One of our members brought up a subject that can sometimes be a hot button in simple churches: money. She referred to an ongoing teaching in the Sonship Study called “The Economy of the Kingdom.” While the studies don’t focus on finances exclusively — Kingdom currency is much different — our discussion last night turned toward debt and how much our lives are controlled by it. The Bible says that a “borrower is the slave of the lender” (Proverbs 22:7) and as the discussion proceeded it was clear that some of our members felt like slaves, sometimes by their own questionable choices. Moreover, some said that they had found themselves unable to pursue personal goals and ministry opportunities because of outstanding debt. 

Part of our discussion also revolved around the potential for doing things together as a community. Without obligations to buildings and staff, we determined our pooled resources could go further than might otherwise be possible. Still, there was burden of debt that many of us bore. Perhaps even that could be tackled as a group!

We went away from last night’s gathering with the assignment: over the coming few days determine our indebtedness. Next week we will put out several cups, each labeled with a kind of debt (student loans, car payments, mortgage, etc) and then we will all drop an anonymous slip of paper into each cup with the amount of that kind of debt we owe. Finally, we will add up the debt and determine the total for the whole fellowship. We hope to be pleasantly surprised, but we are afraid we will be shocked. 

Either way, we’ve decided to explore what strategy we might use together to get us out of debt and into a place where we are free to pursue dreams, goals and ministry. Pray for us! This could be interesting — a real adventure in loving each other.