Spending God's Money: Extravagance And Misuse In The Name Of Ministry-Fourth Revised Edition - Softcover

Mary Kinney Branson

3.8

5 ratings by Goodreads

9780977940769: Spending God's Money: Extravagance And Misuse In The Name Of Ministry-Fourth Revised Edition

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0977940764 ISBN 13: 9780977940769

Publisher: Father's Press, 2007

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What's Happened to Our Contributions? A hundred years ago, collective giving seemed the perfect solution. What one individual or church couldn't do, combined efforts accomplished with ease. National agencies sprung up, offering to spend on our behalf. And we embraced them. Flash forward to days crammed with emails, overtime, and endless commuting. Time is often more valuable than money, and the desire to delegate spiritual privileges and responsibilities is even stronger. Surely national agencies and the professionals who oversee them can carry out the Great Commission faster and more effectively than harried homemakers and stressed executives. But as our time shrinks, national ministries grow larger. What started as lean groups of roll-up-your-sleeves workers have become Paul Bunyan-sized agencies, with excess fat and an overload of middle men draining a big chunk of the money intended for spreading the gospel. Elaborate national headquarters have shot up across America, with presidential office suites rivaling those of top CEOs. And giving isn't the same. Sending a check to a faceless organization doesn't generate the same fulfillment as pressing money into the hand of a young person heading for the mission field. Now the only smiling faces are those of mega leaders. And recently, their smiles have been fading as disenchanted givers voice their displeasure with irresponsible spending. The author of this on-the-edge book proposes an answer. After opening readers' eyes to the tremendous waste of their hard-earned dollars, she offers ways to bring joy and effectiveness back into giving.

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About the Author:

Mary Kinney Branson served six years on a local church staff and a combined 16 years as Editing Director for the Home Mission Board and Director of Marketing for the North American Mission Board. She is the author of 17 books and is president of AptWord, Inc., a literary service that assists writers in preparing their books for publication.

Review:

BRANSON'S LAW: Mary Kinney Branson's groundbreaking new book begins and ends with a statement that every Christian should learn about stewardship. She says: It all boils down to a simple formula: The extent of misuse is directly proportionate to the distance between the giver and the spender. Mary is much too humble to call it this, but I think it should be called Branson's law. She has spent years agonizing and analyzing what goes wrong when Christian institutions become so large and so unaccountable to the people who fund them, that they lose touch with the higher purpose that they were intended to serve. Branson is not talking about geographical distance between the giver and the spender. She's not talking about organizational distance or social distance either. She is talking about the most fundamental distance possible in a religious community---spiritual distance. The spiritual distance is enormous between the humble widows who give their last mites for what they believe is God's work and the arrogant denominational executives and wanna-be mega-church preachers who spend their money to brand their names in the Christian marketplace. SPENDING GOD'S MONEY: EXTRAVAGANCE AND MISUSE IN THE NAME OF MINISTRY ought to be in the library of every church and on the bookshelf in every Christian home. Every church and every Christian has a responsibility to make sure that the resources they give to God's work are spent wisely. --Dr. Bruce Prescott Mainstream Oklahoma Baptist

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