This is going to be the first in a sporadic series of blog posts where I highlight absurd misuses of financial resources in Christian churches. I'm not necessarily posting this as spiteful rebuke, but more as a chronicle of symptoms of an embarrassing disconnect between the simple but effective activities of the First Century Church and the ridiculous extravagances of some modern churches.
I invite anyone reading this to submit links and other stories for this series. I'll be posting some of these from time to time if I think the suggestion warrants a spot on the "Let Me Get This Straight" series.
Alabaster, Alabama.
Laguna Hills, California.
Houston, Texas.
Over Easter weekend, churches in these three cities, along with so many others around the United States, engaged in an event that is so far beyond any logical explanation.
The Helicopter Egg Drop.
In most of these cases, a helicopter is hired to fly in to drop tens of thousands of plastic Easter eggs for throngs of adoring children. Now, I know that these churches claim that these events draw hundreds, if not thousands, of men, women and children who would not normally darken the doors of a church. In one news story, the pastor of one of these churches praised the event as catalyst for eleven Salvations on Easter Sunday.
And while I firmly believe that we do what we have to do to reach people for Christ, I find myself raising a couple of issues about these events:
1. These types of events, with the bravado of a rented helicopter flying in to drop these eggs has a certain air of showiness to it. Almost "bragadocious". I don't get the whole hey-look-at-us-we-rented-a-helicopter-to-drop-eggs-for-kids as a vehicle for portraying the love, compassion and humility of Christ. In fact, I don't think humility and helicopters are necessarily compatible uttered in the same breath.
2. I don't know how much a helicopter rental costs, but I can't imagine this is the kind of activity that Christ had in mind when he gave the disciples the Great Commission. But whatever it costs, I can say with almost 100% certainty that there have to be better ways to utilize financial resources than a helicopter rental.
Jesse S. Greever is the CEO of 3G Publishing,
a digital publisher for Christian authors. If you are a Christian
author and have a manuscript that you think is worthy of publication,
check out the submission guidelines and follow the directions for manuscript submissions. Greever is also a co-author of the book, Learning to Give in a Getting World, and numerous fiction titles from Untreed Reads publishing.
You can become a fan of 3G Publishing on FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/3GPublishing
You can follow 3GPublishing on Twitter (@3GPublishing): https://twitter.com/#!/3GPublishing
Learning to Give in a Getting World, by Marc Farnell and Jesse Greever, is available as both a paperback and eBook at the following locations:
CreateSpace (paperback, $13.99)
Amazon.com (paperback, $13.99; eBook, $8.99)
It
is also available to Amazon Prime members as a free eBook download as a
part of the Kindle Lending Library. Pastors and church administrators
can contact me directly at jesse@accidental-author.com to find out about discounts available for churches that wish to use this for teaching and small group curriculum.
You can also become a fan of the book at www.facebook.com/LearningToGive.
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/JesseSGreever
No comments:
Post a Comment