Stepping Out

Joey and I had a discussion the other morning after he got home from his breakfast with some men that he meets everyday at Cageys. They have all kinds of debates, talks, discussion whatever you want to call them. A comment was made about how we handle the money in the church. One fellow told Joey who's a elder that he should not have the right to make decisions for the church as a whole.
Joey said well if you don't have a group of people making decisions for the majority then no decisions will ever be made. In a meeting that Joey and the other elders had all but two were there, they decided to give away to a missionary family half their salary for the next 4 years. They decided to step out in faith and trust that the Lord would provide, to say a lot were very upset is a understatement. I even questioned Joey that day after he came home from a 4 hr Saturday morning meeting. He said that it was unanimous and that the Holy Spirit was working like he had never seen before in a large group of very different people. The only two not there later on said that they would have never voted for this, one now sees that is why he was not there, the other still is not happy.  The younger generation likes to give there money to people they know, not just give to the "man" to let them decided. We brought in the family that will be going with 4 kids to Burkina Faso, Africa. They were wonderful people. Josh, Abby & Harper had lunch with them with a few other young couples on Saturday, Then Sunday we took them and three other families to lunch and got to know them a little better. What a great family they are, they only brought their two older boys, Maxx & Miles. Harper was intrigued with them, they played ball with her on Saturday, so on Sunday she thought they were best friends and had to sit with them at everything. She even took their prayer card home and to Don Juans. So now when you say missionary, she thinks "my missionary". I see now how important it is to get to know who your money is going to. I still think the Great Commission Fund is important but I also get what the younger generation is thinking.   Getting back to the comment made on "our money" we  as Christians need to remember that God can use anyone's money to get what he wants done. First of all its his money to begin with and we can be blessed by being obedient or we can miss out by thinking we are in charge of "our stuff".  In saying this, Josh called and said "I don't want to be a prick or anything but did you notice that after we as a church decided to give that money away our old church finally sold after 4 years of trying, within the month.   God can do anything he wants and you and I can either get on the train or watch it go by.  Personally I like riding trains.