Love Boomerang
Get ready for a love revolution with the Love Boomerang Podcast! Join us as we explore the depths of humanity, spirituality, share teachings of scripture, and personal stories, and discuss how love can change the world. Whether navigating the ups and downs of relationships or seeking to deepen your connections with God and with others, this podcast is your go-to source for all things love. Tune in and be part of the revolution!
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Love Boomerang
Revitalizing Faith: Harnessing Church Resources for Greater Community Impact
Can a church truly serve its community if its resources are underutilized? What if we told you that your local church could become a beacon of hope and service simply by rethinking how it uses its existing resources? Join us this week as we reflect on the Parable of the Talents from Matthew 25:14-30, and challenge the status quo of resource management within a local United Methodist Church. With a population of about 6,025 adults in our small town, there's tremendous untapped potential in these religious spaces. We take a hard look at how other local buildings, including an abandoned city building and a similarly unused Lutheran church, reveal the extent of wasted opportunities. Our goal is to inspire a profound reevaluation of how church resources can be optimized to better serve our community.
We then take the conversation further by discussing how churches can transcend doctrinal differences to unify for a greater community impact. Secular initiatives, such as give-back restaurants and community gardens, often embody Christ-like actions more effectively than many churches. How can we bring that spirit into our sanctuaries? By exploring practical applications of love, the paramount commandment of the New Testament, we showcase real-life examples of community transformation. Imagine church sanctuaries becoming truly open and accessible sacred spaces that reflect the essence of communal love and service. Listen and be inspired to see how your local church can not only evolve but become a true reflection of God's heart for community ministry.
Hello, good morning and welcome and greetings to you. I'm going to start this straight up with a warning that there's going to be a couple of cuss words in this episode, not the F-bomb, but there are going to be a couple of other words that will express my passion and my dissatisfaction today. I am going to start off with the verses in Matthew 25, verses 14 through 30. For it is just like a man about to go on a journey who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them and to one. He gave five talents to another two and to another one, one each according to his own ability, and he went on his journey. Immediately, the one who had received the five talents went and traded them and gained five more, went and traded them and gained five more. In the same manner, the one who had received the two talents gained two more. But he who received the one talent went away and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now, after a long time, the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them and the one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more. His master said to him Well done, good and faithful slave, you were faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.
Speaker 1:The one who had received the two talents came up and said master, you entrusted to me two talents. See, I have gained two more talents. His master said to him well done, good and faithful slave, you were faithful with a few. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master. And the one who also had received the one talent came up and said Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours. But his master answered and said to him you, wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have put my money in the bank and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. Therefore, take away the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten talents, for to everyone who has shall more be given and he shall have an abundance, but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away and cast out, the worthless slave into the outer darkness in that place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now, there's a lot to unpack in that and there are many ways that we can interpret that parable.
Speaker 1:A parable is basically a story used to illustrate a moral or a spiritual lesson, and there are many lessons in this one parable is basically a story used to illustrate a moral or a spiritual lesson, and there are many lessons in this one parable. But the one lesson I want to pick up on is the lesson of resources that have been given to the church. So this is a continuation from the last episode, where we talked about how the church treated me when I was in desperate need. We're going to come at this from a slightly different angle today, so I'm going to use a real-life lesson using a local community my local community To give a little context, and I think I mentioned this in the last episode. My little town has roughly 6,025 adults population as of the 2020 census, which is even less than when I lived here as a kid. Most of the residents here are senior citizens.
Speaker 1:I was a member of one of the local United Methodist churches I do not want to say where, so as not to disparage anyone. The building that that UMC is using is maybe 10,000 square feet. It's probably bigger. I'm just taking a guess here. It has a sanctuary, a lounge, a fully functional kitchen, offices and roughly 20 or so classrooms. And again, I'm guessing here based on my experience of doing home repairs and handiwork as well as having been in the building for many years. So take this all with a grain of salt.
Speaker 1:The size of the building is not necessarily the issue here. The bottom line is that it's a pretty large building. It's not a megachurch size, but it is fairly big for a small town. The United Methodist Church has roughly 346 members with approximately 70 or 80 attending on any given Sunday, depending on whether it's summertime or wintertime. We have more in the summertime because they do outdoor church. We have more in the summertime because they do outdoor church. There is one part-time pastor and one part-time administrator. The rest of the church building and the rest of the church business, I should say, are managed by the congregation and the membership Across the street since an empty building that used to be our city building. It's where we had court, and the city mayor and everybody else used to do their work in that building, but it's been abandoned since then and I couldn't even begin to estimate its size or composition. In the other direction, literally across the street, is another church, a Lutheran church that is probably just as large as the United Methodist Church is.
Speaker 1:But let's just take the UMC church by itself, the building and the staff. For those who love statistic and numbers, you're going to love this episode. I will show how this one church has way more than it needs and is misusing the resources it does have. All right, here we go. We have about 168 hours in a week. The United Methodist Church probably uses that building for maybe 18 hours per week and it's less in the summertime since we do have the trailer and we do outdoor church. But all things being equal, let's assume that it's used 18 hours per week all throughout the year and that's probably being a little generous. That accounts for Wednesday night Bible study, sunday morning service and the few hours it's used for exercise classes and the staff being there to prepare for Wednesday and Sunday services the United Methodist Church used to have a parish next door.
Speaker 1:That was a house that the full-time pastor could live in, rent or mortgage-free, up until a couple of years ago or so, when the church's finances required that they sell the property. Now I want you to picture this 168 hours per week. The building is used about 18 hours per week approximately, which means that it's roughly 150 hours per week that it's closed, locked up tight. Not even a passerby could go into the sanctuary to pray. That's roughly 10% of its total time used rate. That means that United Methodist Church's building is not used 90% of the time. However, they're still paying utilities and mortgage for that 90% that's not being used.
Speaker 1:What a huge waste of not only space but time as well. And, like I said, they're still paying for the mortgage on the property and the utilities daily for 100% of usage of that time, even though it's not actually being used. So not only is it wasted space and time, but also money. This church's budget is largely spent on itself, and not only on itself, but spent on itself in vain. There is very little gained from what it spends its money on. In today's business language, the ROI is not worth it. So why do we do it.
Speaker 1:And this is just one example. What about all the other churches in this town that are in the same situation? What if? What if the members of that church said you know what? We have this space. It's not being used for much. What if we met in the park across the street for our services and Bible studies, whether permitting, and in people's homes, whether not permitting? Or what if we just did outdoor church all year long using the trailer we own, and instead we took the building that largely sits empty and turned it into a homeless shelter or an orphanage, or turn it into an assisted living facility for seniors who can't afford the posh assisted living communities. It's already got all the fully functional necessities, like a fully functional kitchen to make meals. It has showers for the people to shower in. And what if we took all the classrooms and turned them into three or four bed spaces that could be used by the homeless, seniors or children? Or what if we turned it into an inpatient addiction facility? Or what if we turned it into an inpatient addiction facility? Now, understand, this doesn't even account for the city building across the street that's since empty 100% of the time and has for years. If we the church ministered like we're supposed to. We could work with the building owners to turn it into something productive and valuable from a community sense. Not turn it into another business for profit, but something that would actually help the community. And this is just one example. But wait, there's more. Like I said earlier, there's another church, a Lutheran church, literally across the street from the United Methodist Church that is in the same situation. It's likely around 10,000 square feet as well, and largely unused 90% of the time, and wait even more to come.
Speaker 1:There are at least 15 to 23 other churches in this local area, and maybe more. Wait what? 23 churches to serve a population of 6,025 adults. That's approximately 60 people for each church building. If you spread it out equally and assuming that every adult in my town attended or was a member of one of these churches, which we know is not the case meaning that the churches are serving even fewer people than that, and all of those churches are roughly the same size as the two I have already mentioned. That's a lot of wasted space.
Speaker 1:I don't know about you, but what the Do we really need 10,000 square feet of building space to minister to 60 or fewer people, maybe once or twice a week. Shit, I could minister to that many people at my house and not need a building or all the expenses that go with it. Like I said cuss morning, that's utterly ridiculous, wouldn't you say? All these churches are split and have separate buildings because of denominational, dogmatic, doctrinal and interpretational differences from the Bible and beliefs. That's just unbelievable to me. And what's worse, more churches are getting started and are in the process of building buildings on top of the 23 we already have. Forget that.
Speaker 1:We have 23 plus churches already in this community, but even so, if you're going to start a new church, why not use the available buildings that sit vacant the available buildings that sit vacant and that's not to mention the ridiculous amount of churches to serve such a small population in the first place? Why the hell do we need 23 plus churches for a population of 6,000 people? Why not have maybe five or six community churches that preach Jesus and do what I stated two episodes ago? That preach Jesus and do what I stated two episodes ago and then use all those church buildings that sit 90% unused for something beneficial to the whole community? Tear some of them down and make community farming gardens so that nobody in our community has to go hungry. Use some of them for the homeless and, yes, even my small town has a homeless population. Use others for community centers where kids can play and learn sports, arts and music outside of school. Use some of those buildings as a five-fold ministry, teaching centers, teaching the flock how to minister. And then, once we reach this one small community of 6,025 people, we spread it to the next town, which is larger and has even more of the same problems that this one does. That's what Paul did.
Speaker 1:Again, as I said, I feel that we have more churches than our community needs, more buildings that aren't being used for anything beneficial. Let's turn this world upside down by coming together and getting rid of our doctrinal and dogmatic differences and let Jesus run free. Jesus loves to run in the pastures and fields and forests with his hands outstretched, feeling the breeze on his face and touching the soft petals of all the flowers that he created and holds together. I love doing those things, and I'm not even the one who created it all. I love watching my hummingbirds come to my window and drink deep of the nectar I put out for them. I love watching the birds filter through the random seeds I put out for them.
Speaker 1:Why can't we all come together in our local communities like this? Our local community has a restaurant that is a give-back restaurant. The restaurant allows patrons to purchase a meal or a partial meal for someone in need. They host local dinners for those who want to cash in on those meals and they get really good food. It's not a mass soup kitchen, it's restaurant-quality food that the people in need get, something they probably don't get very often. Most of the time they're eating out of trash bins or scraps left over, and probably from the rare stranger who brings them a fast food dinner or whatever the local food pantry provides. But you have to ask yourself how nutritional is that really? Has the church fully realized that the secular world is being more like Jesus than his bride is, especially in the evangelical vein of the Western church?
Speaker 1:If you've ever done a study on the tabernacle of Moses, the diagram of the tabernacle really is a good example of how the church is supposed to be. We first accept the forgiveness given to us. That would be the burnt offerings altar. Then we get cleaned up and put on fresh clothes. That's the laver. Those are both outside of the actual tents. Then we make our way into the intimacy of Christ, which includes the following three things. And this is inside the tent. We have learning and wisdom. That's the candlestick. We have learning and wisdom that's the candlestick.
Speaker 1:Fellowship, which is where we do focus a little internally, and that's the table of showbread. And then we move from that into ministry. That's the altar of incense, where we are offering the priestly duties. And then, finally, we are perfected in love when we make our way into the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant sits. Mind you, in the New Testament the altar of incense is now actually found in the Holy of Holies. So that means ministry to others is at the center of God's heart and love. I have a friend who had a vision one time and she saw herself dancing with moment and Jesus lifted up his leg and kicked the altar of incense into the Holy of Holies. I think that's a great picture to show that it's not just a personal thing when you have a relationship with Jesus. You cannot have that perfected love in the Holy of Holies without also ministering to others. So my challenge to all of us is why don't we give up the insanity of keeping ourselves separate by all sorts of different reasons and I mean this from the church perspective and just love Jesus and love his people, and we do that in our actions towards others.
Speaker 1:The one and only commandment in the New Testament is love. Love the Lord, god, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Love yourself, because you're instructed to love your neighbor as yourself, so you must love yourself in order to be able to love your neighbor and then finally love your enemies. It really is like the perichoresis Some would call that the Irish knot. Look that word up. It's spelled P-E-R-I-C-H-O-R-E-S-I-S. It's a symbol of a never-ending flow of love that goes back and forth, back and forth, and it never has an exit. Neither does it have an entrance. Want to know why? Because it's already in you and the more you love in the above fashion, the more it flows back and forth, back and forth. You are the entrance.
Speaker 1:Now let's bring this back to my example of my community. Let's stop this insanity of building new churches with new buildings where the cost is so astronomical. Let's start using the resources that we have to help the people in our communities and needs. And if we can do that in a small town like this which that's my dream If we can do that in a small town like this, which that's my dream. If we can do that in a small town like that, then we can start spreading it out and maybe we can start doing that same thing in larger cities. And in fact, I think some of the things that I've seen that are positive things going on in larger cities are actually doing what I'm describing. They're starting to take the resources that are already there and they're turning them into productive things that help their communities. They're taking abandoned lots where decrepit buildings have been taken down, torn down, and they're turning those empty lots into community gardens. They're already doing it.
Speaker 1:In the next town over from my town, there's a gentleman that is doing a garden, a community garden, and it's all free.
Speaker 1:His philosophy is come and take what you need, leave what you can, or help in some way, whether it's saving seeds from your own garden and providing it to them, or providing them metal scraps that can be turned into raised beds for some of their plants. There's no reason that we, the church, can't do this. There's no reason that we, the church, can't do that with the buildings we already have available. We need to stop wasting our resources, as the verse that I said at the very beginning talks about let's not bury our resources in the ground and make them internally focused only. I remember the days when you could walk down the street and every church sanctuary was open. You could go in at two o'clock in the morning to pray if you needed to. It was a sacred space and it was a space that everybody in the church leadership knew was for the people. Let's turn it around and start focusing on our communities again instead of on ourselves.