We are currently co-leading our third Financial Peace University group through our church and in partnership with another church in the area. During week three “Cash Flow Planning” we asked our participating households to anonymously give us some numbers – 1) ballpark household income 2)non-mortgage debt and 3) total debt. It is always fascinating to see these numbers and how many households respond.
In total we had 27 cards turned in. Of those 3 households had 0 non-mortgage debt (no baby step 2!). Of the remaining 24 households, us included, we have a total non-mortgage debt amount of 1.1 Million Dollars. Spreading that across all 27 households that gives an average of almost $41,000 of non-mortgage debt.
The average household income across those 27 families based on the people that reported a household income worked out to be just about $80K. This all came around to one of my soapbox points when someone in our small group, another fellow nerd, broke out his calculator. If you take your typical credit card interest rate of 18.9% multiplied against the average $41K in non-mortgage debt, you come just short of $8,000 which is 10% of the reported average household income of $80K or using an old Bible word – a tithe. (Numbers were rounded)
This is why our churches are not living up to our calling! We are too busy working for the man to launder money from one bank to another, just passing through our account in the blink of an eye. For what!? So we can drive our tithe to church every Sunday!
We are told in the scriptures, “Do not test The Lord your God” or “Do not put God to the test” but there is one time in scripture where God TELLS us to TEST Him…
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty,
“and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.
Malachi 3:10
The church needs to get its act together and start being the people we were called to be. To use “God’s and grandma’s” rules for handling money. To only buy what you can pay cash for. For far too long Christians in America have worshiped before the golden calf card and platinum card and just bought bought bought. Now we find ourselves crying out when people turn to the government to bail them out of their bad decisions and to help them out during hard times. That is what the church was CALLED TO DO! But we have forsaken the charge given in Romans 12 to not conform to our culture and we have chased after the Jones’ and “bought things we can’t afford to impress people we don’t even like.”
So I call to the church, COME OUT! – It is time to live worthy to our calling, it is time to LIVE BIG!
Tags: FPU