Market Meltdown

Market Meltdown

I imagine as with the rest of the world, you may be looking at the market news more frequently. Just today I heard Iceland may be bankrupt. I know some of my peers 401K have turned into a 201K! The markets are in transition. Most likely, this recession and economic downturn will not be quickly fixed with bailouts and the lowering of interest rates. We have become a debtor nation. In the Scriptures, we’re told the debtor is slave to the lendor.

While I don’t have a lot of answers I do have tons of questions: What does it mean when America is a slave to the lenders of the world? What is the message God is trying for us to hear? Not only as a nation but as the church? If we have a sustained global downturn, who gets hurt the most? It’s not the middle class. What is our response?


I’m sure you each have your own strategies for dealing with the global slowdown and the chaos of the last few weeks. For me, in my office, this past week I had a sacred moment that came upon me and in fact, overwhelmed me with emotion. Two young men shared with me some temptation they were dealing with. In that moment as they were sharing, I was quickly reminded of what my father-in-law told me twenty plus years ago before I entered the pastorate He said, “Dave, be careful of the big three: money, women and pride.” As I recalled his words with these two promising leaders, I deeply love, the words from I John 2:15-17 flooded my soul.

Love not the world
Neither the things in the world. For anyone that loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him. For al that is in the world,
The Lust of the Flesh.
The Lust of the Eyes.
And the Pride of Life.
Is not of the Father but is of the world.

And the world passes away and the lusts thereof. . . But he that does the will of God abides forever.

As I quoted those words, I literally felt God’s presence much like I did when I first read those words in Telluride, Colorado at a youth retreat, in the middle of the Rockies. I vividly remember it was as if God spoke to me in the midst of the chaos of my parent’s divorce and the fracturing of our home, the loss of our socio-economic standing: “ . . and the world passes away but he that does the will of God abides forever.” It was an invitation into an unshakeable kingdom, a bed-rock of safety in the midst of a long nightmare.

A Daytime View of a Possible Verge Type Location

A Future New Verge Location

This is an ‘urban oasis’ high above the daily grind in Hells Kitchen on 10th Avenue and 36th street in NYC. . . a possible VERGE location for the future.

A Good Lift for the beginning of a week.

one of the best when it comes to intersecting with the poor, culture, and race. John Perkins was one of the mentors in a program I participated in. A pioneer in justice.

From Out of Ur Blog

Joining the Green Revolution

Rethinking our stewardship of the church's space and staff.

by Dave Gibbons

We are witnessing what some are calling the greatest transfer of wealth in human history. The McKinsey Global Institute has shown how assets are moving primarily from Europe and America to the oil countries of the Middle East and the manufacturing giants of Asia.

At the end of 2007, these oil producing countries owned about 4.6 trillion dollars of assets. That’s about 1.6 times the whole economy of the UK. The six Arab countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council are receiving 1.5 billion dollars a day. Those are pretty staggering numbers.

Our “dangerous dependence on foreign oil” and the transfer of wealth it is producing, is moving both political parties to emphasize a new green agenda. This includes new technologies, further exploration into alternative energy, clean energy, drilling off-shore, and conservation.

As we consider conserving energy resources for environmental and economic reasons, maybe we should reconsider how we steward our resources in the church.

Around the country, there is growing concern with diminishing giving because of the state of our economy. People are giving less because they are earning less, and because they’re having to pay more for things like gas. But this trend may prove to be good in the long run, especially if it teaches us to better manage church resources.

The largest expenses for most churches are facilities and staff. First, let’s consider the stewardship of our space. Is it really the best to buy as much land as possible and erect large buildings, when the same dollars could be better deployed in other initiatives that prove more impactful? How much of our space is actually utilized during a given week? In expensive urban centers, every square foot comes at a very high purchase price, and we can’t forget about the cost of furnishing and maintaining the space.

I’m not saying buildings are bad, but are we being good stewards? I asked our director of operations who helped build three of the largest church facilities in America, to assess our space usage. I discovered that we use our facilities about 30 percent of the month—mostly on weekends. So how much were we spending for facility space that we didn’t use? Around $60,000 a month; $720,000 a year! In ten years that’s over $10 million dollars!

How about staffing? As culture moves from a hierarchical model to a more flat, open, or wiki model, how should we staff? When I looked more closely at our budget, I realized that over 55% of our budget was staff related. While our staff is amazing, it had unintentionally created a bottleneck in our mission—it impeded the development of our people because we were “staff-driven.”

Our first instinct to address needs in the church tends to be hiring professionals. The economy is going to force us to re-examine that practice. Look at a church website. How many of the leaders listed there are lay people? How many unpaid people function as pastors/leaders in the congregation? Am I saying we should do away with pastors? Of course not. But we must see the congregation as the leading edge of the church and redefine our pastoral role to support and resource them. The movers and shakers should be in the congregation, not the professional staff. We serve, support, and at times lead—but we lead in the way Paul defined it…equipping our people to do the work of the ministry.

Can you imagine what would happen if the bulk of our resources focused on the development of our people rather than on staff and facilities? Can you imagine the impact that would have on our mission? It might just result in the greatest transfer of wealth in church history.

Parking Garages

I'm not one to typically like parking garages but I do like thoughtful design. Check it out:

Is That Really A Car Park?

Great, aesthetically pleasing design needn't be limited to traditional architectural forms such as houses and public buildings. Utilitarian spaces, such as car parks, present architects and designers with a unique opportunity to bring beauty and harmony to the everyday functional spaces that are normally ignored by great design minds. We're excited to report that the tide is changing, evidenced by these good-looking car parks.



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