Paytriots. Paying Off Christian Financial Debt
I think that if Christians chose to they could probably bail each other out of debt. After all, it would be better if Christians had no debt. Or, to start with, at least none besides their house. Granted, paying off houses isn't easy. But the other stuff isn't so tough maybe, if you work together as a team.
It seems necessary that we be debt free if we are ever to be completely serious about being Christian. How many masters can a Christian serve? I think that becoming debt free is a serious and legitimately necessary state of being for every Christian to attain to as quickly as they can. Not for the purpose of improving our credit rating, but to be free to work for the Lord - to be able to live relatively independently of the government - so there's less stress and more time for family and ministry. For lots of reasons. I think about it a lot because I'm not debt free yet myself. But I'm hoping for it. ***Update: Got finished about 2 years after writing this! Haven't bought anything on credit for many years now! Life is improved! Thank you Jesus! I did pay off a good chunk of my debt using this approach just below. It was sort of stressful and sometimes seemed hard, but we cooperated and stuck with each other, and succeeded. We got rid of about $3,600.00 each this way. We were glad it was done though when we completed the cycle, as we all had to strap down pretty hard to come up with each week's money.***
I think about it, like I said, and I think there's an idea here below that could work. Maybe even work well. It could go basically like this:
FOR FAMILIES:
With your spouse's support and approval, meet as a family with your siblings. Let's say there are 6 of you. Agree to pay $100.00 each week into a bank account. So each week there is $600.00 in the account. Draw a name. That person gets the $600.00 that week. They must pay bills with the money. They cannot win again in this present 6-week cycle, but must continue paying $100.00/wk until everyone has had a chance to win. No one can win twice until everyone has won once.
If you decided to draw a name every three weeks, each winner would have $1800.00 when they won the drawing. If you draw every 6 weeks, each winner would get $3,600.00 You can get rid of a lot of debt with a $3,600.00 chunk of change!
If you need to take a week off in the middle somewhere, big deal. Just take a 'breather week' and then resume.
The person who is strongest financially (or single!) could mediate the process, smooth out the wrinkles, make the call on whether a 'breather week' was needed, etc. and agree from the outset to not be a winner until the last.
FOR ACQUAINTANCES:
First, you find a group of perhaps 5 or 10 people who have about the same debt as you, within $5,000.00 of each other maybe. Stupid debt, like Credit Cards and cash loans from whatever source...that sort of thing. Find people that have a great urge to really and truly become debt free.
Form a club; form a club that is designed to help the club become debt free. Agree to meet once a month or more. Come once a month with $300.00. Or $500.00. You decide all that by evaluating your group, and your level of debt, how much money you could commit to bringing each month, and deciding where to set your group goals. It could be an opportunity to break bread together or read scripture together also.
Then, when you are done meeting, put the pooled money into an account where money will accumulate until everyone can receive the agreed upon amount to pay bills with. (Until there is $5,000.00 in the account for each group member, or $3,000 for each group member - you decide beforehand, at the beginning of the agreement.) The money just sits there like a hostage until everyone's goal amount is in the account.
Be careful with the money. Remember, this is a process aimed at throwing off a portion of Satan's yoke, right? So there will be spiritual opposition. Be smart, be open, be careful.
The men can maybe fix up cars and sell them, or raise a calf, work an overtime shift, or whatever they think of to try to make sure that everyone can manage the $500.00 each month. Or when everyone manages, any extra could just go towards speeding up the process. Like perhaps a double name drawing on one of the months.
The ladies can do likewise in whatever venue they choose, to help earn extra money to throw into the pool for the next month's drawing.
After 10 or 12 months, everyone has $5,000.00 in the accounts. You get it out of the accounts, pass it out, use it only to pay off bills, and now you are all $5,000.00 closer to being debt free Christians.
Once you are debt free, stay debt free! You could give more to the church, contribute to a mission, go on a mission, pay off your house or sell it and get a cheap one, etc.
Since you probably made a little bit of headway just from paying your regular monthly payments anyway, the $5,000.00 you won probably brought you greatly closer to your goal of paying off the Credit Card and closing it forever, assuming that's your goal.
Why is this better than just paying off the debts yourself? Well, you can get to know 3 or 5 or 10 couples or friends while you all work toward a common goal. And we never seem to get enough extra, working alone, to make any headway. By scraping everyone's little bit of extra together each month, the lump sum actually makes a difference. By depositing it, vice giving it out immediately to the couple's name that was drawn, it helps keep the group together until the goal is reached, and it ensures that it won't be frittered away.
Pay-triots?
It would take a certain mindset....people would have to purposely avoid getting angry at the couple that couldn't pay one month. Or for two months. Some will be stronger, some weaker financially. Count it as money well spent if you spend some extra, just to see the Credit Card finally get paid off and closed down!
You need a plan for if someone must move away, and for if someone wants to quit. For if someone dies, even. And sadly, you might want everyone to sign a form naming the terms you've agreed on, and how any complaints will be resolved..terms everyone agrees to beforehand. You'd need to just sort of mentally write the money off at the beginning, so that it leads to nothing ugly or un-Christian if it somehow all breaks down and fails.
After all, if everyone dislikes the whole thing after the 4th month let's say, you could just withdraw the money, divide it the correct number of ways, and call it good. Who really lost out? You could all take your share and pay off bills. But otherwise, you stay the course until the cycle is done, then make up your minds about whether it was a good idea or not. Maybe you do it again together, or maybe once was enough. Maybe a few people in the group decide to do it all a second time, while others opt out, so you just replace the ones who opted out, and give it another go.
In three years of constantly doing this, I would think a group could all wipe out $20,000.00 in debt each, between what they did together, and the regular payments they made seperately on their own bills each month. Remember, as you get paid off, there's ever more free money to speed up the process with.
As it sits, are you going to be done with your credit cards in 3 years?
But you know how in Acts it speaks of Christians living with all things in common? Well, this would be a small, limited, and controlled version of that. A 'first step' perhaps, for some. A trial step. But even if it goes no further than paying off bills, it would loose the chains on a debt burdened group of Christians. And if a few groups had success at it, it might catch on. Others might try it.
Maybe many in the nation could succeed this way.
This would need to happen outside of the church you attend, so it didn't risk their non-profit status. Just friends meeting together to acheive a goal, you know? Friends that know each other from church, in many cases.
If everyone likes the experiment, then you could set up the next $5,000.00 cycle. Or, having more free money now, maybe you could make it a $6,000.00/month drawing. Or, if it was burdensome, you could make it a $2,500.00/month drawing cycle next time, with two winners each time you met, instead of one $5,000.00 winner. And just shoot for $2,500.00 each cycle.
Working together, Christians could help free each other permanently from financial debt.
Check the tax laws though! Governments can have strange ideas about what entitles them to your money. And the ideas are getting stranger every day. But wouldn't it be a beautiful thing if Christians were a debt-free people, not entangled in the credit schemes of Satan's world government? We could do it.
The Jews returning from their Babylonian captivity were rallied to rebuild the temple and the city walls, and by working together, focused and united in their efforts, they acheived what seemed - even to them - to be a near miracle.
With God's blessing on the project, Christians might achieve such things too!! A rich Christian might help pay 50 families out of debt perhaps, freeing them to serve Christ if they were willing.
Can human nature allow such an idea? I think it could, if all were Christian, if the increments were small, and measured, and it was focused upon by determined people, eager to be free of their debts. Who knows? It wouldn't be for everyone. Some people are very strange about their money, and that is their right. But this idea could work for certain types of people, and if this idea seems intriguing to you, perhaps you are one such person.
If you form a group and try it, I'd like to hear how it goes, and maybe post your results. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 812-564-9421 Thanks.
If 18-year-olds can go to war and, in dying, sacrifice every dollar they will ever make, and their very lives as well, for the sake of 'Freedom', then why can't Christians just think of money as 'dirty paper' for long enough to unite, and obtain 'spiritual freedom'? Freedom to serve Christ and not the government. Live the 'cash only' life!