Debt

I went to church last night.

They gave out numbers on how they were doing with the budget which is not good.

First some background and a disclaimer: I have talked about everything that I am going to mention with the Pastor and leadership of my church. That is the disclaimer.

I hate debt. Debt is wrong. It is not evil, just wrong. We still have our mortgage, but we've paid off our consumer debt. We're still trying to figure out whether or not to pay off the mortgage.

Some background. Our church has $5 million in debt on the building. Last Mothers Day, a marketing presentation was made in place of the sermon on the need to build an addition on to the building in order to "support the ministry." This was a shock to most people in the congregation. Nothing had been said prior to Mother's Day.

Later, around July, prayer started around the whole thing.

Part of the plan was to reduce the debt with 20% of the proceeds going to debt reduction. The goal was somewhere around $3 million.

Roughly $1.4 million has been pledged. Far short of the goal. And blamed on the economy. I happen to believe that God will provide regardless of the economy if it is in his will.

Our payments on the debt run around $20,000 a month.

Interesting. For that is about what we short in offering for February.

I know that if we try to do this in our human abilities we will have human results. And so far the
results seem to be about what the rest of society is experiencing.

Is this God trying to tell us that we would be OK if we pay off the debt? Or is it just me trying to see what I want to see in my humanness?