In fact the status and wealth of parishioners has been an on-going conflict in the thoughts of the church for years. Sadly many have walked away from the faith of their childhood finding it limiting and inflexible. Often it is not the faith that they resent but the financial climate of that community of faith that conflicts with their own goals, values and objectives. I have watched with great fascination as the church has moved from fad to fad and from phase to phase. In the process we have often gone from one extreme to the other, disregarding the significance of balance.
Balance is a difficult thing to attain.
Yet balance and prosperity go hand in hand. No one would last long in business if they never balanced their accounts or checkbook. Yet we often fail to balance our thinking and have found ourselves with insufficiencies because of dangerous extremes. Glance in the rear view mirror of church history and you will see somewhere in the depths of the Middle Ages, in a musty, monastic cell, a robed monk knelt in prayer. His gnarled leathery hands are clenched tightly as he recites the evening prayers that have graced the end of each day from the time he first took his vows and stepped foot into the community that became his family, and continued as such until the expiration of his life on earth.