The brutal truth: the PCA is not being used by God to convert many in our country to the Christian faith. According to our denominational statistics for last year the entire PCA had a net growth of only 74 members by profession of faith. 83% of churches in my denomination had 5 or less adult conversions that led to membership. To hear more about this and some analysis listen to Randy Pope's message from General Assembly last month.
While that is a major concern for prayer and action, I am heartened by how missional my local PCA church is. Tens of thousands of dollars, a large percentage for our small church, go to local and foreign missions. Admittedly, giving is only one part of what it really means to be missional, but it is an important part.
The session unashamedly declares that when faced with either putting refrigerated air in the sanctuary or funding the spread of the gospel to Muslim refugees in Greece, there's no contest over where the money will go. We could have a much nicer looking facility, and maybe some day we will, but for now there are too many more urgent needs to address.
God has used our church's mission mindset to motivate Kristin and I to reconsider what more we can do. One idea we have heard of from others and have begun to implement is to systematically step down our "standard of living" spending (e.g. home supplies, restaurants, entertainment, etc) incrementally, freeing up this money for giving. I bring up this action carefully, knowing that it can be perceived as boasting and prideful, but I genuinely don't think that is my motivation. I needed to hear of this approach to increased giving, and by mentioning it here I hope that others reading this may also find the joy that comes from using less and giving away more.
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