Brett Tilford

Every Monday evening I attend a small church of people (roughly 20-30) attempting to follow Jesus together.  It’s pretty simple really.  We sing a few songs, someone shares on a topic of Christian spirituality, we break into even smaller groups to share on a more personal level, and then we leave.  It takes about 2 hours to go through this progression.  Josh and Mindie Runnels lead the group and being their friends we help out quite a bit.  I like it.

It’s amazing how hard it is to keep something simple though.  There’s always the temptation to do more and try to become more cool.  We aren’t very cool.  In fact I would argue alot of the times we’re very lame.  We aren’t the best at planning ahead and the electric piano we use for worship is very old and unpredictable.  However, I think we love each other most of the time.  For me that’s enough.

I remember about 10 years ago I sat around with a group of up and coming worship leaders and we dreamed of how church would look when we were adults.  We imagined people swinging from trapezes and fireworks during the sermon.

Who would have thought we’d be leading something so lame and loving it.

I’ve been wrestling for sometime with the question of whether or not Christians should have excess money.  Of course we give our 10% to “God” (church or charity) but the beauty is that’s a sliding scale.  It hurts you alot when your poor but the wealthier you get the easier it is to stomach.  If you making 10 million/yr. then you still get to keep 9 million!  What I’m wrestling with is whether it’s morally defensible to keep 9 million or 9 thousand for yourself.  How do we justify having thousands in the bank while others go without?

Let’s say you have a friend across the street who’s starving to death.  If you had an extra dollar wouldn’t you give it to him?  This is basic kindergarten stuff right?  Now let’s say that person is a homeless aids orphan in South Africa.  Would you still give the money?

To live happily I need less than I think. A small home for my wife and family. Heat in the winter. A few hundred dollars worth of groceries each month. Gas for my car. Clothes, coffee, books, running shoes, and the occasional meal at Cafe Brazil! Let’s say that comes out to $30,000/year in expenses. Should I give the rest away? What about retirement, kids college funds, braces, vacations, and icecream?  The items that aren’t essential but sort of feel that way.  Are those things wrong of me to indulge in? Can I justify socking away $500,000 over my life time for when I get old, while others go without?  What does God require of me?

A few years ago I realized that I grew up in one of the most prosperous towns in the world. I was rich. Of course, now days I bring in a salary that most people would consider modest.  However, compared to most of the world I’m rolling in money.  At what point do I say, “Okay, my family and I have enough. Everything else is given away.” Something in my conscious is screaming that I have to make that decision but I keep holding off because I don’t want to sacrifice too much. I’m afraid that I’ll look back and regret not giving more to my kid’s college funds, retirement, etc. That I’ll regret not being “wise” with my money. Doesn’t proverbs say something about an ant storing up for winter being a good thing? Where is the line between being a wise ant and being the fool that Jesus chastises in the story of the man who built bigger and bigger barns instead of giving away what he didn’t need.

To sum it up I guess I’m wondering how much money a Christian keep for himself and his family.  God help me.

Last weekend I was in the Christmas production for Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas singing a portion of the song Inescapable Day. The musical was an adaptation of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol with a more overt evangelical Christian slant worked in. The quality of the production was top notch and I thoroughly enjoyed working with the team there. It was clear that they truly loved God and people.  Another thing that struck me was that the team was absolutely committed to making this more than just a good show.  They wanted the power and love of Jesus to shine through and really weren’t interested in getting glory for themselves.  That’s unusual among people who stand on stages alot.  If you’re in that area and need a good Church I would highly recommend Gateway.

You may have noticed that I lost about 2 years of blog posts in a server transfer disaster.  Instead of bemoaning my loss I’ve decided to move forward and do my best to keep putting good content out there.  Here is something that I posted awhile ago but was sitting in my “drafts” folder because that’s where it was in the file backups.  Thanks for your patience.

I wanted to post another excerpt from Peter Rollins book How Not To Speak of God to continue developing the idea of Orthodoxy as believing in the right way as opposed to right belief.  Enjoy.

“There is an old anecdotein which a mystic, an evangelical pastor and a fundamentalist preacher die on the same day and awake to find themselves at the pearly gates.  Upon reaching the gates they are promptly greeted by Peter, who informs them that before entering heaven they must be interviewed by Jesus concerning the state of their doctrine.  The first to be called forward is the mystic, who is quietly ushered into the room.  Five hours later the ystic reappears with a smile, saying, ‘I thought I had got it all wrong.’  Then Peter signals to the evangelical pastor, who stands up and enters the room.  After a full day has passed the pastor reappears with a frown and says to himself, ‘How could I have been so foolish!’  Finally Peter asks the fundamentalist to follow him.  The fundamentalist picks up his well-worn Bible and walks into the room.  A few days pass with no sign of the preacher, then finally the door swings open and Jesus himself appears, exclaiming, “How could I have got it all so wrong!’