When I came home yesterday, my wife had the newspaper out on the counter top with a note written to me and an arrow pointing to the newspaper. "Read this! Sounds like Church Requel!" The arrow was pointed to the spirituality column written by Norris Burkes. The article was titled, "3 Qualities to Look for in a Place of Worship." Burkes makes the point that if one is looking for a new church, he or she should consider: #1) a church that reaches up to God in its worship; #2) a church that reaches in to its people in teaching and fellowship; and #3) a church that reaches out to others with the gospel and with service.
What pleased me especially was Mary Kay (my wife) connecting the dots to Church Requel. Certainly, as the pastor of this new church, it is my deepest desire that we be a church who reaches up, who reaches in, and who reaches out. But then, which pastor would not say that about their church? However, when I read the entire column, I saw what Mary Kay meant about being like Church Requel. Regarding reaching out, Burkes wrote:
My home church gives 10 percent of its income to the community. Once my pastor even gave away "spiritual stimulus money" to the parishioners and asked them to reinvest it in the community.
This is indeed a very similar financial philosophy that Church Requel has maintained from its beginning. We take 10% of all the giving that comes in to the church and place it in what we call the Matthew 25 Fund. In Matthew 25, Jesus talks about those who fed the hungry, gave water to the thirsty, visited the sick and imprisoned, and provided shelter to the homeless. We have not restricted this giving to our local community, but much of it has gone there. We have given a substantial portion to feed the hungry through the Salvation Army. And we took on the Christmases of four very needy families. However, when the Haiti disaster hit, we gave some of our Matthew 25 Fund to Compassion International.
I haven't thought about the concept of the "spiritual stimulus money." I bet that if we gave money to our parishioners for the purpose of Matthew 25, and asked them to combine their own ingenuity and passion and effort, we would multiply these funds many times over. What do you think?
