What would you do with windfall?

I've thought a lot about that question in the years I've covered faith and values. It comes up when I write about congregations celebrating the opening of a gym, office or fellowship hall. It also jumps to mind when I write about the lack of affordable housing for the poor or children starving around the world or cash-strapped charities reaching out to congregations.
There's a connection between the two. No congregation has an unlimited amount of money. Priorities have to be set and hard decisions made on how to spend what we possess. It's just that I've never been sure how houses of worship should strike that balance when it comes to spending the people's tithes.
A new survey indicates that others are struggling with the issue and the priorities of a faithful life.
What would you do with an unexpected financial windfall?
Ellison Research in Phoenix, Ariz., posed the question to nearly 1,700 Protestant ministers and church-goers nationwide. The clergy's answer is especially interesting.
What they said
Thirty-one percent of pastors surveyed said their top priority would be to use an unexpected financial windfall to build, expand or update church facilities. That compares to 6 percent who would first give more to social programs such as homelessness and education.
By comparison, 17 percent of laity said building, expanding or updating church facilities would be their top priority, compared to 18 percent who would first give more to social programs.
I bet you're thinking about how you would answer the question, and what that says about your priorities.
After reading the survey results, it would be easy to pull a few familiar verses from the Bible about helping the least of these. It would probably make some clergy feel guilty for first wanting to spend their imaginary, unexpected financial windfall on a gym so people could play ball or a fellowship hall so families could share a nice meal.
But life is rarely marked by clear-cut issues of right and wrong. With all the noise and distraction in our lives, it's hard to hear how God is calling us to use our resources. It's also hard to accept that the best thing we can do is to give away our fortune to strangers when we dearly love our house of worship and have always wanted the best for it.
So we're back where we began, with a question whose answer says a lot about who we really are: What would you do with an unexpected financial windfall?
Knight Ridder Newspapers