MONEY GIVEAWAY - WHAT HAPPENED

“And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin:
For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow.
And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow:
Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?
And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds.” (Luke 19:20-24)

It took place nineteen years ago- in late 1992.

I hadn’t thought about it for a long, long, time.

Until this week. I was driving along the MassPike and all of a sudden it all came back to me, as vividly as if I were reliving the events of the autumn of 1992. And, it’s caused me to do a lot of thinking and reviewing and reflecting. And wondering. Wondering what would have happened if things had been different.

There is one big reason why I hesitated in putting this story forth, and I want to deal with that here at the outset. It COULD be badly misinterpreted by some people and COULD be used to try to put former Assemblies of God Southern New England District Superintendent in a bad light or to in some way subject him to harsh criticism. That is the furthest thing from my mind as I write this. “Brother Berkey” as we called him is now retired, and I assume happily. He is an amazing man. Ed Berkey led our District out of a very difficult fiscal situation. He is a very gifted leader and a wise man. He is an insightful man and a warmhearted man. There were several times that I sat in Brother Berkey’s office during his tenure; times when I went there for counsel and advice. He always had time for me, listened to me, prayed for and with me, and loved me. I have only positive feelings and thoughts about him.

Now, back to the story and to 1992. Little First Assembly of God of Framingham’s church building had been a cute but old and tiny white church building on a small lot at the corner of Hartford and C Streets in Framingham for over sixty years. In late 1988 the facility was PACKED. At that time, it only seated fifty-five, and for Sunday after Sunday it was packed. To make a very long story short, our congregation sold that property, and began renting office space in a modern professional building on Route 9 to use as my office and the church’s office, and we began holding Sunday services in a school. It was a lot of work setting up and breaking down every Sunday morning, but prior to the purchase of the 32 South Street former UAW building in 1994, we did that for several years.

In ‘92 the church had two high-interest-yielding savings accounts as well as the regular checking account. We literally never touched ONE of those accounts. Well, not until 1994 when we used its contents as the down payment on the UAW building. The other was being drained week by week. Now, there was a LOT of money in it at that time...I’d say at least $60,000; but it was being drained as our income was not matching our expenses. Everybody was comfortable with these arrangements. I was conformable with these arrangements. Well, too comfortable. Somewhere around Labor Day, I sensed God really challenging me about that money and our somewhat poor stewardship of it. The thought actually came to me several times that we’d be better off taking a giant step of faith and donating tens of thousands of dollars of that to missionaries and other ministries; then believing God to honor and bless that. I didn’t tell anybody about these feelings, but they grew stronger and stronger with each passing day.

Each October, the Southern New England District (now called the Southern New England Ministry Network) has a Ministers’ Retreat. In those days, it was called “Ministers’ Institute”. I never dreamed what would happen in my life at that Fall’s Minister’s Institute. I honestly forget who the guest speaker was that year. Well, he was from the deep South, but I do not remember much else about him. But he gave one very powerful sermon about stepping out in faith and doing something very difficult. I went to the altar after that sermon, got on my knees, and soberly thought and prayed and “listened”. After I got back on my feet that morning, I knew what I was going to do. I was going to publicly propose to the church body that we give away $50,000. of that money to missionaries and other ministries. To be more accurate, I actually was proposing giving away $40,000. and making an investment in a new, big step for our church “in house”.

I now know, I made a huge mistake at that time. I never shared anything about this with my Board or ANYONE. Please don’t get me wrong. My Board overwhelmingly favored my proposal when I presented it. But it was very unfair to them. Ironically, at another Assemblies of God function for ministers, the speaker told us to “never surprise your Board” with something you propose to the church you pastor. I never did that again, but I strongly wish I had brought this proposal to my Board first. At this time, I was still using an electronic typewriter and photocopier. No computer yet! So, I typed up my proposal and ran off copies. I presented it to the church on a Sunday morning.

I was greatly elated when right after that service, Jan Connell, a prominent Member of the church and a Deacon’s wife came up to me with a HUGH smile on her face, looked me right in the eye, and enthusiastically said “YES!!” I received several other very positive comments about my pretty radical proposal, and several somewhat cooler comments of “We’ll have to pray about it”. That was not a problem. The proposal ended with my admonition for us all to take three weeks and pray about it, and then we’d have a Special Business Meeting and vote on the proposal.

Just a few days later, my office phone rang. It was Ed Berkey from the District Office.

“I understand you want to GIVE AWAY THE CHURCH’S ASSETS,” he said with an obviously disturbed tone in his voice, then added, “and as your Superintendent I’m asking you to NOT DO THIS.”

I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. Very nervously, I told him I really believed God wanted this done and that he had now put me in a very difficult predicament.

“You’ll SPLIT that church,” Brother Berkey added, “That is not your money. It’s the money people sowed into that church over many years. It’s their money and it’s not yours to give away.”

I sat sad and stunned in my office for one hour.
What could I do? What should I do? Could I thumb my nose at the Superintendent and just proceed anyway? I concluded I just couldn’t do that.
I phoned Brother Berkey back and told him I could withdraw the proposal and submit to his authority.

To my surprise, I was called in to meet with the highest level leaders of the Southern New England District on December 2, 1992. It was scary. This was a genuine experience of being “called in on the carpet”. They were all very gracious, but each in their own way cautioned me that I must never do anything like that again.

I did learn in that meeting that one Member of our church had seen Brother Berkey at a special function at another church shortly after I had given my proposal. The Member had given Brother Berkey a copy of my handout, and had expressed disdain for what I was proposing. Ironically, over the next few weeks, many, many people came to me saying they’d have absolutely voted for the money giveaway. Like me, they did not REALLY view it as a “giveaway”. Rather, they saw it as a great step of faith and an investment in ministry.

I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if we’d have been able to donate those tens of thousands as we’d planned to. WOULD our church have ultimately declined and closed? Would we have forged relationships with other churches and ministries which would have served to enhance the work of the Kingdom of God? Would we have even reaped some great unexpected blessings?

I’ve already stated my regret about not presenting this to my Board FIRST. Maybe if I’d have done that and a Board member or two had presented it to the Body as OUR idea rather than my idea, things would have been different. And, what if that person HADN’T gone to Ed Berkey? He would not have learned about the giveaway until after the fact. I could have said, “Sorry I won’t do it AGAIN,” but the step of faith would still have been done. And, maybe Ed Berkey should have just left it alone, or have cautioned me about it, but not have actually told em not to do it.

I’d love to know what would have happened, but alas, it’s all speculation.

I welcome your thoughts and feedback about this piece.