DID YOU HEAR ABOUT IT?

[IMPORTANT NOTE: Yesterday, one of our Church Members contacted me and strongly encouraged me to post this information on my blog, so I did exactly that. If you’d like to receive this posting by e-mail, just request it at revrbaril@aol.com. I DO think this IS material worth sharing with others.]

“...ye have not, because ye ask not.” (from James 4:2)

Did you hear the one about the Orange County, California pastor who asked people to donate $900,000 to his church and actually received $2.4 million?

It’s actually NOT a joke with a punch line! Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church (Southern Baptist) who is the author of those “Purpose Driven...” books DID put out an e-mail appeal for $900,000 to close the church’s 2009 deficit. In fact, $2.4 million came in and Warren is calling it a miracle. The story is found (among other places) at:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/01/pastor-rick-warren-asks-for-900000-gets-24-million-for-saddleback-church.html

Please don’t think I’m knocking Rick Warren. I’ve read and recommended his book “The Purpose Driven Life”. You may recall that Warren prayed at President Obama’s Inauguration. And, Warren’s megachurch has given HUGE amounts of money to great causes in the past such as New Orleans hurricane relief. No, I rather say, “More power to them!”

My friend Ed Duddy from Texas e-mailed me about this over the weekend writing, “It’s too bad your church couldn’t raise needed capital in this way.”

Well, our small church (First Assembly of God of Framingham) IS greatly struggling and in fact needs a financial miracle, so if anybody wants to send a donation, we won’t refuse it!

But it did spark a thought as we are in the early days of this new year: there are SO many worthy charities and ministries struggling at this time.
I read stories in the Christian publications about the number of ministries and charities that are expected to close this year. In 2009, our family was shocked that New Covenant Christian School (where we sent all our kids and where my wife taught for several years) had no choice but to close last June.

Most of us don’t have big money! I sure don’t! I encounter many people who are struggling just to put food on the table. But I also see ministries around me that are struggling. There’s a GREAT “Aftercare” residential program here in Framingham (that is, a place for guys to go who are released from prison). I used to be on their Board. They receive a lot of state funding, but due to state cutbacks, they’ll lose a LOT of their funding this year. An older pastor friend set up “Barnabas Ministries, Inc.” seven years ago as a ministry to hurting pastors and churches in crisis. I benefit by attending one of their small groups. They need a lot more funding. The list goes on and on.

No, many of us as individuals don’t have big money, but if we all strove to give what we CAN and do what we CAN (as far as time and energy) for the charities and ministries we care about, we COULD prevent many of them from “going under” in 2010, and we MAYBE could see some of them succeed beyond their wildest dreams.

I hope you’ll consider being part of that in 2010!
Please consider sharing this with your friends!
God bless you.