To Jim it seemed like an opportunity to right decades of wrongs.

As Jim learned more and more about the congregation he had joined, he began to discover it languished from a festering tumor lodged deep within it. The previous two pastors, over their fifty-plus-year tenure, had never made much headway trying to move people from merely being members of the big fancy downtown church to being disciples, to committing their lives and loyalty fully to mission and ministry. The last pastor had, in fact, resorted to begging for big gifts from wealthy members and even non-members to make it all work out by the year's end.

The last pastor retired, and the time of the great year-end bailouts had come to an end. The costs of maintaining the beauty of an old building and sustaining the excellence of …