I heard Tim Hill in his sermon refer to the Church as being a bank for church planting. So here is the one million dollar bank for church planting. It will be used to loan church planters to build churches with a bank interest rate. My heart broke when I heard the GO say that in his sermon. The church is NOT a bank yet much of the church work is financed by the denomination at the state and general level.
Generally the on-going financial church start up is 25 to 30K. This money is not granted but is loaned to a man who assumes the position of borrower. It is expected that the borrower will build a church in one or two years and then pay the money back from the new church funds.
This is the manner of building a multi site church expanding by loaning a start-up pastor with generally $30,000 to be repaid with or without interest. This gives back to the lender more money to pay other up-start pastors and soon the church has a multi-campus church.
It was working in the International Executive Council. Their goal was to have a bank of one million dollars but they were short of the million dollar goal. Tony Stewart, chairman of the General executive council offered from his church, City Life in Tampa, Florida $5,000 dollars and this inspired the others on the council to offer their support (whether from their own money or church funds) and Loran Livingston, pastor of the Charlotte Central Church, gave $25,000 from his church. The amount contributed was well over $100,000 dollars to put the bank balance well over one million dollars.
All this banking business bothers me, since the church should not be in lending money for interest.
But something else bothers me. How can these pastors give money from their local treasuries? These pastors committed from their church funds money that was the congregation’s money. generally a pastor is able to dispense funds without congregational approval according to a set amount. The church determines this amount and any funds over have to be approved in church conference.
Perhaps a loop hole is designed so that the pastor is loaning money which he expects to be repaid from the Church Banking Institution. Does the church have to know? Can the pastors at that meeting write a check to the denomination with just their own signature? This bothers me! Does it bother you?
Cleveland, TN–In a historic move, the International Executive Council of the Church of God launched the Church Planting Designated Fund, often called the Church Planting “Bank,” with assets of more than $1 million dedicated to starting and building life-giving and life-sustaining churches.