MINISTRY TO DEEP-POCKET DONORS
Big money doesn't have to mean big problems.
Michael R. Tucker
January 1, 1987
All churches experience the mixed blessing of big givers. In some churches, the person may own the local parts store, or twelve hundred acres of wheat; in others, the person may be vice president of an oil company. In some churches, a person wields power by donating thousands; in others, it may be millions. The amounts vary. The dynamics do not.
How do you treat those who contribute more than others? Michael Tucker, who pastors a church that came into being through large donations, discusses the peculiar factors.
Bethany Community Church exploded into existence. Four families, during the summer of 1977, decided there was a need for a church in this part of the Phoenix metropolitan area. One family donated ten acres of land, and in 120 days the church opened.
That Sunday a full-time pastor welcomed worshipers to a six-hundred-seat sanctuary, educational rooms, fellowship areas, a nursery, offices, and a gym-in all, twenty-nine thousand square feet of buildings linked by manicured lawns and flower beds. In the next 120 days, four more full-time pastors were added to the staff.
Obviously, this is not a normal church-planting scenario. The church is not affiliated with any denomination, so it's evident some of those founding families and others who have followed have deep pockets.
In the past five years the church has paid cash for two additional classroom buildings and added six and a half acres. It is now building another educational building and a two-thousand-seat worship center.
So much for the good news; now for the bad.
One of the founding families fought the first pastor for control. Both left the church after an unpleasant battle, and the church bled.
But through that painful experience, Bethany learned some important lessons ...
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