JazzMan indicated that the leadership of all black protestant denominations shoud "pray about a plan that God would bless our efforts." HERE's THE PLAN: Give 10% of your GROSS earnings as a TITHE to the Lord via the Church you attend and receive your spiritual training. Pray and ask the Lord to move you to also give an OFFERING to that same or some other ministry. Save for yourself the same amount as your TITHE and OFFERING. Read, study, teach yourself about investing the money that you save. Then, take the remainder and enjoy yourself. God has already promised his blessings. See the Book of Malachi: "I will open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing".

Blessings, Pastor Paris

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2001

Answers

Dear Rev. Paris,

Let's assume that you are the pastor of a congregation of 400 people with an average annual income of $30,000 with 100% of them tithing. As the wise leader of this church what do you then do with annual church proceeds of least $1,200,000.

JazzMan

-- Anonymous, August 10, 2001

Praise the Lord for JazzMan!

I'm so glad you asked. Assuming this is 400 families, we can expect a normal distribution with some 15% considered wealthy, 15% considered poor, and 70% in the "middleclass". Also assuming a normal age distribution, 70% of these families or 280 are in the childbearing age. So the actual membership is in the area of 1200 to 1400 persons, a good-sized church.

First, I would ask the congregation to set aside 50% for Missionary efforts. A portion of that would be directed to establishing new congregation by getting volunteer families to become core families sending a pastor and congregation to target areas (some in the inner city, some in the suburbs), to create congregations just like this one (clones, if you will) whose mission will be to "Go and do likewise". Another portion of the Mission Fund ($600K) would be directed toward African missionary efforts, including sending missionaries to go and live in Africa establishing churches, getting them started and moving on to other areas, much like the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul. The rest of the mission fund would be used to develop churches in the America's particularly our neighbors to the south, Mexico, Cuba, and South America. Locally, I would ask that a Scholarship Fund be established so that every child of this church would have the opportunity to go to college, as far as thier abilites and talents would take them. Recipients of the Church scholarship would be required to work in the mission field during summer vacations, etc. And after finishing college, they would be asked to become contributers to this fund such that eventually we would be able to establish schools from Kindergarten to the PHD level. Some other Ministries: Private Religious School, PreK through High School providing employment. Day Care Center - for those famlies where both parents work outside the home; employing church members. Care Center (sort of like Goodwill) where we would take donated itmes from the members, and some purchased items, employing members of the church. In these centers, needy families from the area could come and shop for the needs of thier children and family with tokens received from church members. Let's call those tokens AME Dollars passed out by every member of the church. There is much more but I think you get the idea of my visions and dreams.

Blessings,

Pastor Paris

-- Anonymous, August 10, 2001

Praise the Lord, indeed, for Jazz Man! This is the type of answer that I've been trying, unsuccessfully, to get from Rev. Paris!

-- Anonymous, August 10, 2001

All you had to do was ask and it shall be given. One other Ministry: In the origonal question, I suggested that each person should save an amout equal to his/her tithe + Offering. Therefore the saving of the church members should be approzimately $1.4M annually. So we establish a Credit Union for the members. (More Jobs). And more than that, We issue our own credit cards (VISA, Mastercard), the members borrow their own money. In 10 years we have deposits in excess of $14M and begin to finance the homes of every church member at a rate 0.5% below the other mortgage companies. Now you talk about recycling the money. My God What a morning.

Blessings

Pastor Paris

-- Anonymous, August 10, 2001

Pastor Paris...

The last idea was GREAT!

Brenda

-- Anonymous, August 10, 2001

Dear Rev. Paris,

Thanks for such a great answer to my question. I was particularly pleased with your desire to start new AME churches and also a credit union. However, as I stated previously, I am an idealist whose idealism has been tempered by realism. I believe that very few individuals in the average Black church or even White church tithe on their gross income. I also believe that very few people in the church will ever tithe. Nevertheless, we have congregations who are consistently building multimillion dollar cathedrals when the existing facility is quite adequate. With all the assistant/associate pastors who now line the pulpits, they can conduct additional services if there are space limitations in the existing facility. Sometimes, I think that if I hear anyone else mention "building fund/building expansion" that I will pass out or lose my mind. I guess I wouldn't mind all the building if we kept it going so that we acquired all the surrounding dilapidated houses in the neighborhood. Here in Richmond, Va there is a neighborhood called "Churchhill" which is the childhood home of L.Douglas Wilder and Arthur Ashe. This neighborhood has a church on every corner. There are magnificent postbellum cathedrals which our ancestors built. There are magnificent modern day cathedrals in the midst of these boarded up and dilapidated houses. Quite frankly, it looks like a war zone in some areas. When I look at these cathedrals, I just can't help but ask why don't these people buy up some of these houses around the church and "fix them up". Does anyone out there know why this inertia exists in our Black churches when it comes to issues of this nature? It is certainly not because we Black people don't have the money.

JazzMan

-- Anonymous, August 10, 2001

JazzMan, I'm curious. You don't have much confidence in the TITHE. Do you tithe? The reason I ask, is that I find more resistance to my plan from folk who do not tithe and don't believe anyone else does. In Dallas, and other cities in Texas, we built large cathredals because we could not buy large homes or even new cars outside the ghetto. My uncle had to get someone else (white) to buy a New 1932 Ford Model A and then sell it to him. That of course made it a used car. So we "invested" in large cars and churches. I've seen some of the largest churches adjacent to government housing projects where the buld of the congregation resided.

You talk of the vast sums that the black church ought to invest in the community. Assuming the vast sums represent the tithes of the congregation, then that leaves 9 time that much in the hands of individual members. Why do they not use this 90% to revitalize the neighborhood?

And you too, you can see economic opportunity for the church to revitalize the property, why don't you and other likeminded individuals form a company with the 90% God leaves you and make a tremendous profit buying, renewing, and selling or renting those properties? That seems like an opportunity to me.

Blessings,

Pastor Paris

-- Anonymous, August 13, 2001

Dear Rev. Paris,

I fall short when it comes to tithing. I have learned that in spite of that, that God still sheds his grace and mercy on me. I have faith in God to supply all my needs according to his riches and some of the desires of my heart. I don't have faith in the ability of most congregations to use the tithe according to the will of God. Some ministers have said that I should tithe to a church no matter how the church is using the tithe. I vehemently disagree. In Malachi 3:10, God said "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this," says the Lord of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until there is no more need. When I observe black people building a cathedral in the midst of impoverished low income neighborhood, I can't help but wonder if there is truly " meat in the storehouse" for the members of that community. Why is it that more of our black people in need receive more financial support from the white churches like the catholic and The Salvation than they do from our own black churches? Finally, if myself and a few friends decided to invest our 90% in homes in a low income community, the financial risk to us would be greater than the risk to a congregation of 400 people. My point is that the church can promote the financial security of its members and also the community if the money is wisely managed.

JazzMan

-- Anonymous, August 13, 2001

JazzMan,

Thank you for being honest and open. You are almost there! Praise the Lord. This is what helped me to learn to tithe. First, I realized that all I had really belonged to God, so when I gave to the church it was no longer in my custody and therefore not my responsibility. (I dindn't have to worry about what it was used for any more). Second, it became a test of my faith for me. If I couldn't trust God in the small things, (like 10% of my income), how could I trust him with my life?. Third, this is the only thing that God gives us opportunity to test Him. And that is because He wants you and me to realize what we value the most, our treasure or our lives. Forth, read and study the first chapter of Haggi, then tell me about it. Particularly about the "pockets with holes" and God's statement about "blowing away".

I'm sure you didn't really mean that last statement. It came over as if you would be willing to allow the church to take a greater risk than you would personally. Now if you believe that God will bless the efforts of the church, why can't you have the faith to believe that he will bless your good work? Perhaps you don't think that is such a good work after all? Would the church be "wise stewards" of God's stuff if they took that risk that you are unwilling to take?

I'm not being mean spirited but I hear that so much form people who expect the church to do with 10% that which they are unwilling to do with the 90% left.

If you look at the average income per person among black folk, it is far below that of white folk. The reason is because we are afraid to give trust God to keep his word.

Blessings,

Pastor Paris

-- Anonymous, August 13, 2001