A recent Index forum article questioned the spending of $80 million by certain churches to "accommodate a few thousand people," while our SBC spent "less than $135 million last year to reach the entire world through the IMB and NAMB."

To look at a "mega-church" or a "large metro church" from the outside and assume that they have misunderstood the Great Commission or have "misplaced purposes" simply because they borrow money, build large buildings, and provide for large ministry program budgets does not mean that they have really done so.

While I cannot speak for other large churches, I am well familiar with how our annual church budget comes into being. Budget preparation begins with prayer. Those responsible for its formulation are held accountable through the entire process. The Great Commission is the very heart of our annual budget.

One Wednesday night several years ago, many discipleship classes were being taught in the large, unpaid-for education building on our campus. At the request of his faithful wife, a lost man showed up in a Covenant Marriage class that I was teaching. Long story short, the man got saved and later surrendered to fulltime ministry. He went on to seminary, and now pastors a growing church in another part of the state.

Just last Sunday our church ordained another brother to the Gospel ministry who is about to leave to serve on the staff of a "mega-church" in another state. If space permitted I could share many stories like this one. In fact, under the leadership of Frank Cox, our senior pastor for the past twenty-four years, at least 156 people have been called as fulltime pastors, staff members and missionaries.

If our church had not borrowed money, built buildings, and provided ministries for them and their families, many would not have joined our church. But we did, and they did. Now, these people have willingly left the "few thousand" in our church and are presently carrying on the Lord's work around the world. I really believe that people from many other "mega-churches" who are in debt for buildings could give similar testimonies.

Our church consistently gives a significant amount of our annual receipts to world missions through the Cooperative Program (CP), our local Baptist association, and other world and local missions. Our consistent CP giving, along with many other large and small churches, provides funding to help IMB and NAMB accomplish their missions. This same giving also helps to defray some of the costs to the Southern Baptist seminary students (like Mr. Nix) that are preparing for ministry.

I would be among the first to say that I do not like borrowing money, either personally or for church building purposes. However, I do believe that God gives certain groups of believers unique "windows of opportunity" to reach into communities where thousands and thousands of lost people live right at the doorsteps of their churches.

If borrowing money to build adequate facilities to reach such people is required, then so be it! Great Commission spending doesn't necessarily have to occur halfway around the globe for it to be Great Commission work.

Finally, when it comes to borrowing money, I recently heard someone say, "When it is all said and done, I would rather be in debt to the bank than in debt to the Great Commission." I must agree.