Take My Money!
Death by Love by Mark Driscoll came out last week. I'm really excited to purchase this book. At the moment I definitely don't have enough money to get it, but I'm excited for the day that I can. I've been thinking a lot about money and the way that I spend it; I feel like it's so hard to hold onto. The truth is that it isn't and that I seriously surrender the control I have over my money to whatever looks good and will satisfy me "now," pointless distractions, and whatever my friends say that I "need." It's hard shaking off that freedom I get when I receive a paycheck. In a sickening realm of thought, It’s often comparable to the freedom I feel when I'm about to start a devotional. It's an expectation of something fulfilling: a dizzy yearning for gratification.
Money is such a difficult subject to talk about because it’s something we’re so emotional about. It’s a key to so many things that we need. It’s a key to the things that bring us a false, but gratifying sense of value. It’s very easy to be judgmental when the people around you struggle with the same inadequacies that you do; internally, we are fully conscious of what brings us shame and we light up at the opportunity to glorify ourselves when it becomes clear that another person thinks just as shamefully as we do. Fortunately, my realization of this keeps me in check once in a while and I really try not to judge the way people around me spend money. It is hard nowadays though. Sometimes it seems like my only defense mechanism to not agreeing with my friend that I “need to buy” this and that it will “make doing these things so much easier.” Everything is a great investment. I don’t mean to be guilt inducing, but there is a greater investment. Nevertheless, I would prefer not to judge, but rather to pray for a better outlook on money spending. Clearly in this scenario I’m better off looking up than around.
Specifically, I’ve been thinking about tithing. There is really no reason why I can’t do it. And to be honest, I don’t think there’s anything I could buy that would bring me more joy. My heart is thoroughly invested at Imago Dei and I’m almost always behind what Pastor Yunn is doing.
Lately, it’s starting to look like the best path for everybody. Our English Ministry shares a church building with a larger Korean Ministry with a completely different demographic and, based on what I observe, completely different investments. Our harmony is beautiful. The Korean Ministry is well-established financially and whenever we want to have an outreach event or trip, such as building classrooms in Costa Rica or having a benefit concert for a fight against social justice, such as child-sex trafficking through Love146 (love146.org), we have the freedom to do so. What’s difficult is that in reality, we don’t co-exist in the way that I just explained. It’s not really seen by the Korean Ministry as two equally imperative and necessary ministries operating out of one building. Rather, it’s a Korean church with an English section functioning as a tumor. Those could quite honestly be very harsh words, so I suppose a better-printed way of explaining our relationship is that there is a lot that both ministries don’t see eye to eye on. I won’t complain because our ministry receives so much funding and love to truly make a text-suggested impact wherever love and care seems needed.
At any rate, the reason why heart-driven tithing seems like the best way to go is because lately the Korean ministry has been spending their funds on an excessive amount of large pretty banners and an ice sculpture podium, so it has left them unable to continue to provide our English Ministry with color prints for bulletins. It sounds juvenile that that’s what I’m riled up about and driven to remedy. However, if I knew that we weren’t going to have color bulletins, I wouldn’t have wasted my time concerning myself with consistent branding. A deacon at the church made it a point to stress how important it was that everything matches up in regards to color. Does that matter now? Not really. Maybe I’m just frustrated because I’m the graphic designer. I hope Imago Dei will reflect their creator in the way that they spend their money. It’s going to be hard to give, but hopefully it will help. How could I not want to add to the communal pot?
Money is such a difficult subject to talk about because it’s something we’re so emotional about. It’s a key to so many things that we need. It’s a key to the things that bring us a false, but gratifying sense of value. It’s very easy to be judgmental when the people around you struggle with the same inadequacies that you do; internally, we are fully conscious of what brings us shame and we light up at the opportunity to glorify ourselves when it becomes clear that another person thinks just as shamefully as we do. Fortunately, my realization of this keeps me in check once in a while and I really try not to judge the way people around me spend money. It is hard nowadays though. Sometimes it seems like my only defense mechanism to not agreeing with my friend that I “need to buy” this and that it will “make doing these things so much easier.” Everything is a great investment. I don’t mean to be guilt inducing, but there is a greater investment. Nevertheless, I would prefer not to judge, but rather to pray for a better outlook on money spending. Clearly in this scenario I’m better off looking up than around.
Specifically, I’ve been thinking about tithing. There is really no reason why I can’t do it. And to be honest, I don’t think there’s anything I could buy that would bring me more joy. My heart is thoroughly invested at Imago Dei and I’m almost always behind what Pastor Yunn is doing.
Lately, it’s starting to look like the best path for everybody. Our English Ministry shares a church building with a larger Korean Ministry with a completely different demographic and, based on what I observe, completely different investments. Our harmony is beautiful. The Korean Ministry is well-established financially and whenever we want to have an outreach event or trip, such as building classrooms in Costa Rica or having a benefit concert for a fight against social justice, such as child-sex trafficking through Love146 (love146.org), we have the freedom to do so. What’s difficult is that in reality, we don’t co-exist in the way that I just explained. It’s not really seen by the Korean Ministry as two equally imperative and necessary ministries operating out of one building. Rather, it’s a Korean church with an English section functioning as a tumor. Those could quite honestly be very harsh words, so I suppose a better-printed way of explaining our relationship is that there is a lot that both ministries don’t see eye to eye on. I won’t complain because our ministry receives so much funding and love to truly make a text-suggested impact wherever love and care seems needed.
At any rate, the reason why heart-driven tithing seems like the best way to go is because lately the Korean ministry has been spending their funds on an excessive amount of large pretty banners and an ice sculpture podium, so it has left them unable to continue to provide our English Ministry with color prints for bulletins. It sounds juvenile that that’s what I’m riled up about and driven to remedy. However, if I knew that we weren’t going to have color bulletins, I wouldn’t have wasted my time concerning myself with consistent branding. A deacon at the church made it a point to stress how important it was that everything matches up in regards to color. Does that matter now? Not really. Maybe I’m just frustrated because I’m the graphic designer. I hope Imago Dei will reflect their creator in the way that they spend their money. It’s going to be hard to give, but hopefully it will help. How could I not want to add to the communal pot?
posted by Satchell Drakes at
5:58 PM
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