Have you had a revelation lately? - James Walston

As many of you are aware we are considering a building program. Recently some of us were requested to help determine if our Church could afford to complete the building of additional bathrooms, an elevator, renovations of our nursery, and family life center renovations.   Initially we thought that we would be dealing with a financial issue; however what we found was a serious spiritual issue at our church. This is not just about building a building it has much larger ramifications for our church and the support of God’s work.

If you watch our Treasury Report monthly you will see that we are paying our bills on time and that we have a few dollars in the bank. This is usually the depth of review that we give this report. Never before was there a requirement to look deeper into our financial condition. However, as we begin our research some very disturbing facts began to appear.

Prior to giving Oakdale Church a loan banks want to see and understand the financial condition and giving habits of the members. As we began to compile this information the previously identified disturbing facts began to be revealed. Our Church Treasurer provided us information that allowed us to develop financial models (names of individual givers were not provided).  No one on this team has access to any individual names associated with the individual financial information provided for this review.

As you can easily see from the attached spread sheet about 20% of our members are carrying 80+% of our total financial burden.   Can you determine which line you fall in on the spreadsheet? Are you satisfied with your giving habit? It is apparent that many of our members are not supporting the Lords work here at Oakdale. As a matter of information the 65 giving units that have currently giving $0.00 (Year to Date) are not children the majority are adults.

As we stated earlier, this is not a financial issue it is clearly a spiritual issues. If we accept Biblical principle concerning salvation: we must also accept the Biblical principles concerning tithing.  Are you willing to pray and earnestly seek God’s guidance and make the appropriate changes in your giving habits? Just think what our Church could do in the community and on the mission field if every member would participate in the support of God’s work through your tithes. Again this is not about a building program it is about our obedience to God. However, if the majority of our members were tithing and supporting our church a building program would be no problem.

-James Walston

                         Chairman Stewardship Ministry Team

This is a spiritual issue not a financial issue!

Have you ever wondered why God does not bless you in a greater way?

“Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of worldly wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you”

  -Luke 16:11