Money for Nothing! What?

Dear Crosswalkers,

Earlier this year, Newsweek magazine featured a story entitled, “Money for Nothing.”  Here’s what’s happening in today’s world:  Many use Facebook as a way to keep in touch with friends, but there is a growing trend among others who use it to play games that involve virtual pets, virtual wars, virtual farms, etc.  The remarkable thing about these games is that a person can buy virtual goods for these games—pets or guns or fertilizer or tools.  The kicker is this:  They cost real money!  Now of course these items don’t actually exist!  They are just little computer pictures from little pixilated stores.  So the player sends real money through a credit card account to a company like Playfish, whose website says, “You can now get Playfish Cash Cards in retail stores near you!  Cash cards are exchanged for Playfish Cash that can be spent in all our supported games.”

So in the Newsweek article, “Money for Nothing,” writer Daniel Lyons discovered that the total U.S. market for virtual goods was over $1 billion in 2009—twice what it was the year before.  Yes, we are spending, in these tough economic times, over $1 billion for something that doesn’t really exist!!  Here’s a great lesson about 21st century America:  People will spend real money for something that isn’t really there at all!  Now I know it might be argued that this is just one way to spend entertainment dollars.  Fine.  But the larger lesson is this:  What are we getting for our money?  What is our investment yielding?

The Bible tells us the greatest investment we can ever make is in the Kingdom of God.   Jesus told a parable about a master who entrusted money to his servants and how he expected them to invest his money wisely while he was away on a trip.  Here’s part of the story:

After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. – Matthew 25:19

God has invested in you.  He has given you money, abilities, property, cars, clothes, influence, friends, and he has considered you to be a good investment.  Now he expects you to produce a return.  Every human being will one day give an account of himself or herself to God.  We will all have a final exam someday.  God is going to ask: Did you follow my Son, Jesus?  And another question will be this:  What did you DO with what you were GIVEN?


Wise investments will outlast ourselves.  This is why God says to invest in eternity.  Now, like many of you, Leanna and I have seen some of our financial investments take a beating in the past couple of years.  But you know, the thousands of dollars we have invested in eternity by giving to our church, and supporting missionaries; those investments haven’t lost a cent.  In fact, those investments are compounding and growing, creating a treasure in heaven for us.  Praise God!

I share all this because right now, like many other churches and non-profits, our giving is down considerably.  We have some projects that are going undone.  For example, we need to repair and sluice our parking lot.  That is a big ticket item.  We also need to repair and resurface our gym floor.  There are some painting projects that need to be done.  We are prioritizing our funds now for ministry and outreach, but these are becoming great needs that we cannot ignore forever.  If you can bless your church with a special gift at this time it would be most appreciated.  You can give to our general fund, which also needs help, or earmark the gift “PROJECTS” and we will begin making the needed improvements.

Thank you in advance for investing in the church of Jesus!

Here are a couple of quick announcements:

MEN’S BREAKFAST  is this Saturday at 8:30 a.m.  Angel Hernandez will be speaking and you know it’s the best darn breakfast in town!  Invite a friend and come and hear an exciting testimony from one of our missionaries!
SPORTS CAMP is coming at the end of this month!  It is a great outreach event as we have over 20 kids from our community participating.  Sign up your kids for an awesome week this Sunday!
See you at Worship,

Pastor John Christie