A small country church had a tough decision to make. Its leaders had met after the worship hour to decide whether to renovate the existing church building or construct a new one. There was only one wealthy person in the church; everybody knew that he would have the last word. Finally he stood up and declared, "I think we ought to renovate our present building. I pledge $5000 to that effort." Then he sat down. He was a large, overweight gentleman and when he sat down, he shook a piece of plaster loose from the ceiling which fell and hit him right on top of the head. He jumped back up and said, "I raise my pledge to $7000." Somebody down front said, "Lord, hit him again."

That's one way to raise money for the church, but it's not the biblical way. I know of other non-biblical strategies that …