Click here to view the embedded video.

This past Sunday, we continued in our Spiritual Discipline Series as we looked at the Stewardship of our Time and Money. (Listen to the teaching HERE). I put Terra Nova’s Stewardship Pastor, Paul Gordon, in front of a camera and asked him to share his heart on Financial Stewardship. This video was shown in the middle of the teaching on this topic yesterday.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I also asked Paul to pull together some statistics from Terra Nova Church’s giving patterns. I only had time to share a couple of them on Sunday during the teaching time, but here is the rest of what Paul’s research on the giving patterns at Terra Nova showed. I know that some of you are bored as soon as you hear the word “statistic”, while others eat this stuff up. If you would ever like to learn more about how Terra’s Finance Team works, how we do budgeting, auditing etc. don’t hesitate to email Paul Gordon.

Terra Nova specific stats::

63% OF HOUSEHOLDS SUPPORT TERRA FINANCIALLY

37% OF THE HOUSEHOLDS AT TERRA DO NOT GIVE.

Of these:
The top 10% of households comprise 53% of the operating budget.
The top 20% of households comprise 74% of the operating budget.

The top 10% of giving households comprise 42% of the operating budget.
The top 20% of giving households comprise 61% of the operating budget.

The average giving household gives about $2,500 per year    or   $48 per week   or   $215 per month.

The median giving household gives about $1,220 per year    or   $23 per week   or   $106 per month.

Stats from America in general::

·       70% of people in America live paycheck to paycheck.
- The Wall Street Journal

·       17% of Americans do not have enough savings to cover 1 week without a paycheck
- USA Today

·       The estimated average credit-card debt per US card-holding households is $9,312.
- Time Magazine

·       The personal savings rate in the US has now fallen to -2.2% – meaning people are spending more than they make — the lowest in 60 years.  – The Department of Commerce

·       The average American has 2.7 bank credit cards, 3.8 retail credit cards and 1.1 debit cards, for a total of 7.6 cards per cardholder.  – CardWeb.com

General Stats from American Churches::

·       Overspending: 40 percent of church members say they overspend monthly; also, 40 percent of church members pay more than $2,000 a year in interest, not including their mortgage.  – The United Methodist Foundation

·       Christian Wealth and World Poverty:  On average, American Christians enjoy an annual household income of $42,409, while 1.2 billion of the world’s poorest people must survive on $1 a day.  – Sider, Ronald. The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience. Books and Culture

·       Giving Not a Priority: It is estimated that Christians worldwide have personal incomes totaling more than 16 trillion but give only 2 percent, to Christian causes.  – International Bulletin of Missionary Research

·       A Reachable Goal: “According to the Borgen Project, annual expenditures of $19 billion between now and 2015 could eliminate global starvation and malnutrition.  Another $12 billion per year over that same time period could provide education for every child on earth.  And an additional $15 billion each year could provide universal access to clean water and sanitation.”  – Stanford Social Innovation Review

Thanks to Brandon Balkenbush at Living Stones Church in Reno, NV for sending me these stats.

409 River Street Troy, NY tonight Fri 4-30-2010 5-9pm.

We hope you get a chance to come out to Terra Nova Gallery tonight and see the new show at 409 River Street in Troy. Stacy Lauren Kennedy is a talented photographer who attends Terra Nova Church. This is the first time she has shown her photography at the gallery.

Katherine Edwards, who is a local painter and has been a part of several shows at the gallery, featuring landscapes of the upstate region, will be showing her new work.

As always this gallery opening is in conjunction with TROY NIGHT OUT.

Come and enjoy the beautiful art while listening to music performed by Len Kiel, also from Terra.

Lots were involved as extras this past Saturday as filmmaker and Terra Nova member Roman Jaquez shot one of the final scenes in a short film that he’s been working on for over a year. Using Monument square in downtown Troy as the the backdrop, several hundred people joined in for the filming. After the filming, many people piled into Meka’s Lounge. The new Martini and wine bar opened by a couple other people from Terra Nova.

The Troy Record was there and you can find that front page article HERE.

Capital News 9 was also there and covered it on local television. Find that story HERE.

CBS 6 was there and posted this photo gallery from the shoot HERE.

Capital News 13 also posted video HERE. (Roman says it’s the best of all of it)

Brian Hofmeister painting

Great opening on “Black Friday”. It’s an exhibit that everyone should see. The artists are Brian Hofmeister and mi Chelle Vara . Brian is a pastor at Christ Church in Guilderland. His beautiful paintings capture the essence of turn of the century (1900) architecture in Schenectady. Brian’s talent for blending colors on canvas makes him one of the regions emerging artists you have to see. And the abstract metal sculptures by miChelle interspersed among brian’s paintings make this a most interesting exhibit you don’t want to miss! It’s on display through January.

Terra Nova Gallery annual Abolition/Injustice show September 24th thru October 27th.
The Gallery had a successful opening last month with photography by Gina Meola and an exhibit about child sex slavery by Bethany Marcelle. Gallery visitors came away from this event pensively; you are left with a sense of the world’s injustice in your gut and a desire to do something about it. Not often have I viewed art and been so moved. 
Responds Gina Meola when asked of her experience at the Gallery opening: “In my opinion, it isn’t so much the experience itself that matters, but what you take away from it and then do with it. This was an opportunity to push forward in my art, and share the core of why it was created – God’s call to love. I’m so grateful to Terra Nova for opening this door, and eagerly anticipate what lies ahead.”

New Show Friday October 30
Come join us for this month’s Terra Nova gallery opening on Friday October 30,  featuring photography by Ann Fantauzzi  titled Eyes to Namibia  and a painting collection by Carole Warburton titled Vanishing Barns.

The original article can be found HERE.
Pastor Ed’s response can be found HERE.

Feel free to interact using the comment feature of this blog.

One line in the story warrants a bit of clarification. In the second paragraph, Pastor Ed is quoted as saying that some churches have treated artists and musicians with “hypocrisy, condemnation and even hate.” That is not what he said. In Q&A stories like this, reporters often attribute quotes based on a compilation of notes imbued with their own interpretation. His point may have been lost in translation. In his experience, Pastor Ed has found that the church as a whole frequently engages with the non-Christian art world only when seeking to condemn, as in protesting secular films. All of us at Terra Nova consciously seek to avoid criticizing other churches. We are well aware of the Apostle Paul’s admonition in Romans 2:1, “For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.”