Economics and Evangelism
December 4, 2008Posted By Kent Hunter
Here’s an e-mail I got from one of our Church Doctors, Dr. Barry Kolb in Texarkana, Texas. (You can tell by reading it that Barry is not our Southern Baptist Church Doctor, but one of our Lutheran Church Doctors!):
If you had purchased $1,000 of AIG stock one year ago, you would have $42 left.
With Lehman, you would have $6.60 left.
With Fannie or Freddie, you would have less than $5 left.
But if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all of the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling REFUND, you would have had $214.
Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.
It’s called the 401-Keg…..
While it is funny, the information about our investments is no laughing matter, is it? However, the economic meltdown of America, now traveling around the world in domino effect, is bringing one of the greatest opportunities the church has had in at least sixty years. When people are in crisis, they are more receptive. When they have lost hope, it is time to share with them the eternal, changeless, priceless hope we have in Jesus Christ. If your church is tight on money, it’s not time to cut back. Don’t cut back! Go to your people and do what Malachi 3 tells you: Test God who lives in your people. Ask them to step up in these hard times and support your church. Ask them to increase their giving. If that makes no sense in this economy, you are not thinking about the miracle in the power of God. It’s not supposed to make sense, it’s God, not us. That’s the message our people need to hear. Why do they need to step up their giving? Because right now your church needs to step up it’s outreach. That takes money. We are challenging people more than ever right now to step up their support for our ministry so we can encourage and help churches to step up. Why? Because in a crisis like this, there has never been a better opportunity. We can laugh at the jokes, cry about the realities, but we ought to be as excited as ever as Christians to reach our communities for Jesus Christ. This is a perfect storm for people to know about the love, grace, and the power in Jesus. Step up!



