At some point, what is defended as “just hearsay” and “anecdotal evidence” are the actual representations of cultural behaviour. What do you do when year after year you see people do thing s like:

– buy a multi-thousand dollar industrial dishwasher for a dying congregation that had church dinners (no outsiders) once or twice a year.
- spend thousands of dollars in promotional material for a building campaign
- have funds allocated for a church plant anniversary video shown once
- spend thousands to send a dozen church people to the meccas of Willow Creek etc. but a claim of no money for involvement in smaller, local training
- put money into new projectors/computers/youth trips to Disneyland/sound equipment but no money into poverty relief or local social justice initiatives.
- or as one church meeting I witnessed, vote to cut overseas funding to build a bigger church sign with lighting “to get more people in” (didn’t work btw)
- also vote to cut young adult group funding as “they are not a stable and reliable revenue stream”

And on. Sigh. And on.

I should also say I’m fond of gatherings of all kinds but they can be done on the cheap. We tried to get every one who could afford it to sponsor a student or someone w/ lower income at our “hosted in a molding old school” national forums. Not so many took us up on that initiative. Same with the lack of exotic location. “What do you mean there’s no palm trees?!”

And you’re right. Eventually it just becomes too disturbing to contribute life energy to this behavior. So away we all go…