The following document is a Sample Non-Profit Incorporation Document Checklist that could be beneficial in forming a nonprofit corporation in the state of Texas.
Gabriel’s Dinner
Dear Gabriel’s wife,
This is Gabr’s dinner.
Churches turn to Chapter 11 … Not the one in their Bible
This is just out today from the Wall Street Journal (via the Baltimore Sun). Churches that have gone into debt now find that they can’t pay it off. Unfortunately, like other corporations, non-profits and individuals they are turning to Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection for relief.
“We are seeing more stress in churches than we have in modern history,” says Mark G. Holbrook, president and chief executive of the Evangelical Christian Credit Union of Brea, Calif., which specializes in lending to churches. The credit union has moved to foreclose on seven of its 2,000 member churches this year, and Holbrook says he expects to take similar action against two more next year. Before now, it had foreclosed on only two churches in its 45-year history.
Church Mortgage & Loan Corp. of Maitland, Fla., another church lender, foreclosed on 10 church properties in the past couple of years. Unable to sell any of them, the company didn’t have the funds to pay more than 400 bondholders the estimated $18 million it owes, says company lawyer Elizabeth Green. Church Mortgage filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March.
Apparently, size doesn’t matter — the mega churches seem to be the ones that are at the top of the bankruptcy risk pool of churches.
“The borrower is slave to the lender.” – Prov. 22:7
It’s true even for churches.
Youth at Our House
They’re here.
iPhone blogging test
This may be a way of getting my blog rolling again.
We’ll see…
Day 4: Tuesday in Aguilas
Today we had a chance to tour some of the area around Aguilas. Like back home, there was a huge upsurge in construction in the past years and entire “suburban” areas were developed. Now, the construction has decreased, but there are huge communities of homes on the market.
There are huge green houses everywhere you look inland. The area looks much like what you would see in El Paso. But, turn your head 180 degrees and you see the beauty of the Mediterranean.
We spent the afternoon decorating the church for the evenings activity at the church. That night Brenda and I led a conference and banquet for couples. There were people from Aquilas, a nearby city called Lorca, and a couple that are not church members.
FROM BRENDA: The food here is wonderful!! We have cheese, olives, bread, and fruit at every meal, not to mention the pastries, seafood, and tapas. We’ve yet to have a one course meal. But the food is expensive, so we know the sacrifice people are making as they generously share their table with us. Viva Espana!
Day 3: Monday in Aguilas
Today was spent discovering the rich history of Christian missionaries and Baptist work in Aquilas. We saw the location of the first Evangelical church in the city, great trees in a plaza that were planted by renowned Baptist missionaries, and found a great source of information in a wonderful lady named Josefina.
Josefina had us over for lunch in her home, the very same home she grew up in and
belonged to her great-grandfather. He was one of the early believers in Aguilas and their family suffered persecution due to their faith. Josefina herself remembers being in worship services in a lady’s home (the government would not allow them to have churches) and having passersby throw stones at them and what she described as “bottles with a rag and filled with gasoline.”
The home churches would designate a “sentinel deacon” to stand guard at the door and inform the congregation if the police were coming and disperse the people. The tradition of a sentinel deacon continues in the Baptist churches today (surprise, surprise) as a deacon is tasked with standing at the door and maintaining order or oversight of the entry way.
We met in a home where Brenda led a conference with the newly formed Worship Team of Aguilas.
Afterward, we worshiped in the home until midnight!
PS: Cars are small in Spain . . . and some are very small!
Sunday: The First Day of Ministry
We began our ministry time in Lorca on Sunday with a conference to the Bible study groups that meet during Sunday School which begins at 11 am. The Sunday worship service begins at noon. Brenda sang and accompanied one of the local ladies in a bi-lingual song and I brought the Sunday morning message.
The church in Lorca currently meets in a Red Cross center, as they await the construction of their new church building which should be complete by the end of the year.
We ate lunch around 2:30 and then made our way to Aguilas, about 38 km away. There again, Brenda sang and I preached during the service in which we celebrated the Lord’s Supper. It was encouraging to meet people who said we’ve been praying for you for weeks and others who said, God did hear our prayers because you’ve made it here!
Ernesto, the pastor here in Aguilas, is from El Salvador and his wife Vicky is from Mexico. We’ve felt a kindred spirit with them and they feel that God sent us exactly on their 1 year anniversary of ministry to encourage, mentor and refresh them.
Dinner was at 9:30 pm and we met with the core group from the church who had asked us to share with them about our church organization and specifically the eldership ministry.
Our electrical transformer has already blown so we’ll have to find a way to charge our cell phones and dry Brenda’s hair. (I know the ladies will start a prayer chain, no doubt led by Lupe Silva, to pray for Brenda’s hair drying needs! Karen, counseling for hair-dryer withdrawal may be in order…)
Thanks again for your continued prayers!
Friday & Saturday: Our Trek to Spain
We left Lubbock, Texas on Friday morning at 7:30 am. Pastor Musquiz and his wife picked us up at Houston Hobby and we transfered to Bush Int’l to take the 4:30 flight to Paris,France. We arrived in Paris at 8:30 am on Saturday and just made our transfer to Valencia, Spain, where we arrived after noon on Saturday.
The various churches met our group in the airport and each couple continued on their journey to their host churches where they would be ministering. From the airport, we continued a 3 hour drive to Lorca, our first ministry location.
Our biggest challenge has been adjusting to the time, both jet lag and the Spain lifestyle. The jet lag hit us hard the first day, when we set the alarm to get up at 9.am. here, it’s 2 a.m. back in Lubbock.
Life in Spain is shifted toward the evening. Businesses open from 9-2, then lunch and siesta (yes, they really do take them) then back to work from 5-8pm. We’re adjusting to eating lunch at 2 p.m. and dinner is usually between 9-10pm. Church activities also often begin at 9 pm. and people easily fellowship until midnight!
FROM BRENDA: Today I learned that you greet everyone with a kiss, correction, 2 kisses. By the time you’ve greeted everyone, you’ve forgotten all of their names : )
The Church & Debt
We are coming up on the last couple of weeks in our Momentum Campaign and Financial Peace Classes. Our Momentum formula is: (Focused Intensity)/Time X God = Unstoppable Momentum. We have had “Focused Intensity over time” and believe that God is multiplying it.
In today’s church, we aren’t used to focusing on a subject for as long a time as we have since January. Some may say that we’re spending too much time on financial classes, economics or business topics. Here’s a quote from another pastor on this topic:
“Let no one complain, and say that instead of preaching the gospel I am discussing mere business transactions. The truth is, that the gospel is to regulate the business transactions of the world.–Religion is a practical thing. It does not consist in austerities, prayers, and masses, and monkish superstitions, as Papists vainly dream. If religion does not take hold of a man’s business operations–if it does not reform his daily life and habits, of what avail is it? Until in these respects your practice is right, you cannot expect to enjoy the influences of the Holy Spirit. You cannot grow in holiness any further than you reform your practice.”
That Pastor is Charles Finney and the year is 1839!
If you think it’s been tough dealing with the issues of debt, credit cards and budgets, wait till you read Finney’s message “Being in Debt”.
WARNING: This sermon is not for the faint of heart! Finney goes as far as declaring those living in debt to be living in sin.
Here’s a taste:
I cannot have confidence in the piety of any man, who is not conscientious in the payment of his debts. I know some men who are in debt, and who spend their time and their property, in a manner wholly inconsistent with their circumstances; and still make great pretensions to piety. They are active in prayer meetings–take a conspicuous place at the communion table–and even hold a responsible office in the Church of Christ, and yet they seem to have no conscience about paying their debts.
I believe it is right, and the duty of all churches and ministers to exclude such persons from the communion of the Church. And were it generally done, it would go far to wipe away the stains that have been brought by such persons upon the religion of Jesus Christ. I do not see why they should be suffered to come to the communion table, any more than whoremongers, or murderers, or drunkards, or Sabbath breakers, or slave-holders.
There must be a great reformation in the Church upon this subject, before the business class of ungodly men will have much confidence in Religion. This reformation should begin immediately, and begin where it ought to begin, among the leading members of the Church of Christ. Ministers and Church Judicatories should speak out upon the subject–should “cry aloud and spare not, but lift up their voice like a trumpet and show Israel his transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins.
And now beloved, are any of you in debt? Then sin is upon you. Rise up, and show yourselves clean in this matter, I beseech you.
Keep reading . . if you dare!
