of no consequence to those believers who do not participate in corporate worship.
Strategically, that mindset is faulty. Yes, it is true that the Body is the actual church; brick and mortar are just things that will decay in the erosion of time. However, there is a need for a place where believers can come together, and that need is supported not only with historical evidence, from the first European settlers of North America to the persecuted Body of believers in places of modern-day persecution, but also with Biblical support as well—the disciples all knew coming together was vital to strength and strategy. Scripture reveals (Ezekiel 40–48, for example) that in the future there will be collective corporate worship in a designated temple building.
Also, while it is true that believers know that it is the individuals that make up the Body, nonbelievers do not. When they see church after church obtaining mortgages, filing bankruptcy, and renting space to nonbelieving companies to raise money, these nonbelievers who only see the building as the “church” are subtly turned off to your message of salvation—why would they believe you offer solutions to eternal problems when you don’t even know how to deal with the financial problems and the ruin that comes from them, even though “money is not that important”? Instead, they see a body of people who seemingly cannot even handle the unimportant issue of money, while seeing no evidence of God’s instructions in your professional efforts. So why would we even expect them to believe us when we talk about how to get rewarded in Heaven? This is true whether you attend a cathedral or a home-based church with family.
If nonbelievers do understand that the Church is composed of individuals, their perception of “the Church” actually gets worse, not better, because the majority of individual Christians are in bondage financially. Believers are called to be holy—set apart—but by and large we’re not doing that financially, which prevents us from being an example of how His ways are different (and better) than the ways of the world. The majority of Americans have debt in the form of mortgages, student loans, car payments, credit cards, and the like, and with 80 percent being at or near the poverty level,12 getting ahead of the debt is like swimming upstream . . . up a mountain. Missing just one paycheck would put most families into a financial tailspin, as two-thirds of American families live paycheck to paycheck.13 What impression will non-believers have of the Church and the financial teachings offered therein when the average parishioner cannot write a check for $500 because, like most Americans, he or she doesn’t even have that much saved?14
A constant battle with poverty. Very little, if anything, in savings. Paychecks eaten up by debt. No control over your time or decisions. No means to be generous, even to one’s church. That is bondage!
Please understand that if you find yourself in this form of bondage, I don’t mean to offend you. Lord knows that I have had times in my life where five bucks in my pocket was akin to feeling wealthy. My point is that as a body of believers we cannot ignore this any longer—we need to swallow our pride and humbly admit that there is an epidemic placing believers in bondage. Poor stewardship of money has placed nearly eight out of ten readers of this book in a financial jail cell—and a spiritual jail cell, because it hampers your witness and your work.
Forget the conversation about how to use money for good. Forget about talking about the love of money being the root of all evil. Forget about telling others that money is not the most important thing. When you are in debt, you have no real ability to participate in the discussion of money, be it for its good or evil uses.
Nor can you participate in the flow of money. You may hear of jailed believers in Libya who are being milked for bail money. If you are broke, you cannot help. You may be presented with the opportunity to send Bibles into North Korea. If you are in debt, you cannot help. A member of your church prays that God moves someone to give, so her husband can have a lifesaving procedure. If you are living paycheck to paycheck, you are not able to give.
Usually, at this point in the conversation, pride raises its ugly head and I hear an egotistical response like, “Josh, I give all I can.” I understand that, and every penny helps, but when someone says that they give all they can, yet they do not study how they could make more to give, it tells the world that it is survival they are concerned with, and if there is something to give after that, so be it. I urge you to look past yourself as there are so many in need, in pain. Is the aforementioned fact that most of us only give of the crumbs left after our own survival true? Yes. Does it hurt your heart to realize you are in this position of bondage? Yes. And is it possible you are a pastor or leader in the Church, and you excuse away the pain of guilt you are now feeling by using Scripture out of context, since your “heart was in the right place?” Yes.
“Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall”—Proverbs 16:18
We need to swallow our pride and realize there are more than a billion believers around the world being held in this form of bondage, along with tens of thousands of houses of worship. Not to mention the financial and spiritual bondage of innumerable souls needing to hear the Word who will not be able to because we’re allowing our resources to be limited. We all know that since Biblical times, it has taken money to send out missionaries or to distribute the Scriptures. We need to collectively put on our big boy pants and realize it is our lack of proper teaching regarding faith and its relationship to money that has led to a world in need—and has left the hero who could swoop in to save them stuck in a jail cell.
Learn from the Pain
Will the rest of the book cause pain and discomfort? Yes, some of it will. Because we have abdicated our role on faith and finance, the pain of truth will be present for most, but as I’m sure you know, the Truth shall set you free as well as heal the pain. The pain that may accompany learning the Truth is not punishment, but rather the ripping away of the blinders that years of lies have put upon you.
Maybe a half of a percent of the people reading this book can say that they give generously and that they have no bondage of debt. Yet they may falsely assume that they need not partake in the rest of the book. This would be an error that only amplifies the problem.
What about the people around you? What are you doing to help them? Do you realize the gravity of the situation? If you do happen to be in the top half of the wealthiest one percent (the percentage that experts agree don’t personally need to worry about financial issues), and within your sphere of life and influence there are families being bound and torn by debt, your church has a mortgage, and you yourself have poor financial practices, then you are neither living nor teaching your faith. This, unfortunately for you, also means you are not doing what the Father desires; and not doing what the Father desires is . . . sin.
The bottom line is this: The “church,” as individuals and/or a physical building of corporate worship, is in bondage. This bondage comes by our own ignorance and sinful nature. In a sense this is worse than if it were to come at the hands of the Romans, Alexander the Great, or the pharaohs of Egypt. Believers have believed not the Bible but rather the whispers of the evil one when he lied to us about what Elohim wants us to do with our faith and financial lives.
You have free will; the ties that bind are only but shadows of reality. The reality is that your financial solutions are not only Biblical but are within your reach. Not only are the binds that hold you back financially just a shadow, but so are the other ties that bind us in our hearts and spirit. The One who came to set you free did not limit that freedom to after death; He came to set you free in all Truth and we were given the Word to lead us in all our ways, ALL. When we trust the Word we can free ourselves and then set those around us free as well. The truth—knowing it and also acting on it—can set you free.
The good news is that there is hope for all of us. There are ways to break free from the bondage of debt, and yes, you have what it takes to do so. I understand many may be realizing for the first time the reality of their financial situation. Please know that
