Just Incredible

I received an email from a "Christian" venue tonight asking the band to come and perform for them in Alabama. After going into how their goal is to meet the needs of the youth and be a Godly influence in their life, the fine print at the bottom of the email said this:

"We have no budget and have no money to pay any bands. We are looking for bands who trust God to provide them with money."

For 6 years now, I have been booking JF into Christian clubs and venues, and this kind of response is becoming more and more common. This is disturbing for multiple reasons. Here is two.

1. Why don't they apply their own advise to themselves? In essence, they are telling bands to avoid planning for their trips with performance fees and just let God provide them the means from show to show. Instead of that, how about they actually pay the bands who are traveling hundreds of miles to perform for them, and let God provide their means from week to week. It's because they don't really believe that. I do believe that God will sustain and provide all we need, but to say that proper planning and being a good steward with our money is equal to a lack of faith in God to provide is not only Biblically weak, but it's just stupid.

2. It cheapens living for God. Being a Christian is tough. Trying to survive in a Christian band is tough. To think that the goal of being a Christian, or playing in a band, is to allow God to just do His thing and give us everything is missing the point of the Christian life. The unmerited blessings from God are a wonderful by-product of the Christian faith, but they should not be the purpose or focus.