There was a man who had a great technical idea. He and
a few friends labored very hard and turned it into a great business. Many years later his company had amassed a
great fortune and he became one of the wealthiest persons in his country
knowing nothing but luxury. His fortune approaches $100 Billion. He and his
spouse acquired a beautiful piece of land on which he built a house at a cost
of about $170 Million.
He feels a need for altruism
and has given $28B to charity and funded a program to fight poverty for $776
Million. He has given about 25% of his fortune to charity and joined a group
whose goal is to give away at least 50% of their wealth.
Another person had the idea to open a business that
catered to wealthy international travelers, building it into an enterprise whose value to him is $1.6Billion. He sold the company and donated the whole proceeds
except for $1.5M to a charitable foundation. The foundation grew and was able
to grant $6.2 Billion to charitable social, immigration, aging and medical causes
from the US to Viet Nam. He intends to give the remaining $1.6Billion away by
the end of this year. He too has joined this group who commits to give a
majority portion of their wealth to charitable causes. When this is
accomplished he will have given about 99.8% of his wealth.
A Muslim, Shiek Suylaiman bin Abdul Azziz Al Rajhi, has built a fortune of about
$7.7 Billion through banking ventures base on Islamic rules about loaning
money. He has committed to give most of it away. He intends to retain about
$590M, giving away about 92.4% of his wealth.
A Protestant religious denomination, in existence
since the late 1700’s, by 2009 had amassed a trust fund of about $6.89 Billion.
These funds came not from the work of their own hands but from individual contributors
who were or are members of the denomination and gave for the glory of God, as well as by growth of principal
from investment.
From 2009 to 2014, wise
investment had grown this trust 35% to about $9.33 Billion. It has 20,800
ministers who participate in its medical plan. This plan has overrun
contributions for 2016 estimated to be about $10 Million, about 0.1% of the
value of the trust and about 4% of the next gain in investments from 2013 to
2014. Rather than contribute to this overrun, it imposes the overrun on
pastors, many leaders of small churches facing a life of penury when it could provide free health care for its ministers.
The gain in value from 2013
to 2014 was $220 Million, which if applied 100% to salary of the 20,800
ministers (a number that decreases annually) would provide an annualized salary supplement,
or one time grant of $10,577 to every working minister, easily providing ACA coverage for every minister. If this $9.33 Billion principal continued to gain an average of 2.5% growth on investment it
would provide fully paid medical care for every minister in the denomination in
perpetuity. If the average investment return is 6% (the approximate average from 2009 to 2014) and the denominational ministerial demand remained steady rather than dropping (it lost 3% of its ministers from 2009 to 2014, and the number of new applicants for ministry dropped 51%), it would probably be able to meet the salary shortfall of every congregation that cannot afford to pay its minister the denomination required minimum. Of course retirement benefits of existing ministers must be accommodated, as well as how much ministers are contributing to their own retirement plan, but history over the last half century shows the number of ministers is dropping. Perhaps there are even more creative ways to share its grace among God's people.
Is it an "extravagant" expense to allow $9 Billion to sit buried and amassing more unused value? Do the financial leaders of this denomination reflect a lack of trust in God's grace and plan for the ministry of the Church? (How does it compare to the woman who broke the jar of nard to anoint Jesus at a cost of more than a years wages?)
A mother who lives in a poverty-stricken neighborhood
gets by on food stamps and a part time (50%) job at minimum wage ($7.25/hr)
giving her an income of $7,540/yr. When she can, she works another minimum wage job to help make ends meet. She cannot afford to keep her children in
clothes, or regularly pay her utility bills. A neighbor is having her
electricity turned off because she has an excessive overdue bill. The utility
company says they will keep the power on if she can pay $75. The poverty
stricken mother who isher neighbor has just received her paycheck and gives her neighbor $75 to
keep the electricity on providing heat and light.
Paul discussing giving for the
church in Jerusalem said to the Corinthians that the issue is not to
embarrass those who have much but is a matter of need that those who have
little have enough and those who have much do not have too much.
Of these men, women and
organizations, who is the good neighbor and has given the most to the one in
need?
Amen
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