The church where I most often worship has been asking even more difficult questions. Are we succeeding in our mission to the degree that justifies the resources we are investing? How many labor-hours are required to create faithful a worship service for God plus eighteen humans (plus however many angels if you believe in that kind of thing)? We have a $100K budget and we worship 20 people 50 times a year (to make the math easy). That's $100/member/week -- four times the national average. Membership has been flat for five years. Is it time to put a fork in it and call it done?
The church where I most often worship has been asking even more difficult questions. Are we succeeding in our mission to the degree that justifies the resources we are investing? How many labor-hours are required to create faithful a worship service for God plus eighteen humans (plus however many angels if you believe in that kind of thing)? We have a $100K budget and we worship 20 people 50 times a year (to make the math easy). That's $100/member/week -- four times the national average. Membership has been flat for five years. Is it time to put a fork in it and call it done?
I think this goes back to the question I ask here, though.
What is your reason to live?
If you truly feel that joy and energy towards sharing the love of God in the world, I would say no amount of money is too much for that.
If you're doing the same things over and over and it's all exhausting, then I would say it's not worth very much at all.