A Church That Spent Nothing On Itself Last Year

Catalogues of church supplies are full of things house churches can do without.

Family of Hope, a Harrisonburg-based, living-room-size house church, has only nine official members and six associate members. After thirty years of meeting, many of us are past retirement age, and our total 2018 giving toward our official church budget was only a modest $13,510.59, although most of our group contribute generously to many other causes as well.

So Family of Hope is far from being some major success story.

But one heartening thing at our annual business meeting last evening was to learn that we managed to get through the entire 2018 fiscal year without spending anything on ourselves, a gratifying first for our little congregation.

We are blessed with more members willing to lead our 4 pm weekly worship and Bible study gatherings than there are Sundays in a month, so we have no salaries or stipends to provide for. And since we meet in homes we have no real estate to maintain and no utility expenses to cover. Ours is an experience of church stripped to its most basic elements, a gathering for prayer, fellowship, the study of scripture--and for enjoying a simple carry-in meal--all a kind of "carry-in" in preparation for our "carrying out" God's mission for us throughout another week, as described in a blog post "Is This For Here Or To Go?"

Our church budget does provide for things like printing and postage costs, and for any study material we might choose (though we mostly just use the lectionary texts found in the Bible). The church also offers each member up to $50 a year for taking in a retreat or seminar of their choice. But last year our members just covered such costs on their own and didn't bother asking our good treasurer, Susan Campbell, for reimbursement.

We do also have a $2000 annual Congregational Aid Fund to draw from to help with any special needs among us, but were fortunate enough not to have to use any of that in the past year.

Meanwhile, the amounts distributed to over 20 church wide Mennonite and other agencies aren't very large, the exception being Mennonite Central Committee, a relief and development organization for which we allocate $2000 a year for world hunger and relief needs. We also provide modest support to local groups like New Bridges, People Helping People, Summit House, Our Community Place, Faith in Action and a half dozen other local agencies.

We certainly don't deserve any accolades for any of this, and house churches like ours are not for everyone, and are far from being the only right way to do church. But after so many years, it's gratifying to see any trend toward congregations spending less on themselves and investing more in other mission, education and relief needs.