First of all, congratulations for another win, Kenny. This year, Perry has won around $4.5 million dollars in the PGA tour. He has won three times, had a fluky finish in another tournament that he should have won, and been in contention in the Tournament Players' Championship until collapsing in the final round.
Perry is a member of the Church of Christ in Franklin, Kentucky. When he ventured out onto the tour years ago, it was with the financial assistance of an elder in his local church. As it came time to pay the elder back, Perry was told that was not necessary. Instead, the elder recommended that he donate 5% of all his earnings to Lipscomb's golf program. That means that this year alone, they have received over $200,000 from Perry. For his career, I would guess that figure would be around $1.5 million.
____________________
How about this one from Tozer:
How about this one from Tozer:
We in the churches seem unable to rise above the fiscal philosophy which rules the business world; so we introduce into our church finances the psychology of the great secular institutions so familiar to us all and judge a church by its financial report much as we judge a bank or a department store.
A look into history will quickly convince any interested person that the true church has almost always suffered more from prosperity than from poverty. Her times of greatest spiritual power have usually coincided with her periods of indigence and rejection; with wealth came weakness and backsliding. If this cannot be explained, neither apparently can it be escaped. . . .
The point I am trying to make here is that while money has a proper place in the total life of the church militant, the tendency is to attach to it an importance that is far greater than is biblically sound or morally right. The average church has so established itself organizationally and financially that God is simply not necessary to it. So entrenched is its authority and so stable are the religious habits of its members that God could withdraw Himself completely from it and it could run on for years on its own momentum. The Warfare of the Spirit, 9-11.
A look into history will quickly convince any interested person that the true church has almost always suffered more from prosperity than from poverty. Her times of greatest spiritual power have usually coincided with her periods of indigence and rejection; with wealth came weakness and backsliding. If this cannot be explained, neither apparently can it be escaped. . . .
The point I am trying to make here is that while money has a proper place in the total life of the church militant, the tendency is to attach to it an importance that is far greater than is biblically sound or morally right. The average church has so established itself organizationally and financially that God is simply not necessary to it. So entrenched is its authority and so stable are the religious habits of its members that God could withdraw Himself completely from it and it could run on for years on its own momentum. The Warfare of the Spirit, 9-11.
2 comments:
I love the Kenny Perry story! About Tozer's quote today -- I remember years ago, when Dad was an elder in LaMarque, one of the men standing up in a congregational meeting to say: "Billie, you would never run the union hall (money) like you run this church." To which Dad responded simply, "you are absolutely right!"
I hope money will always remain a by-product of great spiritual growth in the Decatur church - something that is available for us to build the kingdom but never put ahead of reaching the lost.
Post a Comment