The economy is tough. I don’t think anyone can argue that. It’s extremely hard on everyone right now. There are millions of people unemployed everywhere. This didn’t happen overnight, no, this has been happening for the past year and a half or so. That’s why to say it is tough is no surprise.

Does it sound like I am beating a dead horse? Does it sound like I am just stating the obvious? I hope so, because I am. However, I am doing it to get to this…

I follow a few people on Twitter, and I am not going to say who because the “who” doesn’t matter. I didn’t want to write about a “who” today. I wanted to write about an ethical question. So let me set the scene up first…

Let’s just say you were the pastor or an associate pastor of a fairly large church. Let’s say that there are a lot of others on staff as well. Let’s say that because of the economy your church has had to let go other staff members because it can’t afford to keep them on the payroll. Times are tough right? Don’t get me wrong, the church has done everything right in the way of cutting where they could. They have frozen salaries, cut programs, etc. If you still worked at that church would you be using social media (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, etc.) to showcase how great your house turned out after renovation? Would you still discuss how you can’t wait to go home and watch your DVR’d cable shows? Would you discuss openly what type of new TV you are going to buy?

That is a scenario I see being played out by a well known minister that I absolutely love. Here is the thing, while I believe that this minister isn’t doing anything intentional, I wonder how he is missing the big picture. If your church had to let go of staff, freeze salaries, cut programs, and deal with the hundreds of unemployed attendee’s…than it would reason to me that I would not talk so much about how much stuff of luxury I am enjoying. Make no mistake…having your home remodeled, owning a DVR, and buying a new TV are luxuries, not necessities.

So what would you do?

If you church was experiencing difficulties financially would you see it as a business as usual?
Just thinking random…Why not be like the Dallas Cowboys were in the 90’s? Troy Aikman, Emmit Smith, and a few more gave up a small piece of their salaries to help bring others in that were hard to afford. Why wouldn’t a church want to take up that kind of attitude? It makes sense to me that if everyone sacrificed something like Cable TV, DVR’s, remodeling their homes, and new TV’s there might be some extra money freed up in the budget. That’s just my 2 cents, though…

What do you think?