Priorities
Let me preface this by saying that I trust, respect, and deeply appreciate the leadership at our church. That's not just an obligatory disclaimer as I wind up to let 'em have it. Amanda and I really are grateful for the men that lead our church. In the period following the fire, they have been exceptionally steady and their leadership is commendable.
We got a letter in the mail from church the other day with several items worth noting. The first one was related to the upcoming church plant. The church plant needs our prayers and, though it wasn't stated in the letter, they will also need funding.
The second item was about our good friends, Bryan and Jamie O'Donnell. They O'Donnels are moving away in the very near future to serve Christ by raising up worshipers in Japan. They are $28,000 away from having their one-time expenses (i.e. everything it takes to move a family to Japan) covered.
The third item was about the drive to raise money to buy a pipe organ for our new building. I don't know how much you know about pipe organs, but if you're in the market for a pipe organ of even mediocre quality expect to shell out $200,000 or more.
I can't remember where I heard it, but it's a quote worth remembering. "When your at war, you don't buy new tires." That quote came to mind as I read through the letter.
The back story here is that our new building, which we moved into a couple of weeks ago, doesn't have a pipe organ. We're used to having a pipe organ. We are, after all, a Reformed church. We like our hymns, and we prefer anything that came during or before the 19th century to everything that has come along since. We like bricks. We like hymnals. We like dead white guys. We like pipe organs the same way emerging church preachers like cuss words.
Still, it seems almost embarrassing that we would shell out $200,000 to support our Isaac Watts addiction when there are obviously much more pressing needs in front of us. As a result of the O'Donnells work in Japan there will be Japanese worshipers in heaven for all eternity. As a result of the church plant the heart of Lincoln will be transformed and redeemed for Christ as the needs of the people in and around the 9th and D area are met. As a result of a new organ, a bunch of upper-middle-class Christians will get to rock out to their favorite 200 year old songs. Which of these things seems like a priority that might need to slide down the list a few notches?
I should also mention that we already have an electric organ in the building that has worked just fine. As I understand it, we're renting it right now. I'm not sure what *that* organ would cost to buy, but I have it on good authority that a guy can pick up a sweet, portable electric organ for under $3 grand. Let's see… that would only leave $197,000 for the O'Donnells and the church plant to use to go into all the world and proclaim the good news to all creation.
While I think the word idolatry gets thrown around a little too easily in evangelical circles (food is an idol, cigarettes are an idol, your new Wii is an idol), I don't really know what else to call it when someone spends an exorbitant amount of money in order to honor a particular century instead of honoring the King and the advancement of his Kingdom. The building God gave us didn't come with an organ. As a guy who thinks hymns, dead white guys, and organs are pretty great, I think we need to accept that and move on. When you're at war, you don't buy new pipe organs.
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I'm not at all unsympathetic, and expect that I'd have the same reaction. So please take the next comment in that spirit: Where do we draw the line with that sort of thinking? Why pews? Why carpeting? We're at war after all. Why not a tin-sided building with a cement floor and folding chairs?
"Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said, Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people?" (Jn 12.3-5).
Well done Mike. Thanks for speaking for many others who feel this way.
I am thankful someone I respect has come to the same conclusion I have. I wrote about it back on November 1st and was trying to make the same point you are here. I tried to be a slightly tactful in my approach, but the point is: I feel disgusted to be part of such a purchase. I too got the letter and my heart sank.
And Jim, I have to bring up that two verses later in vs 7 & 8 Jesus says: "Leave her alone… It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me."
Didnt Jesus die so that He might dwell within us and make our bodies the temple of God? He is no longer with us in the temple, He is in our hearts.
Glory and beauty, Mike. Glory and beauty. God is not a poor, cheap, plain-wrapper guy. He is extravagant and wasteful in beauty and creation. He told a bunch of escaped slaves living on Dew Flakes in the desert to make him a tabernacle full of stuff overlaid with gold.
1. This fund drive will be completely optional. Only those who really care about the organ project need give. Those like you who would rather see other special projects advance will be encouraged to do some special giving elsewhere; to get the ODonnells onto the plane, for example. We have been working on the shape of the budget for the church plant, and nothing in the organ drive takes away from our committment there. Short funding will not delay the plant a day.
2. The fire recovery money that will go to organ replacement is limited to $50K, I believe. So all the rest of the money will come only from over-and-above special gifts given by those who care about the project. We won't proceed until the money is there, so if people really don't care about the organ, we'll just keep the skating rink organ we have and be just like all the other evangelicals in town. (The current "organ" is given by Lauren Wismer in whose living room it has been for many years.)
3. Hey, when is the church not "at war?"
4. Zion is just about the only non-liberal church in town that is intentional about maintaining a worldview with a place for fine art. The general dispy-baptist types are of the mind "don't bother polishing the brass on a sinking ship." But I'll argue that the gospel of the kingdom is made of more durable stuff, and among its secondary duties, the church ought to be the leader in fine art. The reason we reach back to so much dead white guys music is that it was created at a time when the church did have a long tradition of cultural influence and leadership. I think there's lots better music yet to be made, but until it is, that stuff tends to be miles ahead of what gets made nowadays.