Is a Capital Campaign even Biblical?

This week, we are talking about a specific aspect of giving that the church I serve at recently entered into, which is a Capital Campaign that began this past January to raise two million dollars to build a New Family Life Center. Yesterday, we addressed the potential responses of skepticism and questioning when it came to the idea of a church engaging in a Capital Campaign to raise money to build a building. Today, I would like to address the person whose response to the idea of a church engaging in a Capital Campaign to raise money to build a building.

If I was able to have a conversation in our courtyard coffeehouse with those of you whose immediate reaction to the concept of a capital campaign was one of resistance: if I was able to have a conversation in our courtyard coffeehouse with those of you whose immediate response to the concept of a capital campaign would be to say “The church is not supposed to spend its time and resources raising money to build buildings. The church is supposed to spend its time and resources building people into the image of Jesus. Jesus didn’t spending His time and resources building buildings. I just wonder if this whole capital Campaign idea is even Biblical.” Here would be my response to that resistance:

Throughout the pages of the letters that make up the Bible, we see several examples of God’s people raising resources for a space for people to encounter God. For example, in 1 Chronicles 29, we see King David lead the Jewish people in a Capital Campaign to raise resources to build the Temple in Jerusalem. The Jewish nation had become one of the most powerful and prosperous nations on that planet during King David’s rule, and King David wanted to honor God for blessing the Jewish people by building a space where God would dwell among the Jewish people. 

In addition, in three different letters that are recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Haggai, we see God’s people come together as a result of God’s leading through godly leadership to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem after it was destroyed by the invading Babylonian Empire in 586 B.C. However, it is in a section of another letter that has been preserved and recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible, called the book of Exodus, that I would like for us to spend our time together looking at.

And it is in this section of this letter that provides for us some timeless and timely principles that serve as a response to the potential resistance and the potential overwhelming feeling that comes with the concept of a two million dollar Capital Campaign. So let’s look at this section of this letter together, beginning in Exodus 35:4-19:

Moses spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, "This is the thing which the LORD has commanded, saying, ⁵ 'Take from among you a contribution to the LORD; whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as the LORD'S contribution: gold, silver, and bronze, ⁶ and blue, purple and scarlet material, fine linen, goats' hair, ⁷ and rams' skins dyed red, and porpoise skins, and acacia wood, ⁸ and oil for lighting, and spices for the anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense, ⁹ and onyx stones and setting stones for the ephod and for the breastpiece. ¹⁰'Let every skillful man among you come, and make all that the LORD has commanded: ¹¹ the tabernacle, its tent and its covering, its hooks and its boards, its bars, its pillars, and its sockets; ¹² the ark and its poles, the mercy seat, and the curtain of the screen; ¹³ the table and its poles, and all its utensils, and the bread of the Presence; ¹⁴ the lampstand also for the light and its utensils and its lamps and the oil for the light; ¹⁵ and the altar of incense and its poles, and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense, and the screen for the doorway at the entrance of the tabernacle; ¹⁶ the altar of burnt offering with its bronze grating, its poles, and all its utensils, the basin and its stand; ¹⁷ the hangings of the court, its pillars and its sockets, and the screen for the gate of the court; ¹⁸ the pegs of the tabernacle and the pegs of the court and their cords; ¹⁹ the woven garments for ministering in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, to minister as priests.'"

Now to fully understand what is happening in this event from history, we first need to understand the context in which this event from history took place. At the time of this event from history, the Jewish people were in the process of traveling from the nation of Egypt to the land that the Lord had promised them. You see, after spending over 400 years in slavery at the hands of the nation of Egypt, the Lord used a man named Moses to deliver the Jewish people from slavery through as series of miraculous signs that demonstrated to the Egyptian people that the Lord, and not Pharaoh, was the One True God.

After being released from slavery; after packing up all of their belongings; after receiving money and supplies from the Egyptian people, the Jewish people began their journey from Egypt, across a desert wilderness to the land that the Lord had promised them. And it is in this context that we see the Lord command Moses to take an offering of worship to the Lord that would be used to build what would become known as the tabernacle. In other words, the Lord here was commanded Moses to lead a Capital Campaign to raise the resources necessary to build the tabernacle.

Now the word tabernacle literally means “tent,” “place of dwelling” or “sanctuary.” The tabernacle was designed to be a space where God would chose to meet the Jewish people, during the 40 years they traveled through the desert under Moses’ leadership. The tabernacle was the place where the Jewish people would gather together to worship the Lord and where the Lord would reveal His presence to the Jewish people.

You see, the Lord knew that the Jewish people needed visual evidence of His presence, because earlier in the book of Exodus we read of an event from history where Moses went up to Mount Sinai for 40 days to receive what we know today as the ten commandments. However, while Moses was with the Lord, the Jewish people grew impatient and gathered their gold to form a golden calf that they worshipped in place of the Lord.

This act of selfishness and rebellion demonstrated the need for a tangible space where they would follow and worship the Lord. Thus, the tabernacle not only allowed the people to sense His presence, but also to see Moses go meet with the Lord in a concrete place and not distance himself from the people.

But did you notice something about what the Lord had commanded the Jewish people to do when it came to their involvement in the capital Campaign to build the tabernacle? Notice what the Lord states in verse 5: 'Take from among you a contribution to the LORD; whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as the LORD'S contribution”.

What is so interesting is that the phrase “whoever is of a willing heart”, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to be inclined to do something. So the Lord here is basically saying “whoever is inclined to be generous, let them demonstrate their generosity towards Me by bring an offering of worship that will be used to build a space where people can encounter Me”.

You see, the Capital Campaign was not driven by guilt or duty. The Jewish people were not commanded to give to the Capital Campaign. Moses was commanded to lead the Capital Campaign and to cast the vision for the Capital Campaign, but the Jewish people were to give to the Capital Campaign out of an open-handed generosity that was driven by their inclination to respond to the Lord’s generosity by reflecting His generosity.

Now here is something to consider: Where are the Jewish people when the Lord gave Moses the command to launch the Capital Campaign? They are in the desert wilderness on a journey to the land that the Lord had promised them. So do they have jobs? Do they have retirement funds? Do they have any potential entrepreneurial opportunities where they can make some money by starting a new business?  The answer to all of those questions is a resounding “no”.

You see, at this point in history, the Jewish people were totally dependent on the Lord. The Jewish people were totally dependent on the Lord to provide their daily food in the form of manna and quail. All the Jewish people had was what they had brought with them from Egypt. Now a natural question that could arise here is “Well Dave, where were they supposed to go to get the resources to build the tabernacle? I mean they are in the middle of nowhere in the desert.”

Notice that the Lord was not directing them to go somewhere to get the materials to give to the Capital Campaign. Instead, the materials, the resources for the Capital Campaign were already with the Jewish people. The Lord had already provided what was necessary to fully fund the Capital Campaign. The people had what they needed to build the tabernacle.

The Lord called the people who were inclined to be generous with what the Lord had given them to respond to the vision that Moses had cast to create a space where people could encounter the Lord. The question was “how would the Jewish people respond? How many people would be inclined to be generous?”

Friday, we will discover the answer together…