Title Sagil and I
Contents
I run a fashion company that makes women's clothes and sells them in department stores. We have 7 designers in our company, and their unchanging desire is to create the best hits. Some of the clothes I worked so hard to make don't sell ten sets and end up in stock, while some clothes are added several times to sell thousands of pieces. That's why designers are always struggling to make hits. Hit products such as Dong-A Pharmaceutical's Bacchus and Orion Confectionery's Choco Pie are works that put the company on the rock. Ivory Soap that floats on water is still a huge hit in the world even after 100 years have passed. But I want to talk about bigger and older hits. It is the church's offering system.
In the poem ?Flag?, the poet Yu Chi-hwan said, “Ah, who is this, he was the first to know that he had such a sad and childlike heart in the air.” and sang. “Who is it, who first came up with the offering system? Who was the first to come up with a donation system that made all members of the church willingly donate their wealth from then until now?” When I first started attending church, I was young, so I thought that if I gave money to a place like a donation box, God would secretly come and take it with me. When I found out the truth after a while, I felt like I had been deceived, but I was so embarrassed that I didn't know that, so I couldn't tell anyone. But I can't shake the feeling that I'm still being deceived.
The church makes many types of offerings, and when collecting offerings, God takes the form of receiving the offerings by putting God first in the name of God. The saints who go one step further and give offerings sing like this as if praying.
“I give you my treasure. Please accept it, Lord, so that it may be used as you will for the kingdom of heaven.”
And say Amen. If you walked with God in front of you, sang a song of supplication to write according to the will of the Lord, and even swore Amen, it should have been written that way, but in reality, it is not.
The organization of most churches is divided into male missions and female missions divisions, and divided into children's divisions, middle and high school divisions, youth divisions, seniors divisions, and old age divisions by age. In addition, it is divided into architecture promotion committee, scholarship committee, condolence committee, and internet committee, and that is not enough. Make it an executive. Choi Ha is the butler.
We constantly create events to avoid gaps. Sunday morning worship, evening worship, Wednesday evening worship, Friday all-night prayer, and every morning prayer, even that is not enough, so we are constantly running into revival meetings, 100-day prayer meetings, retreats, bazaars, sports events, picnics, etc. Why is there so much training and education? What kind of discipleship training, evangelism explosion training, torch, what kind of training, etc. And evangelism education, mission education, etc... . In this way, the members of the church are tied together by organization and time, but when a member moves, this time, they use a bus to take them. Why the hell is that? Is it just to lead that person to heaven? Is it for resurrection? no. Because I think of it as a business.
Even if they are not, they know that it is because of the donations, both unavoidably and forever. And since all the offerings given to God belong to the church, they can use them as they please.
This is an editorial from the Hankyoreh newspaper on August 21st. This is part of an editorial written by the Catholic Archdiocese of Seoul entitled ?Decisions for a Transparent Church? dealing with the disclosure of audit results in 2006 by entrusting financial statements to an external accounting firm.
“Even if you make a hundred concessions, in order for a religious organization to receive such tax benefits, donations, donations, or proceeds must be used for their intended purpose. Except for the minimum cost, it should be used to contribute to society. However, in the case of Protestants, it is said that only 3% of donations or donations are used that way.
Many call it the crisis of Protestantism. In fact, I'm sure you've heard that Buddhism and Catholicism are increasing, but Protestantism is decreasing. I was watching the news of the Taliban kidnapping on the Internet, and reading the comments on the news, I knew it was really serious. Among the hundreds of thousands of comments that came up in an instant, there was no ‘Christianity’. It was full of writings, calling them ‘Christianity’ and wishing them to die there. “If you die there, isn’t it martyrdom? So don't trouble the country, just die there. If you want to live, ask your God to help you.” I honestly didn't expect it to be that much. Would the Blue House have asked the Blue House to refrain from slanderous comments?
I think all of these things stem from the poor use of the donations.
It seems that it has been about 5 or 6 years since I came to this Saegil Church after reading Professor Oh Gangnam's book [No Jesus], but Saegil Church is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Judging from the judging that it took a lot of anguish, wisdom and courage when first founding Saegil Church. Thank you very much and thank you. Thanks to you, I am happy to be able to put my heart into this and continue to believe. And 10 years later, let's guess the 30th anniversary of the founding. What would Saegil Church look like at that time? I don't know, but when I look back at what I was 5 or 6 years ago and what I am now, and think about it 10 years later, I wonder if it will exist in a similar way to what it is now.
If so, are you satisfied?
Are you satisfied with living quietly while keeping this belief among ourselves and asking each other greetings as we do now? Don't you think that Saegil Church, a church of lay people, should open a new path worthy of its name? Do you not feel any sense of duty before God? I think it's time to transform into something closer to God's will. We propose to transform Saegil Church, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary.
A church is a place of worship, a place of prayer, nothing more, nothing less. The offering belongs to God. The church is not man's. Therefore, we must write according to the will of God. The president of Union Theological Seminary, whom I preached here last year, said that Jesus told us to help our neighbors in need 40 times only in the 4 Gospels. God wants to help those in need with the donation.
So I suggest. All donations of Saegil Church should be distributed to neighbors in need within 48 hours after being dedicated to God. And let's reduce the organization of the church to a minimum and limit the expenses to rent, labor costs for two or three people, and the purchase of equipment. It has become a custom now that I have spent a long time carelessly about the donations I gave to God. Now is the time to stop this wrong practice.
Let's make a fresh shock wave in society by giving 100% of the donation to neighbors in need, and let it be a challenge by alarming the consciences of many churches.
It is up to us to choose which of the two fork in the woods to take. Let's choose a new path without hesitation.