What About Church?
“Banks are foreclosing on America’s churches in record numbers as lenders increasingly lose patience with religious facilities that have defaulted on their mortgages.”[i]
Why could this be? What could have happened which subjugated Churches to the money lenders of the day?
The answer is simple. Churches played the same game that the private and commercial sectors played in the late 90’s up until 2007, believing that the market was truly in a never ending expansion which couldn’t contract. And so they leveraged beyond their ability to payback.
God himself alerted his people in Deuteronomy 28:15 that this could happen, but not before he assured His people that if they would comply with His directives that He would make them the “lenders to many and not the borrowers.” And that He would make them the “head and not the tail.”
So why did these foreclosures hit the Churches of America? Hudson Taylor, the historical missionary to China, stated long ago that “God’s work done in God’s timing would never lack for funds.” Yet, does that mean a Church or person or business should never borrow money?
I don’t believe that to be true. Rabbi Daniel Lapin relates in his book Thou Shalt Prosper that lending money to a person is a sign of belief in that individual’s ability to be productive enough to pay you back. Whereas simply giving money to someone is a sign of a lack of confidence in that person’s ability to repay you. In the Gospels, Matthew and Luke both tell the story of the talents and both of them relate that lending those talents to others is the very least that could have been done to nurture those talents increasing their value. So it is obvious that lending and borrowing money doesn’t have to be erroneous even though it might not be the foremost thing that could be done to create the most value.
I sincerely believe that the blunder which occurs in lending and/or borrowing money is the inaccurate idea that profit only occurs at the expense of someone else. This is so contrary to logical thought that it is pathetic that anybody should possibly stoop to believe it let alone adopt it as the mode of operation in life.
Consider this. If you trade me your house, car or bicycle for a specified amount of money you are happy that you were able to sell your property. I am happy to receive your property in exchange for my money. We both leave the transaction better off. Both of us have more value (profit) because of the transaction.
When a banker loans money to somebody, whoever borrows that money values what that money can purchase more than what the bank charges for the use of that money. The banker values the interest received on the use of the money more than what they lent the money out to purchase. In other words, as long as we have freedom, nobody holds a gun to your head and forces you to pay more than what you value a purchase to be worth. And at the same time nobody forces you to sell something you own at a price less valuable than you set.
This doesn’t mean that people, at many times, don’t count the true cost of the things that they purchase. This is exactly the case with the Churches today...as well as student loans (which are now over 1 trillion dollars,) and credit card purchases, etc. Needless to say God warned His people to “count the cost” [ii]beforehand. But few heed His advice any longer.
That is why IBC is so powerful. IBC shows you how to count the cost and earn the interest that you would normally pay to somebody else in your life. That is because you finance everything you purchase if life. You either give up interest to somebody else for the use of their money or you give up the interest that you could have earned on your own money had you not spent it. IBC gives you the option to earn the interest you would have given up on you money while the interest you pay comes back to you over the long haul.
So what about Church? Well, this choice is completely yours and it goes something like this: Do you want to keep losing interest to others or do you want to keep that interest for yourself and your loved ones? Pretty simple isn’t it?
by Tomas McFie
