金钱：祝福别人而非自己蒙福
在我还是大学生、年青基督徒时，记得某一天去教会。在教会门口看到一边是牧师的豪华汽车，一边有块牌子写着 “因预算紧张，教会不再接受任何慈善福利的申请。”
牧师拥有豪华汽车不见得就不对。教会把全部的可支配的钱财都用来周济穷人也不见得就对。但当我看到这两个东西并列在一起的那一刻，使我不得不立刻就开始透过不同的镜头来看教会。这感觉就像你刚买了辆新车，却发现满大街到处都是同一型号的一样。
接下来的几个月里，我开始发现教会到处都是类似的扭曲了的现象：如教会所衡量评估的事务（人数增长，生理健康，财务平衡等）；教会拿什么庆祝（为牧师夫妇提供新车子，新的设施）；教会及会员会把大家的钱花在什么地方等。
其模式可以概括为：金钱和物质及外在的东西统统被看成了蒙上帝赐福的标志。这些东西没有被当作给别人带来福气和开展福音工作的工具。所以我们都花在了自己身上。现金流到我们这里如进了死胡同，就不再流出去了。
教会是一个小的独立王国。教牧及其他重要人物只要对教会“忠诚”及支持教会，就会被奖赏。如果有人想离开教会去开始新的福音工作，那他就不会在道义上和财务上得到教会的支持。差传、植堂、向万国传福音等在教会里几乎从不被提起。
你可能看出来了 —— 我当时所在的教会深受成功神学的影响。
想理解教会及基督徒应该如何看待钱财，我们先来看看圣经上怎么看待福气的。《诗经》第32篇讲到了真的福气：“得赦免其过、遮盖其罪的，这人是有福的！凡心里没有诡诈、耶和华不算为有罪的，这人是有福的！”
从这里可以看出来，罪得赦免是蒙神赐福的真正的象征。
换句话说，神对你的喜爱不是用你所拥有的金钱来衡量的。有很多富人是进不了天国的。你还记得耶稣说过的骆驼穿过针眼的比喻吗？
你知道神爱你，因为他已经赦免了你！“惟有基督在我们还作罪人的时候为我们死， 神的爱就在此向我们显明了”（罗5:8）
金钱及资源，其实是让我们得以传播这一消息的工具。教会及基督徒不应该是现金流入的死胡同，而应该是财务流出的管道。
不要像愚昧人一样用上帝所给的只知道建更大的谷仓和畜群，觉得这样有安全感。要把你所拥有的使用在神的国度上。花钱请牧师来传讲福音。对外出做福音工作的其他个人、宣教士及教会进行财务支持。然后求神给你更多以便你也能都使用在神的国度上。
所以，不要急着查看别人哪个是陷入“成功神学”最明显的。审视一下我们自己吧。你所带领的教会是把财富看作蒙福的标志呢，还是赐福别人的工具呢？
你可以问一下自己下列问题：
我所带领的教会如何看待及管理资源？
我们的会众庆祝什么东西？（他们很可能都是从你学的）
我们“想”增加差传预算有多久了？我们的钱都花在其他什么地方了呢？
为什么我那么在意来我的教会的人数呢？为什么人数增长对我这么重要？为什么我羡慕其他牧师？
为什么我希望今年教会预算能增加？ 为什么我向神祷告求更多的资源？
在钱财观上，我们没有一个人能对错误思维天生免疫。钱财是祝福吗？从某些方面看来是的。但更重要的是，它是引领别人得到真正的祝福的工具-而这真正的祝福就是认识神！
Money: An Instrument for Blessing, Not an Indicator of It
I was in college. I was a young Christian. And I remember walking past my pastor’s luxury car into the church office one day, and was greeted by a sign on the door that read, “We are no longer accepting requests for benevolence due to budgetary constraints.”
It’s not necessarily wrong for a pastor to own a luxury car. It’s not necessarily right for a church to use all its discretionary money to care for the poor. But the juxtaposition of these two things in that moment caused me to start viewing the church through a different lens almost immediately, like when you buy a new car and then starting seeing that model everywhere.
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Over the coming months I started noticing similar distortions throughout our church: in what it measured and evaluated (numerical growth, physical health, financial well-being); in what it celebrated (new cars for the pastor and his wife, new facilities); in what the church and its members did and did not spend our money on.
Here’s one way to summarize the larger pattern: Money and stuff and outward things generally were treated as an indication of God’s blessing. They weren’t treated as an instrument for blessing others and doing gospel work. So we spent it on ourselves. Cash came into our cul-de-sac and didn’t leave.
The church was its own little private kingdom. Ministers and up-and-comers were rewarded so long as they stayed “loyal” and supported the church. If someone tried to leave and start a new gospel work, the moral and financial support would stop. Missions and church planting and taking the gospel to the nations were seldom, if ever, mentioned.
If you haven’t picked up the clues, I was part of church influenced by the prosperity gospel.
To understand how churches and Christians should view money, we should start with a biblical view of blessing. Listen to what Psalm 32 says is true blessing: “Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.”
The forgiveness of sins, as it’s declared and discovered in the context of a church community, is the true indicator of God’s blessing.
In other words, don’t measure God’s love and favor toward you by the money you have or think you should have. There are lots of rich people who are going to hell. Remember what Jesus said about the camel going through the eye of the needle?
You know he loves you and favors you because he’s forgiven you! “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).
Money and resources, then, are instruments for propagating this message. Churches and Christians shouldn’t be cul-de-sacs for cash. They should be thoroughfares for finance.
Don’t be like the fool who only knew how to build bigger barns and horde what God had given him, thinking that it was his security. Spend what you have for the kingdom. Pay pastors to preach the gospel. Support other individuals, missionaries, and churches when they go out to do gospel work. Then ask God to give more so that you can spend that on kingdom purposes, too.
So forget about identifying the most blatant “prosperity gospel” offenders. What about you? Do you lead your church to view wealth as an indicator of blessing or an instrument for it?
Here are a few more questions to ask yourself:
How does the church that I lead view and manage resources?
What are the things that our congregation celebrates? (Chances are they learned it from you.)
How long have we been “meaning” to increase our mission’s budget? What things have we used our money for that have kept us from doing this?
Why am I so concerned with how many people attend my church? Why is numerical growth so important, and why do I envy other pastors?
Why do I hope that our budget increases this year? Why am I praying for God to provide more resources?
None of us are immune to faulty thinking on how to view the money that God gives us. Is money a blessing? In some ways, yes. But more than that, it’s an instrument for pointing people to the real blessing—a knowledge of him!
作者：John Onwuchekwa
John Onwuchekwa是乔治亚州亚特兰大蓝图教会的教导牧师。
翻译肢体：刘立君
用圣经视野和实用资源装备教会领袖
进而通过健康的教会向世界彰显神的荣耀
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