6 million for Gods house

[Tibby]

Here is the story. My town, though own a 30 minute trip from a big city, is a very poor town. Many of the people live in abject poverty. We have many poor Latino families fresh from Mexico, and many of the natives are very poor, as well. The majority of the housing was made 50 years ago, and much of it is falling apart.

A church in the town, who has a fine building, has decided to spend over 6 million dollars for a brand new church, on a brand new piece of land. This 6 million is not including the cost of the land, which is great property. This was the planed budget, they have gone over.

So, my question is this, is it responsible stewardship of money to do this? Is the church in the wrong for building themselves a great building with THEIR money, or should they have build a build that works just as well for half that and spend the money to help some of the need families in the area. Your thoughts, and why? It is a big deal it this community. Some say as the largest church in the area, they need to good building, but is 6 million overkill? I mean, they have a 15-20 foot door in the front, I kid you not! Others say as they larges church in the area, they have a responsibility to the community, and that money isn’t their money, it is Gods, but how do we know god don't want them to have a nice building! God never said he wanted us to have ugly thinks, he wants us to prosper, right? But, shouldn’t we help the whole town, and not just our selves?

I don’t know, as I said, it is a big deal here, What are your thoughts?

[Corpus]

Tough call Tibby,

Without knowing the area well it's hard to make a call. You're right of course that there's a line between glorifying God and getting excessive. I think every community needs to make that decision on their own though.

[Tibby]

Yeah, it is a tough one. The area is a pretty small town, of about 15,00 people. My father works for one of the larger hospitals in the area, and they see a LOT of case, the majority of the time they end up doing charity work, because many of the people just can not pay. They can’t pay the bills, and they can’t pay for the insurance to cover it all, if that gives you a better idea of what kind of town this is.