Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and
watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many
rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins,worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling
his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor
widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on." Matthew chapter 12
Jesus is at the center of everything we do; the theme of our individual lives and the head of our collective body, the church. He is our savior, our big brother, our rabbi, our good shepherd and our way to go through the darkness. In Colossians 3:4 Paul said, "when Christ, who is your life, appears; you will also appear with him in glory." Christ, who is your life. Our goals, our thoughts, our purpose...our very existence is to be centered on Jesus every day that we live and with every breath that we take. Like Paul, we are to say, "I have been crucified with Christ, never the less I live, yet not I...but Christ...lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me."(Galatians 2:20). So, what makes next Sunday, March 14th, which we're calling Sacrificial Sunday, any more "sacrificial" than every other day of our lives?
Nothing, really. Except that we made it a special day because of our own unique history.
The Portland church began nearly 20 years ago as a church planting from San Francisco during the days when a fellowship called the International churches of Christ was planting churches all over the world. The custom began early on for all of the ICOC churches in the U.S. and other "developed" countries to take up a missions contribution once a year to help plant churches around the world. This pattern went on without interruption until 2003.
In 2003 the man made part of the organizational structure of the ICOC went through a dramatic, and for some, traumatic transition. But as the drama subsided, churches filled with people who still wanted to serve the Lord and be connected to each other began to slowly collect themselves. As a congregation, we find ourselves to still be a part of that fellowship.
Traditionally, as best I can tell from what the oldest members tell me here in Portland, March was the month the "Special Contribution" or "Mission Contribution" was collected. Because it was to be used, at least in part, as a means to collectively support the poorer churches and church plantings in "developing" nations; U.S. churches and other "developed" nation churches used a multiple of their weekly contribution to set as a goal for the special, annual missions contribution. That multiple amount always went to support those churches. Sometimes that multiple was as high as over 20 times what a person gave on a weekly basis.
But then another custom began to take root in the fellowship. Church leaders in many places added more multiples to balance the budget of their local congregations. Some of those local congregations would operate in the red until their special contribution. Then they'd have a huge donation that one Sunday of the year and manage until the following year when the practice had to be repeated. And so on, and so on.
This practice contributed to the drama that culminated in 2003.The worldwide fellowship grew dynamically for many years, but eventually more members were going out the back door than were coming in the front door.
Today, that fellowship of churches is rebuilding and as a congregation we are finding our way to help evangelize the world with our brothers and sisters in a worldwide way. Finding our place and helping support mission work in places like Harare, Zimbabwe is nicely familiar to some of us; but it takes more money than we give on a weekly basis. So does supporting our own charity, HOPEworldwide; or for that matter any thing we do extra like bringing in special guest speakers...such as the Adames next week. Or when we have events that we don't charge registration fees in order to cover the extra expenses; those bills have to paid somehow. And when we bring in an intern trainee for the campus ministry and it's not in the budget, where will we get the money?
How we meet these challenges seems to come down to both a matter of opinion and what the members are willing to do. We don't have specific biblical instructions on special contributions beyond what Paul told the Corinthians to do to get ready for him to collect money from them for the poor in Jerusalem.
So here we are, in a new era of partnership with our worldwide fellowship and a new beginning for our own congregation. And it's March, we're already doing more than our weekly budget allows, and if we want to go on at this rate we must do something. So we're taking up a special contribution and calling it Sacrificial Sunday. There's no multiple. No goal. Just us giving like poor widows what our hearts are prompted to give.
This congregation has always had a tremendous response to giving. Regardless of the economy or employment levels of the members, when asked to give, the Portland church has always given beyond its' means. All I can say is that as we get ready to give this next week we can all be assured that we're part of a church that in a short amount of time has gone from needing to be supported to supporting not only ourselves, but also the Sihanouk hospital in Cambodia and a mission point in southern Africa. For us to go on to greater things we need to do no more than fix our eyes on Jesus and give with faith and a cheerful disposition.
Our program for next weekend with the Adames will be a Friday night meeting with our young people at Smith Center on PSU's campus and a Saturday financial workshop from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Smith center as well. Then our usual time at 2:30 Sunday afternoon at the Sunnyside building where we'll hear Mo preach.
And give wha
tever we can.
Mo and Terry Adame, once church planters in India, will be our guests next weekend. They are coming from the church in San Diego where Mo serves as a partially supported evangelist and runs his own financial consulting business. Mo and Terry will be speaking and conducting Saturday workshops while they are here with us.
