Thoughts of Jeremy Wise

Change is Here

jwise — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:10:15 +0000

Well, I think the proverbial cat is now out of the bag. After nearly ten years at Springthrough, I’m moving on in my career. There are no ill-feelings, no burned bridges; it’s just time.

Ten years ago, I was a freshman in college looking to expand my development career. Springthrough was a perfect fit – flexible enough for a college student’s schedule, new and exciting, and I had endless opportunities to learn new things and meet new people. I’ve learned the ins and outs of a consulting practice, how to interact with coworkers and customers, how to manage projects and development teams. I’ve interacted with and done business for more businesses around the state than I could possibly remember, and I’ve found friends of all sorts along the way.

Monday, I start a new adventure. I’ll be heading up the web development team at Global Forex Trading. I’ll be able to put in practice many of the things I’ve learned in the last decade, but with a little more focus. I’m very excited about the team I’ll be joining, and a little somber to be leaving a team behind.

So, to Springthrough, which has been a second home for almost a decade (sometimes to the dismay of my poor wife), I wish you the utmost of success. I’m sure I will see many of you often in the future. Julie, I’m done logging my hours. And to Global Forex, ready or not, here I come.

Church Finances

jwise — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:25:21 +0000

Indebtedness

I cannot seem to get past the financial situation that faces our church today. In far too many ways, we seem to be modeling our finances after the world instead of teaching biblical stewardship to our members – first by example, then by teaching.

Throughout the Old Testament, the model of offerings to the Lord was expressed in the tithe. A tenth of a man’s crops or livestock was to be brought each year to the Temple. But for what purpose? Was it to be sold, and the monies collected for the Temple workers? Was it to provide for the needs of others? Deuteronomy 14 gives us a good picture of what God planned for the tithe – both what to bring, and how that tithe was to be used:

22 Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. 23 Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the LORD your God always. 24 But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the LORD your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the LORD will choose to put his Name is so far away), 25 then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the LORD your God will choose. 26 Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice. 27 And do not neglect the Levites living in your towns, for they have no allotment or inheritance of their own.

28 At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, 29 so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. – Deut. 14:22-29

So, each year, a tenth of a family’s produce, grain, and livestock, whatever that family raised or grew, was to be brought to a celebration. If a family lived too far away to carry the tithe to the appointed place, then they could sell the tithe for silver, come to the appointed place, and buy whatever their hearts desired – for the purpose of celebration (even wine or beer!). The Lord delighted not merely in the fact that the tithe was set apart and brought to the appointed place, but that his people came and ate with Him in celebration and rejoicing.

Every third year, the tithes were brought not for the celebration, but for the meeting of others’ needs. First, the Levites, who had no other source of food (because their work was in the Temple), and then to the aliens, the fatherless, and the widows, because they too had no way to provide for themselves.

So, we find that the tithe had two purposes: celebration (i.e. a big party), and to provide for those who didn’t have their own. Israel was supposed to be a storehouse where aliens, fatherless, widows, orphans, and the like could come and be fed.

And what about the Tabernacle and the Temple? When constructed, how were they funded? Exodus 36 tells us that when the Tabernacle was constructed, the gifts and offerings had to be turned away because more than enough had been brought. No loans were secured; no money was borrowed. Israel had what it needed and the Lord provided through his own people to see that construction could be done successfully. And the Temple was constructed out of the riches of Israel – Solomon lacked absolutely nothing, and spared no expense building the Temple.

But What About Today?

I see a great number of forces at work today in the church. For starters, our main drive is a number of people, not the God we’re here to serve. We seem convinced that if we have a certain number of people filling the building every week, then we will be able to raise the money that we need to stay afloat. What happens, though, if we don’t have the number of people we require? Probably the same thing that’s happened the past several years: we dry up the cash we have available, and grow closer and closer to having to close our doors and abandon our building. So if numbers fail to rise, we do the only thing we can do: we ask for more money from those who are attending. Nevermind the fact that our county has a 25% unemployment rate (a fact that hits many families who are members or attenders). We ask families to give more money, but their money is trapped up in the same place the church’s money is trapped: debt.

The church needs to collect $4,500 a week – not to meet the needs of members, or of the community of Greenville, but to pay a mortgage on a building whose entirety we use a few hours a week. When money gets tighter for families because they’ve lost a job or because they’ve overcommitted monthly payments, we ask them kindly to give anyway. Skip the mortgage payment and write the tithe check – God will provide. But what is our example? When the church fails to make budget every month, what gets paid and what doesn’t? The mortgage gets paid but the ministries get cut. The building that most attenders walk into and out of for an hour a week is taken care of, while the attender who needs to pay his bills and the missionary who wanted to stay on the field are drying up and falling apart.

This is the kind of hypocrisy that the world looks at and shakes its head in disbelief. If a family says, “I don’t have enough money to make ends meet, so I can’t support the church,” he is told that he’s disobeying the commandment to give his tenth. But if the church says, “I don’t have enough money to make ends meet, so we can’t support this ministry and that ministry,” the congregation is told … they’re disobeying the commandment to give their tenths.

What would happen instead if we wiped the budget away and started over? What would happen if we wrote down the ministries we were required to support: the orphans, the widows, the fatherless, the jobless, and the pastors and missionaries, and we supported all of those needs first? That is, after all, the very reason we’re still on the Earth! Then we said that whatever was left over would provide for a mortgage, utilities, and any additional money was saved for future needs. That money would tell us what building (if any) we could afford, and we would live within our means. This is the model that is preached to the congregation (and it is also a biblical model), but it is opposite the model that the church follows right now. And therein lies the hypocrisy.

And all this brings us back to the true point of the tithe anyway. The tithe was an offering to God, not to a group of people. It was to be used by the person who brought it for celebration! And every third year, it was to be stored up to provide for the Levites, the widows, the fatherless, and the aliens. The church’s tithes are used to support a building and a few staff members. If there’s any money left over, it will be used to support a family or two in dire need (now, I believe, only those within the congregation), as well as the few ministries we can still afford.

Where are the needy to go? In the Old Testament, Israel was to be a blessing to the nations! Those who didn’t have, came to Israel to receive from their storehouses. This model is no more evident than Joseph’s management in Egypt during the drought. Today, the Church is to be the hands and feet of Christ in this world. We should be at the front lines of providing for those with needs. Acts 2 lays out a model where the congregation sold what they had until no one in their midst had need. Today, the worldly model is to buy everything we can until no one has money (or available credit) remaining. This mindset has infected and poisoned the Church in America. Instead of being a source of food, clothing, and shelter to the needy, we go to the needy and beg for their money. Even those who have no job have to go to the government to get basic needs fulfilled. And instead of being ashamed of ourselves that we’re not providing and the government is, instead of selling our possessions and giving to those who have nothing, we go to them and ask that they tithe their minuscule income and trust God for their needs.

What must God think of this? God provided a way for the hungry to get fed – it was the Church. At first it was Israel, but they became so infatuated with themselves they shut the door to the Kingdom on any who wanted to enter. And now what has the Church done? We’re too interested in big buildings, big screens, new van smell, and “modern worship experience” to even see the dying people covering our streets and filling our chairs every week. Instead of going to our city, offering to meet their needs (in a real, tangible way), we tap into those who have and those who don’t have, and we tell them their duty is to give us money so we can spend it on the desires of our heart.

Where do we go from here? How do we turn this huge ship around? Perhaps it won’t be left to us to decide. The Pharisees were so far gone that when the Messiah showed up, they were too callous to accept the glorious salvation they’d waited so long to see. Perhaps God will need to take our building away from us before we’ll be able to start doing what He’s called us to do. Solomon warned us that the borrower becomes the lender’s slave (Prov. 22:7), and we certainly have seen that one come true. Nearly $20,000 a month will be wrapped up paying for a building until our kids and grandkids are paying the bills. If God should decide that that money could be better spent helping widows and orphans in their times of distress, it may take His work to break our bondage to the bank.

Or, of our own free will, we could admit our inability to afford such a building, and walk away. Perhaps we should at least admit that in a time like this, there are far more important places to invest our money than a building. It would cost the church its building, its name, perhaps even its leadership, but it would set its members free to start doing the work we’ve been called to do, and in such a time as this! Christ will build His Church. She will be pure, blameless, a blessing to any and all who even look upon her. She will be so beautiful, so radiant, that the King of kings and the Lord of lords will be delighted to announce, “That’s my Bride!” She will not be concerned with buildings and possessions and worldly things, but with righteousness, with love, with service, and with the Lord. When He comes, we must be about these things.

The work of the Church is to set the captives free. Set free from sin, from debt, from oppression, from guilt, from anything and everything that sets itself up against God. When the Church itself incurs debt and becomes a slave, it immediately enslaves all the people involved. A new convert comes into our midst a free man and we immediately announce his new shackles – you must now help us pay this mortgage, then if you have anything more, you may work on your own. The long-time member who wishes to use what he has for his King’s service is left with a difficult decision: Does he give his money away to the endless pit of “debt retirement”, essentially admitting the ineffectiveness of an entire generation, or does he neglect his local church’s call to “giving” and seek to do the work himself which his Lord has required? You see, a church in debt is no longer the liberating Church of Jesus Christ, it is a different beast altogether. It is a body of people once again enslaved, unable to break the shackles they themselves willingly put on. And from that point, they share those shackles with as many people as they can. This was not the ministry we’ve been called to perform.

I don’t have all the answers. But I know that at the very least, we need to admit there’s a serious problem. Maybe we’re stuck with this debt until every last penny is paid off. Maybe if we throw ourselves at the mercy of God, He will have pity on us and provide freedom. But I do know, whether we get the debt paid off or not, we need to make up our minds we’re done borrowing. We need to recognize the importance of people, not of spending money we don’t have on stuff we don’t really need. Then we can clear our heads and come up with a solution.

Aquarium

jwise — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:58:06 +0000

For a couple years, I’ve been managing an aquarium at the office. There are a few fish I’ve kept alive the entire time, and a few that have lived quite a while, and a couple that mysteriously disappeared (just now noticed that). Well, I now need to move my aquarium home, and hope the fish will survive the journey. This past weekend, I constructed a wood stand (pics here)for a 29 gallon aquarium (a step up from the 10 gallon at the office), and the water is getting ready for our new guests as I write this.

I’ll post more pictures when the transition is complete. Isaiah is very excited that the fishies are coming home, and I’m sure he’ll get hours of entertainment watching them run away from his tap, tap, tap. And we’re certainly hoping to keep those 29 gallons in the nice big glass container ;-)

Droid

jwise — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:07:14 +0000

I’ve held off for some time on upgrading to an iPhone. The tax for leaving Verizon was too high, and AT&T’s network is not desirable, especially around West Michigan. So I was rather pleased when Verizon announced the coming of the Motorola Droid. I was excited because I’ve been an avid user of Google products (Google Apps for your Domain, gmail, Picasa, etc), and because it’s an open platform with a fairly simple development environment.

I’m learning Eclipse now, and bringing my Java memories back to life. The hardware is quite impressive, and it’s nice to have a modern phone with me. The downsides: The camera isn’t the quickest (or highest quality), and there are still issues syncing with Microsoft’s Exchange servers, but for a first round, the Droid is awesome.

Isaiah says, “Hello!”

jwise — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:59:59 +0000

Isaiah William Wise

jwise — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 15:37:35 +0000

Born: Sunday, April 20, 2008, 10:25am
Weight: 8lbs. 3.9oz.
Length: 21 in.

Pics

Discipleship

jwise — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:55:53 +0000

“Take a moment to examine your life. Is there one person walking with God today and investing in others the fullness of life he has in Christ as a result of your ministry? One man? One woman? If not, you have been unfruitful.

“Perhaps you faithfully attend church, sing in the choir, usher, sponsor a youth group or serve as an elder, deacon, or even a pastor. You might witness every day or teach group Bible studies. These are commendable activities but they fall short of fulfilling your high calling to make disciples.

“Activity is no substitute for obedience; busyness cannot replace reproduction. One functioning disciple is more valuable in building the Church than a host of carnal believers. Resist the temptation to be so active in “Christian work” that you neglect the business of the Kingdom. Reevalueate your priorities in light of Christ’s commission to make disciples.”

– Dr. Keith Phillips, The Making of a Disciple

So where does one go when he reads that list of activities and realizes it consumes him, yet bears no fruit? Is it possible that “church” as we know it is really just a trap to keep us from the Kingdom and from obeying Christ in His call to discipleship? How does one exchange the unfruitful for the fruitful without abandoning the church model altogether?

Google Calendar Sync

jwise — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:02:16 +0000

I couldn’t believe my eyes… Google just released a utility that syncs Outlook’s calendar (required by work) with Google Calendar (preferred by me). Now I can use Google Calendar and still integrate with the rest of the office!

Google Calendar Sync

Intelligent da Vine

jwise — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:00:04 +0000

Found this video today showing time-lapse photography of vines “searching” for something to wrap around. Several commenters attribute this ability to millions of years and evolution. I guess if it takes millions of years to teach a plant how to find a tree, that explains why the public school system can’t seem to teach math or grammar or, well, anything but self-esteem.

End rant… check out the video :)

Return

jwise — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:47:52 +0000

Wow, so I haven’t blogged anything since back in November. It’s amazing how quickly time flies! I’ve been wrapping up as many projects as possible since Baby is coming in less than two months… we’ve just about finished painting the basement and the living room; carpet will be installed downstairs shortly. We’ve cleaned up some old furniture and got rid of a piano! I’ve got a few things to be blogging about, but they’ll come in a bit. Stay tuned :)