Show Me the Money!
The whole congregation of believers was united as one—one heart, one mind! They didn’t even claim ownership of their own possessions. No one said, “That’s mine; you can’t have it.” They shared everything. The apostles gave powerful witness to the resurrection of the Master Jesus, and grace was on all of them. 34-35And so it turned out that not a person among them was needy. Those who owned fields or houses sold them and brought the price of the sale to the apostles and made an offering of it. The apostles then distributed it according to each person’s need. Acts 4:32-35 (The Message)
Due to wrong doctrinal teachings, behaviours and practices of many today, we have a dilemma because tithe and offerings are not seen in the proper light so some don’t see the need to participate in tithing or giving offering because they see obvious mismanagement of what they give or they have been taught the wrong thing over and over again.
Sunday 24th of May 2010 was a blessed day for us at Jesus House Brent Cross as my family experienced a transparency I have almost not seen or heard of since I began a serious walk with God over 7 years ago.
We had decided to attend the first service at 8.30AM this Sunday and stepping into the building we could see Annual Review Service everywhere and we wondered what this meant though we could guess. Folks, Transparency, True & Godly Leadership, Welfare and Accountability where the things that came to mind as Pastor Agu went on to discuss how much the church had received from the congregations tithes and offerings in the past year. He went on to discuss how much the church had spent and finally, he talked about what the church had spent the congregations giving on. Now if you find a church that does that, you are in a good place.
Acts 4:32-35 quickly came to mind as I was thanking God for this God fearing leadership and a part of me prayed for those who have rather turned the church to a personal vision, abusing the trust we give them. Jesus said “23Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you give a tenth of your mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected and omitted the weightier (more important) matters of the Law–right and justice and mercy and fidelity. These you ought [particularly] to have done, without neglecting the others”
Pray for the leaders to teach us the weightier more important matters of the law.
Pray for the leaders to gain proper teaching before they step up and teach us so they don’t lead us in error
Pray for the leaders to act as the bible describes in Acts 4:32-35 so that none of our brethren lacks because they belong to the body of Christ
Pray that the vision of your church and drive of your church is God centred and not man centred.
We were all given a copy of Jesus House Annual Report booklet, click here to request for a copy.
