Rhema Christian Ministries - Changing & Affecting Lives

Credit Cards and the Modern Day Church - Part 1

"And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had an understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do…………" (I Chronicles 12:32).

The issue of the place and use of credit cards in the arena of public worship in the modern day church is part of what I believe to be a bigger and more interesting conundrum in which the modern day church has found itself. The struggle is really between relevance and identity. In striving to be more relevant, has the church lost its historical/traditional identity; or is it that in the quest to maintain its identity, the church has become less and less relevant, if not totally irrelevant? By definition, relevance really has to do with the ability to speak authoritatively to the anthropological issues of the day- issues that affect people. On the other hand, identity has to do with the state or fact of remaining the same one or ones- as under varying aspects or conditions; it is the condition or character as to who a person or what a thing is. For all intents and purposes, historically and practically, this is the “old” ecclesiastical notion of “in the world, but not of the world” idea. The real question that must then be asked is can the modern day church maintain her historical identity (positions, practices, methodologies) and still be relevant; or, in a dynamic world, is there a tradeoff between relevance and identity? Although the answer to these thought provoking questions lies beyond the scope of this article, it nonetheless brings to light the existential reality that like it or not, these are some of the macro-life issues that modern day believer’s must grapple and come to terms with in a post-modern world.

To illustrate this point, recently, following an announcement in one of our worship services where we indicated that our Treasury staff were prepared to serve those of our members who desired to make their contributions to the ministry via debit or credit cards, we received a few queries from some of our congregants, who were wondering about the place and propriety of credit card contributions in the context of worship- especially as it relates to the debt freedom component of our economic empowerment initiative. On closer examination however, at its core, it appears that this question is really the relevance versus identity issue in another form.

To arrive at a cogent and insightful answer to this question, we must first agree on certain fundamental truths concerning the placement, role and operations of the modern day church. For example:

If this is true, then it follows that the modern day church must be relevant in all facets of its operations: technologically, economically, physically and spiritually. Without doubt, and unapologetically, Rhema Ministries is striving to become this church. It is part and parcel of what our Senior Pastor calls “excellence”.

In our quest for economic and technological relevance, we strive to present our congregation with leading-edge contribution options. Meaning that we are cognizant of the speed and pace at which the world around us is moving, and we endeavor to keep up with it- if not ahead of it. In this regard, credit cards are just one of the options that we strive to present our members with.