Liturgy… would you like fries with that?
Published June 29th, 2008 in EditorialsIt’s no secret that for a long time most Antiochian Orthodox churches have engaged in fund-raising activities after the Sunday Liturgy, whether it be selling food, books, CDs, or raffle tickets. Their two main reasons for doing this are usually that:
- The church is providing a service that is needed by the congregation
- This is the only way that they can get people to give enough money to the church
People are hungry after the Liturgy and will buy food from somewhere else anyway, so why shouldn’t the church get their money instead? And the church has financial burdens and people simply don’t give enough in the collection for the church to be able to pay it’s debts and bills. Right?
Let’s answer these two points in reverse order, because it will make more sense that way.
The secret to inspiring generosity in church goers
31 “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Matthew 6:31-33
Jesus says that we should not worry about the bare essentials in life, rather we should concentrate on the kingdom of God and attaining righteousness, and by doing these two things we will find that all our needs are met in abundance.
Since this comes straight from the mouth of Jesus, I for one certainly think it is true. So perhaps if we stop worrying about trying to suck money out of our people, and instead invest our time in educating and inspiring them, to be better Christians by being better Christians ourselves, then maybe they’ll want to give money to help us continue our good work. If we give money to the poor, feed the hungry, and preach the gospel, then maybe people will want to help us.
Instead we worry about our financial security, and place our trust in the principles of business and profit and turn our hands to the wrong tasks. And our people do the same thing.
Which is the odd one out: (a) Service industry, (b) Franchise, (c) Church
Lock in (c) Eddie! The argument that people need food after the Liturgy, and that everything else the church sells afterwards is only being provided as a service to the congregation, loses all power as soon as you mention the word profit.
If our aim is to provide a service to our congregation then why aren’t we selling things at cost price? Because we need the money (point 2 from my list above). Well I’ve dealt with that now, and Jesus dealt with this sort of thing to. I’ll let Him speak for Himself:
12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” Matthew 21:12-13
Scoring points for kicking own goals
Just like in soccer, where players need to know which goal they’re supposed to be targeting in order to score points, churches need to have the right goals in mind in order to make any progress.
But what if the referee started awarding points for kicking own goals? That wouldn’t make sense but in a way that’s what’s happening in our church. When our bishop demands asset building and slaps our committee members on the back for their ingenious fund-raising ideas, but forgets about the spiritual needs of the people in the church, it’s like scoring points by kicking own goals.
Do you agree?
Let us know what you think about this issue?
3 Responses to “Liturgy… would you like fries with that?”
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Hi,
About time someone speaks out.
We have lost great clergy over the last few years, for little reason explained by the Bishop.
The Bishop and the Church, should go back to fundementals and focus on critical issue’s with-in the church!
Good website…..an open forum, is healthy!
I cant beleive this is the kind of response you get from our top leaders, people whom we should be looking up to.
I personally have 3 seperate incidents come to mind when someone mentions the Bishop, which unfortunately are not positive memories.
The first one goes back a few years when he came to lead a liturgy service. Straight after the liturgy had ended, he stood up at the front and started an Auction to raise money! This was astonishing to me and others at the time.
The second incident occured at several occations at different locations. More often than none, the sermons of the bishop all have a path, and this leads to money and development and buying new churches, and making more churches. People come to church to listen to a spiritual sermon, one that explains the bible and has a relation back to peoples lives. He needs to be told tat its not an opportunity to sell something!
I think he needs to concentrate on building the sirituality and foundation of the church before he looks at the “Bricks and Mortar” side of things, as many have left including great ceregy over the years becaue of “our” Bishop for reasons that are unbeleivable, such as trying to bully them to sign over their personal property to the “Church”.
Doesnt the bible refer to money and the Devil as one? Why is “our” Bishop so money hungry and does not come across to me and others I know as a spirtitual man?
The third incident was a disgraceful one. The Bishop was again vititing our church leading a sermon when half way through he looks at his watch and stopped the service, appologised that he had to leave to catch a plane back home and told the preist to continue without him.
This is arrogance at the highest level. Someone of his stature is supposed to set an example to us all. If the Bishop cant schedule his flights to be after the service, then he shouldnt have turned up to begin with. Initially I didnt thik this was money related before I learned that the bishop gets paid an “appearance fee”. Maybe it was all money related in the end? I dont know what the agreement was at the time, but the point is that if he wasnt going to finish the service, he should never have started it!
Well done for starting a public forum, I hope this forum brings some light back into the church.
Internet “Blogs” serve as a means to “gossip” without even realising that this is indeed what we are doing. I do not applaud “open forum” unless it has the “blessing” (or in modern day terms: Consential Agreement) from/of the person you are “back-stabbing” … Are you really doing the church a service or are you infact sinning? - Signed by Vicki.