One elderly lady told me that she does not refer to herself as a Christian. She much rather calls herself a follower of Christ. Immediately I saw what she meant. Many people have something against Christians in general because of what one Christian in particular did. For those who were hurt or taken advantage of, the word "Christian" rankles. They see all Christians as hypocrites.
From experience, there are two types of churches. One is the traditional, well established church that holds millions of dollars in Fix Deposits. The other is a church that clears all money collected at Dec 31. Surplus funds is given away to worthy causes. While the latter type acts in a more biblical manner, there is still some short comings. I have spent more than ten years worshiping in the former type of church. Now I worship in the latter type. I sense that while I was in the former church, the leadership was always on the look out for people willing to serve. The church does not lack funds. Now, money seems paramount. Earlier, the fact that I was a homemaker did not seem to count against me. Now, I sense those who earn good money, thus able to tithe more, definitely possess better standing in church. I know that in Jesus' eyes, he sees me as equal to all others. But, I can't expect the same from pastors and leaders.
Another thought is: the church in China (they do not spend money on church buildings) ought to be able to do mighty things. For I see the shop lot churches in newer areas continually scrounge around to raise fund to buy more shop lots to expand. And the sad part is that such expensive buildings were only used at most three times a week: Sunday Celebrations, Saturday Youth meetings and week night prayer meetings (each lasting no more than 4 hours).
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