I was talking last week to a church planter who left a high position in a denominational church to plant a church from scratch. He did it out of obedience when he realized that in his denomination, he would never be able to start a church planting movement. He took a huge pay cut to do so.
This church planter shared with me that God doesn’t promise to provide us with enough money to keep up with the American dream. He does promise that He will meet our needs. I was reminded that the early Romans during the time of Jesus lived for the present and tried to gather their worldly goods in order to live a pleasurable life in the here and now. The early Christians, in contrast, lived for their reward in the next life. They often suffered persecution and death, knowing that an eternal, enduring reward awaited them.
While at Xenos Christian Fellowship, I talked to another pastor who left a huge salaried position to plant a church from scratch. His church was not moving ahead and was playing cultural Christianity. Yes, they were paying him a lot of money, but he walked away from it to start a cell-based church.
We need to be careful not to allow secular consumerism to dictate what we do and and how we act. God will meet our needs, but He hasn’t promised to always meet our wants.
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Joel
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