad news” instead of “good news.”

Where did I get some help this week?  At our staff meeting as we just talked about a small scripture in Micah.  It says, “this is what the Lord requires of you…to act justly, and to love mercy..and to walk humbly with God.”  Wow, how simple, how profound, how freeing.  Look, we do judge ourselves and others and create massive expectations on people.  Denominations and church leaders create report cards that unconsciously trap and move great leaders towards disfunction.  Church planters….the ones that are supposed to have freedom to architect new environments of grace and inclusion for people to find natural faith, end up succumbing to the silent or spoken expectations to do more than God requires of us.

When I go to bed at night, I am reminded that God loves to see things happen, loves to move us into places where we can influence people, and His calling does include great responsibilities that we must be faithful with…..BUT at the end of the day He only REQUIRES these three things.  After that, it’s gravy in my book.

The last few weeks we’ve been preparing for Advent, which refers to “coming of the Christ.” Early in the real story, Christ came in quite unorthodox fashion. (Baby, donkey, poor mother and father who still hadn’t consummated a marriage) were just some of the unique mysteries of this saga. We now take it as fact, even though the details remain shrouded in mystery and 2000 years of interpretation. Some feel that because we can’t know for sure how things played out, it must not really be worth adjusting our lives around. Too mysterious for many. Yet, mystery is what makes a life of faith make sense. If we knew everything then we don’t walk by faith. We only walk by what we see, or what we feel. You may we thinking, “well, if I could see him or feel him, then I’d know for sure and follow him.” Actually, you probably wouldn’t. You’d just get arrogant, aggressive and obnoxious to people that didn’t “see” what you see.
I think one of the great benefits of mystery is that it keeps us as learners and seekers instead of scholars and teachers. People tend to like the first and be repelled by the second.
Sure, mystery, that is, not knowing everything does have it’s tension points. It does cause us at times to fail in faith, or to get tired, and even jaded. Yet, the real walk of faith is simply that. Even though we don’t see Him…we believe and adjust our lives around our hope and belief that He is. What makes a community real is simply that you have whole bunch of people that shrug their collective shoulders and go “let’s live by faith together.”
Jesus said, “blessed are those who do not see yet believe.”
This week, ponder all the things you’re not sure about and thank God that the mystery still intrigues you and calls you forward like Lucy to the dark clothes closet in The lion, the witch, and the wardrobe.” Also be thankful that you’re a part of a community that doesn’t arrogantly or abrasively ask you to fake your faith or deny your doubts, but invites you to be in the dark together..still looking for His light.

Several weeks ago I was with Spencer Burke, the creator of “the ooze.” We were talking about some future trends of church both good and bad and he referenced this analogy. He said, about 10 years ago if you told someone you were looking for a girlfriend or life mate on line, they would smile at you but internally they’d be tagging you as a pervert, punk or extremely desperate. The perceived best alternative was to find a mega-church that had a large singles group and see if you could land your life mate that way. About 7 years ago, 17% of Christian dating was done inside the church walls. According to Spencer, 17% of those who get married, now, find their mate online. He went on to show that in just a few short years, what was considered taboo or weird, is now considered “wise.” If someone says, “hey, I just met this great guy,” a caring friend should ask, “have you checked him out online?…Have you seen his profile and read about other girls who dated him?”

We know the influence of the church is sliding. People used to go to church for teaching, personal support ministry, to find a mate, to learn good financial principles, to ……blah, blah, blah. Now many of these services, including the legitimate social networking and spiritual growth is actually being outsourced via the internet.

You might be saying, “Well, the church will always be useful for people to find community face to face.” But that’s not even true. If you’ve ever played online poker, sat in a virtual chat room, watched your teenagers text or play with their face book account, or taken an online graduate course, you’ve already learned that deep community can be formed online as well. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not all that excited about this trend, but it does cause us to push the envelope on this question. “What is the church…And what is the church for?”

Can people find a church without a location? Do they need a building to stay committed to Christian principles?

The same weekend, I was with our CRM leadership team and we were recognizing that there now exists three streams of people that makeup this global church mess. (Skeptical Insiders, Deconstruction associates, Disconnected outsiders)

Skeptical insiders are those who remain in the existing church forms even though they don’t find any unique personal benefits but who hope something will change. They don’t really think it will, but their loyalty to God and people inside the walls keeps them engaged at least in behavior.

Deconstruction Associates are those that are rapidly on their way out. They’re going out loud, angry, obnoxious and don’t give a flip if they piss a few people off along the way. They actually feel God wants them to speak the truth and vote with their feet.

Disconnected Outsiders represent what Barna has counted to be about 25 million who still love God, love to live like a good Christian, love to do benevolent work in the world, but just don’t think you need to go to church to get it done.

Whereas in the past, we’d challenge the first guy, kick out the second guy, and tell the third guy he’s better off coming to church, I would suggest a new course of action. What do all want? They want their faith to make sense with their lives. If a church service and sermon is all the “inside” has to offer, I’d suggest that these three types of people are being faithful to church and to God in their own unique way. The responsibility, the pressure, and the art will be for leaders to create ways to help all these people play together for God’s purposes in the world. That may be how God’s church begins to reform.

Do I have the answers? Heck no, but it’s fun to see the questions being asked. I still enjoy driving to this room full of my friends and fellow sojourners, but maybe we’ll have to grapple with this too in the not to distant future.

hugh

This last Wednesday, we held our first ever Ahava Fest. Ahava is referenced in Ezra chapter 8. Ezra leads his community down to a beautiful watering hole named ahava and declares a fast and they begin to seek God for what they were to do with their children and their possessions. Ahav means “to give.” Ahava means “love.” The concept is to “love through giving.”

Adullam has been a unique experience in many ways, not the least of which is how we deal with helping people understand how to handle their resources (time & money). We have never taken an offering in our main gathering and we have sensed a radical distrust and skepticism by both existing Christ followers and the new band of Vikings who have found faith with us. Heck, I don’t even trust churches to do the right thing with money. It’s never bothered us that people are not giving to God stuff. The average churchgoer gives about 3% of their income to charity…the exact % non christian people give to charity.

Yet, there remains a truck load of scripture that references our giving, and deep down in our hearts, we know we should and that God likes it! So what do you do?

We did Ahava. We took 6 weeks to have our entire community reflect on (intentionality, stewardship, simplicity, community, and calling) We shared ways that we can help the world by simply giving up things instead of just calling them to giving more out of their pockets. Then we gathered and drank wine…alot of it. and called the entire community to live this year with a committment to greater simplicity/sacrifice/time etc. I commented to many that I’ve never talked about money in front of 200 people and had them all smiling! It was like sharing one of the coolest ideas ever….that we get to love God and love the world by giving.

Adullam works in the minds of many skeptics because we’ve shown that we’re not about growing a church. We don’t have any full time pastors (in fact the 7 people that serve adullam require a combined income of $5500/month) Yep, we have 7 people for the price of one. We ask our staff to raise missionary support as Matt and I do, so that we can be as little financial burdent to the mission as we can, thus freeing up more money to help real people.

Just for fodder, I made mention that it’s possible that a hundred people (drinking tap water instead of bottled, downgrading our cable packages, giving up one happy meal a week…. would free up about 10k a month). I then posed the question. What if we not only gave up a bunch of crap we don’t need and wouldn’t feel BUT WE ALSO gave 5%?? In our setting that would be about $40k a month. With the lean way we run adullam, it would free up $25k a month to bless people. That’s just with 200 adults!!

People don’t trust spiritual leaders with money for several reasons. 1) They see us putting all our cash into our own stuff (salaries, buildings, overseas missions) None of which are all that inspiring. 2) Most leaders don’t let people help determine where money goes.

In Adullam, our Ahava Fest is how we will now budget for the new year and every year from here on out. What we commit to give together to love God and love the world is what we have to work with. No pressure, no fear, no waste. All of sudden, we’re excited to get out of debt, give, serve, love, and be together. I can’t wait for next year and feel honored I get to serve with these people.