An email to the leaders of the church I’m co-pastoring at the moment (May 2003):

Dear GECCC leaders,

In response to the emailed ‘teaser’ about data projectors and their usefulness (and cost) we’ve had a couple of useful responses. Yes, our finances are such that we can’t afford one.

As you will recall from the chapter on Finance in my book Your Church Can Come Alive, there are several approaches to something like this. Let me outline four:

1. The ‘Realistic’ approach. If our finances are below budget, we can’t afford ‘luxuries’. Fair enough.

2. The ‘Pessimistic’ approach. Our church will be small/struggling for some time yet, so let’s put it out of our minds.

3. The ‘Optimistic/Entrepreneurial’ Approach. Churches which attract people and encourage them to come back again pursue excellence – including data projection, music/worship, preaching etc. So we can’t afford NOT to pursue something like this. You need to sow seeds to get a harvest.

Now I think there may be some unanswerable logic in all the above. But I’m not entirely happy with any of them.

The church I know best – Blackburn Baptist, now Crossway – grew to become the largest non-Pentecostal church in Australia. How did that happen? There are several ways to answer that. For example: more people who liked what they experienced came back again! Better: they have operated since 1973 on a different approach to those above, which is –

4. The ‘Faith’ approach. This says we must look at all the circumstances – financial or whatever – realistically, then pray, and act in faith. In a few Sundays’ time I’m hoping to talk to Robert Colman in one of our services. Robert’s the longest-serving pastor at Crossway. When he started there we couldn’t afford him, said those whose main focus was ‘the bottom line’. But the church needed him. So we prayed. And a bunch of people committed themselves to increase their financial giving for a year to underwrite his stipend. This act of faith helped the momentum of evangelism and growth in the church. And the rest is history…

Also in a few Sundays’ time (perhaps June 8th) I thought (if it’s OK with the leadership and worship teams) to put my sermon outline and some songs on a data projector, and see how it goes. We’ll not commit ourselves to anything, except to a trial.

In a Baptist Church a few suburbs away they felt they wanted to upgrade their data projection, and prayed about it. They couldn’t afford it either. But then someone received a legacy, and donated the full cost of the equipment to the church. And they would not call themselves ‘Pentecostal/charismatic’ – just ornery evangelical! Who knows, when we pray, but also act responsibly, God may still do miracles!

Any reactions?

Shalom!