TRAPPSTR

$232,000 makes for a big shopping cart

Posted on 04. Jan, 2010 by Brett in God

Over the weekend, I came across an article in the Daily Mountain Eagle, a newspaper in the small town of Jasper, Ala., which is just south of my hometown of Florence. Hunter’s Chapel Holy Church of Christ, is raising money to build a 100 foot tall cross that can be seen from the Interstate. The pastor is quoted as saying, “We’ve had a lot of negative things that people remember Walker County for. We just got through all the bingo stuff, and I think this would be a positive for people driving through Walker County.” The project comes with a hulking pricetag of $232,000.

Better get a bigger offering plate.

Let me say: I don’t know anyone at this church. I don’t know the pastor. I don’t know the members. I don’t know their motives. I don’t know what good works they’ve funded in their community. They may be doing some awesome things. I don’t know their theology. They may be ushering in the next Pentecost for all I know. With all that said, I question the wisdom in a project like this.

It’s weird to me that the pastor hopes the cross can help makeover the county’s image in light of their recent electronic bingo drama. But I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume the ultimate goal of the enormous cross is to remind unbelievers about Christ. And I guess a monstrous cross towering over the interstate does that. But I don’t know of anyone who came to Christ simply by seeing a cross. Do you? (I’m really asking, not being sarcastic). I’m from Alabama; there is no shortage of religious symbols. If filling some guy’s windshield with an oversized cross were enough, I suspect all of Gatlinburg would be evangelized by now. In fact, the Bible says that faith comes from hearing the word (see Rom 10:17). Hearing, not merely seeing, is the key. People need Jesus, and maybe some scruffy trucker will find him in a mega-cross. Doubtful though.

This church has the right to spend this money however they want. But may I suggest a few alternatives?

• Shoot my friend Josh an email. He has a vision to build an orphanage in the jungles of central America that will house abandoned kids who run around barefoot and naked. It only costs $144,000, so that would leave $88,000 in spending money for a smaller cross.
• Or they could donate the money to Bethany Christian Services. They help couples adopt kids without parents. With that kind of money, the church could fund 10-20 adoptions. After all, isn’t adoption a perfect picture of the Gospel? I wonder if there might even be some kids in Walker County who need parents?
• Check out Toms Shoes. With $232,000, they could buy about 4,218 pairs of shoes for people in their own community. The cool thing is that Toms would then donate the same number of shoes to people in third world countries. That’s 8,436 people with 16,872 unbloody and unbruised feet.
• Every 30 seconds, a little boy or girl in Africa dies from malaria. Nothing But Nets is fighting the problem with $10 mosquito nets. That’s 23,200 lives saved, if you’re keeping count.
• Or they could help kids who can’t eat or read in other countries. Compassion International does a great job helping kids like that. The church could send the cash their way, and sponsor 500 kids for a year.
• Of course, they could always keep the money locally and build a community outreach center, or help people who have lost their jobs, or launch a franchise of thrift stores like these guys.

$232,000 can buy a big shopping cart. I wonder what Jesus would put in it?

What do you think?