Back in 2013 when Bitcoin was starting to climb, I began to research and try and understand what was going on. I explored mining them or buying them but what I got really interested in was the way that we were watching money become separated from governments and power. In that time there was a …
Recently I saw this on a giving card that a church handed to it’s congregants. “WE RECOGNIZE THAT FINANCIALLY SUPPORTING OUR CHURCH, IS ONE OF THE WAYS WE WORSHIP GOD.” Underneath it was all the details for you to give them money. I have been fascinated over the last number of years at the churches …
The link between property and freedom is a crucial one. Free-market advocates tend to be agnostic on the question of ownership: barring external interference, an exchange is formally free even if the only thing a person has to exchange is his or her labor. But as the example of Rosa Martinez makes plain, having no …
Consumerism, Property, Ownership, Community and the Eucharist Read More »
I’m not really sure if we are capable anymore of a society where people enjoy their lives and work is part of living and not done to make money so that they can live. We’ve dug ourselves into a pretty deep hole and can’t imagine anyway out of it. Work for many people is simply …
I’ll never understand why Christians can’t and don’t live like this.
Here is a problem I have run into. A scenario happens where someone is given something. Maybe it’s a gift, or your time, money, a job. It doesn’t really matter. A gift is and can be a beautiful thing. However, let’s say in this scenario that this gift is squandered. The person wasn’t grateful for …
Expecting Gratitude Makes Gifts Lose Their Giftness Read More »
By far the book of 2012 for me (it possibly has taken me 8 months to read it, I’m not great with history). Nevertheless, this book was phenominal and eye-opening. Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber – Here is a great quote from the book that helps to summarize some of his arguments and …
The Difference Between Owing Someone A Favor And Owing Someone A Debt Read More »
In the past fifty years, we have consumed more goods and services than in all previous generations put together. September 2007 is when I posted an idea I had to start sharing things. It was called ATIC and the basic concept was that people could post items that they had for other people in their …
For a while I thought that I would want to go get a Masters in Economics of some sort. After seeing the kind of impact that economics has on all of our lives, my interest in political systems and monetary systems improving the lives of many people, I thought it was a great direction to head in …
This Post will get added to my ongoing collection of thoughts of Money and the Church. All my life I’ve been raised that I should never spend money if I don’t have to, always look for a deal and save money for when I’m older. These aren’t necessarily things I learned in a test, but …
Maybe I’m skeptical, ignorant, or taking way too much liberty in writing a post like this. I’ll never know if I don’t post it though. Here is my thought; giving to the poor in our society should no longer be the primary Christian response to seeking justice for the poor. I think there is a …
Why Giving to the Poor Is No Longer a Legitimate Christian Response Read More »
We spend quite a bit of time pursuing, collecting and naming all of our possessions. We work hard so we can buy more things. We take vacation so we can get a break from all those things. We play hard so we can use those things. We spend an unhealthy amount of time sorting, labeling, …
I’ve been playing around with this thought for a while. After thinking about collections and how I think that they are in many ways anti-kingdom, James sent me this quote: All of the computers on Ebay are mine. In fact, everything on Ebayis already mine. All of those things are just in long term storage that I pay nothing for. Storage …
I’m reading the book Faith and Wealth by Justo L Gonzalez. The book is basically a walk through history and a commentary on how people and eventually the church viewed wealth. It’s super heavy on the history, which I’m not great at reading, but it keeps drawing me back with all its points. I’m just …
Early Church Father’s Thoughts on Money and Wealth Read More »
I’ve been finding myself getting more and more frustrated lately with how people spend their money. When I hear stories of 2 million dollar church building projects, 50 thousand dollar pothole fundraising campaigns, the 40 billion or so Americans spends on their pets or just watching the local Wal Mart parking lot fill up with …
Len linked to this article, which sent me off on a whole bunch of other reading along this topic and it has hit pretty close to home. I wrote a post a few months back on some thoughts I was having on paying pastors. This article has convinced me that we really need to think …
The Revolution (Church/Body of Christ) Will Not Be Funded Read More »
I wrote this post after which gives some more thoughts on the matter. The Revolution (Church/Body of Christ) Will Not Be Funded Since starting theStory Joe, Darryl and I have wrestled a lot with the idea of salary and if a church should pay its pastor, go bi-vocational or make an income completely separate from …
I remember the first time I experienced a beggar on the street. It was in Toronto and he looked right at me and my friends, I was around 14 years old and he asked me for money. My first reaction was to give him whatever I had. He looked awful and smelled as bad. I …
When we think of sharing we think of little kids having to share their toys. As we get older it becomes sharing the rake or lawnmower out of our shed to our neighbours. It usually consists of giving something of yours to someone else, with the understanding that you’re going to get it back when …
Money is this strange thing that continues to be front and center of my life whether I choose to acknowledge it or not. There are all sorts of things I want in life like freedom to do what I want when I want, to travel, to help people, to give people opportunity, to have a …