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  • Are Business Owners Naturally Greedy?

    by Elgin Hushbeck, Jr.

     
    GreedIn a recent segment on Global Christian Perspectives discussing my last blog post on the minimum wage, the claim was made about opposition to the minimum wage, “That’s greed. Everyone who has argued against a minimum wage, or even a living wage, has wanted to keep the bottom line for themselves.”  (@ the 50:00 min. mark).
    While an argument commonly heard from supporters of increasing the minimum wage, it is nevertheless false.  There are many reasons to oppose the minimum wage. Many supporters of an increase seem to see this as simply an issue between struggling employees trying desperately to make ends meet, and greedy employers who seek to exploit their employees so as to rake in even more riches.  In this view supporters put themselves in the role of riding in on a white horse to force the employer to give up a small part of their wealth and return it to those who really earned it.
    While such a depiction may work for a movie, or more likely a cartoon, it hardly represents reality.  Rather than a struggle between employer and employee, wages are in reality a part of a huge network of interactions. Sure, there is the employee to their employer, but the employer has similar interactions with customer and suppliers.  Then there is the interactions with government which unlike the others is one sided; government demands under threat of force. [ene_ptp] To insist by fiat demand that employers pay more to workers is problematic because it artificially puts constraints on one part a system governed by free interactions.  Can employers just demand that suppliers cut their costs to make up for the higher wages they must now pay their employees? Hardly, as their suppliers are under the same dictate to increase wages.  Can they just raise their prices?  Probably not, at least not all the way.  After all, if these employers really were as greedy as they are so often portrayed then certainly they would have already done so if they could.  The only other place the money can come from is the employers themselves, or from lower labor cost by cutting employees.
    This is where the other part of the myth falls apart. Over half of all employees work for small businesses, and small businesses account for 65% of new jobs, yet most small businesses fail with 5 years. Owning a business is not a matter of exploiting your employees, it is hard work and very difficult to do. Many businesses are struggling, and it is not uncommon for a business owner to have to forego paying themselves, because there is not enough money left after paying their employees, and bills.  This is why following the recent increases in the minimum wage in both Seattle and San Francisco, many businesses simply closed while others cut back their staff resulting in a lot of people, not getting the increase in their wage that supporters promised, but seeing their wage go to zero.  So there are reasons to oppose the minimum wage beyond just greed.
    “Business owner” is not just an abstract label; it represents real people, people who as a general rule work very hard and who are concerned about their employees. Yet not only is the charge that just greed is involved false, it is slanderous and thus wrong on both moral and intellectual grounds.  It is wrong on intellectual grounds because instead of dealing with the evidence, it short circuits the thinking process.  Those making the charge can, and often do, simply ignore any evidence present that runs counter to their beliefs as merely a ruse to mask greed. Thus such slanderous attacks become a form of self-justification, insulating the maker from any evidence that runs counter to their beliefs.
    This can be seen in the fact that rarely do I see supporters actually addressing the arguments I raise concerning the damage done to those who lose their jobs, those who lose their businesses, and those who cannot get employed because they do not yet have the skills to be employed at the minimum wage level.  No, it is far easier to attack mythical greedy employers rather deal with actual damage done.
    In terms of moral grounds, I believe it is immoral to falsely demonize large groups of people.  As I have written in the past, rather we must treat people as individuals, and I believe should assume the best until proven otherwise, and yes, I believe this even includes business owners.
    Yet many of the arguments put forth to support a minimum wage hike are grounded implicitly and, at times as in the quote above, explicitly demonizing those who disagree. If we were to do this with any nationality, race, or religious group, etc., such demonization would be justly condemned. So why is demonizing business owners, or those who oppose the minimum wage because of the damage that is does any different?  Is it not even possible that they are good people who just have a different point of view?
    Nor is it sufficient to say something to the effect of “Well they are not all greedy,” and then go back to arguments based on the premise that opposition is still based on greed.
    I believe that if one person agrees to hire another, whatever the price that is a good thing.  Being employed is better than not being employed, as numerous studies on happiness and self-worth have demonstrated. I also hope that the employees will develop a track record as a good employee and this will allow them to quickly move up the wage scale. If the only job one can find is a minimum wage job, then it is much better to look to the person (do they have skills and work history to get a better paying job), or the job market (why are there not better paying jobs out there).  This, I believe would be far more beneficial than making it even more difficult for employers to hire people.
    For me the minimum wage is a barrier to some from earning a starting wage.  We have far too many people who have never been able to enter into the job market so as to become productive members of society and who are thus are trapped in poverty and dependence. That is not an argument based on greed but on wanting the best for all people.
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  • Call, Response, and Creativity: A Process Interpretation of Philippians 2:12-13

    by Bruce Epperly

     
    GracePaul is the theologian of grace.  God’s grace transformed his life, turning him from persecutor to proclaimer, and assuring him that he was a new creation, despite his past behavior.  Over the years, many who see themselves as Pauline theologically believe that God does everything and that we do nothing.  Left to our own devices, we are lost, completely self-centered, and without virtue.  We can claim nothing of our own but must attribute every good work to God.  An example of this occurred when I congratulated a seminarian on her fine sermon.  Her immediate response was, “It wasn’t me.  It was all God.”  I was tempted to say, “I thought I saw you preaching, not God.”  And, I wondered how she would respond if her sermon was roundly criticized.  Would she have given glory to God or cast herself entirely on God’s mercy, confessing her own sinfulness and inability to do anything apart from God’s grace?
    I believe that Paul is the apostle of creativity as well as grace. In Philippians 2:12-13, Paul sounds much more Wesleyan, almost a process theologian, and not the more passive Lutheran or Calvinist he’s often made out to be. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure” or, as I paraphrase these words, “Work out your salvation with awe and excitement, for God is moving energetically in your life, inspiring you to follow and embody God’s vision.”
    Philippians 2:12-13 suggests a dynamic call and response.  God calls us with possibilities, aiming us in each moment toward beauty and taking us from individualistic self-interest to world loyalty.  God’s grace is prior but aims us toward creativity and freedom.  God wants us to do more rather than less, and places the future of our planet primarily in our hands, though undergirded by divine possibility.
    There is a divine-human dance of call and response.  God is in the business of inspiring us to be more than we could have asked or imagined of ourselves.  God seeks maximal creativity and freedom congruent with the well-being of creation.
    God wants us to be active and is happy for us to be proud of our achievements in the same way as a parent wants her or his child to build on the upbringing  he or she has received and go places the parent has not imagined.  The world God is creating moment by moment is not a zero sum universe in which human achievement takes away from God’s power.  It is an open system in which the more that we do positively, the more God is able to do in the universe.  When we are faithful, we open up new possibilities for divine action in the world.
    Grace is always prior, but our responses invite God to make new responses.  Grace liberates, inspires, and activates new freedoms.  We are more in line with grace when we become graceful creators ourselves.  Accordingly, we can positively say about a sermon or any other achievement, “I’m proud that my sermon made a difference.  God and I were working on this together, and we both deserve credit.” And we can imagine God in the congregation saying, “Atta boy, Atta girl, you did well. You have blessing to do more!”
    Yes, God is working in all things.  Yes, God wants us to affirm the fruits of our labors, giving thanks for grace, and making a commitment to do more for God’s glory and the well-being of the world.  (For more on this theme, see Process Theology: Embracing Adventure with God and Philippians: A Participatory Study Guide)
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  • Whole-Self Spirituality: Nine Lenses for Restoring Soul

    by Kent Ira Groff

    Bless the Lord, O my self,* and all that is within me,
    bless God’s holy name (Psalm103:1). *nefesh Hebrew soul

     
    prayerWhat do folks mean when they talk about soul? It seems so nebulous. Spirituality often gets a bum rap for seeming disconnected from the stuff of life. “Soul”—nefesh in Hebrew) involves the whole self. And the Hebrew Shema is a call to live and love awake to self and others with all our senses: “Hear, O Israel….You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and the all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength,” quotes Rabbi Jesus from the Torah (Matthew 22:37). Shema means listen, wake up, pay attention, contemplate. It’s a call to holistic spirituality: I call it “whole self prayer.”
    When a person meeting for spiritual companioning tells me of a painful experience, I often ask, “How are you praying that hurt—how do you offer that to God?” Mostly I hear back: “I’m praying that he or she will… or that I can…”—mental or verbal prayer. Then I ask,
    “What other ways can you offer or release that experience?”
    The Multiple Intelligences approach to learning, pioneered and developed by Harvard educator Howard Gardner over three decades, offers practical, creative frames for practicing shema with my whole self.[i] Particular modes are highly developed in a person, yet everyone has some aptitude in each. These nine can reframe any profane or profound experience as an occasion for soulful awakening.
    Here I offer a playful, prayerful perspective on these nine ways of tending the soul’s gifts and struggles, always with an eye to a sense of invitation.

    1. Linguistic/verbal: Prayer articulates the soul’s yearnings by playing with words in sacred texts with stories and poetry. The spiritual seeker needs relationships to listen and learn the language of love.
    2. Logical/mathematical: Technological tools connect kindred spirits via the Internet; theological ideas make sense of crazy experiences. The Bible and Jewish kabalistic spirituality play with sacred numbers, like seven to signify wholeness.
    3. Spatial/visual: Our souls resound with awe in temples and cathedrals, with intimacy in house churches; play and pray by exploring geography, cultural exchanges, holy places, a labyrinth—and inner space of imagination (like Narnia).
    4. Musical/rhythmic: “One who sings prays twice,” said Augustine. Play with drum, chant, strings or poetry’s beat echoing the soul’s sorrow and joys; jazz makes the blues beautiful; African American spirituals unite personal and political struggles.
    5. Kinesthetic/bodily: The Spirit inhabits our breathing from our borning cry to our wordless sighs; gestures, used to direct players in a symphony or a ball game, can express the soul’s prayers in bowing, kneeling, dancing, or walking a labyrinth.
    6. Interpersonal: Extroverts tend to encounter the Sacred in community, introverts in small groups or one-to-one; both experience the Holy in playful and genuine relationships, as a surprise line of a conversation can be a prayer or an epiphany.
    7. Intrapersonal: Prayerful playful reflection thrive in solitude, sorely neglected in technological society; silence nurtures an introvert’s joy and preserves an extrovert’s sanity; journaling dream associations unlocks prayers.
    8. Naturalist: Our primal yearnings resonate with natural environments, playfully and prayerfully responding to the Sacred in awe and beauty, in patterns of devastation and renewal in nature, human nature, and nations.
    9. Existentialist: Honest to God prayer can play and pray with the “why” questions of an Einstein, a three-year-old, or a philosopher: Why are we here? What’s it all about? How shall we then live?

    How can these nine integrate our primal knowing with our modern knowledge? Some ask, where are the spiritual and emotional intelligences?
    The ancient Greek Archimedes sprang naked out of his bath when a new scientific truth struck him, shouting, Eureka! Eureka!—“I’ve found it! I’ve found it!” Singer-songwriter John Denver sang about nature’s “Rocky Mountain High.” French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal encountered the mystic Christ via his mathematical calculations. Brother Lawrence was converted by seeing a barren tree in winter. Psalms are full of naturalist wonders and kinesthetic spiritual gestures: walking, climbing, bowing, kneeling, clapping and lifting hands. And the existentialist questions of your life create the seedbed for the Spirit.
    These nine lenses create a practical, observable template to renew holistic spirituality in language, reason, imagination, body, music, relationships, solitude, nature, and questions.
    An invitation: Notice one of two of the nine modes that are least present in your prayer life. Challenge yourself to choose a couple that stretch your normal pattern. For example, if most of your prayers are verbal, you might ask how you might develop intrapersonal practices (silence, centering prayer) or kinesthetic practices (gestures such as kneeling, stretching, dancing; tensing and releasing hands). Group context: invite group members to share one-to-one, then as a whole group.
    [slideshow_deploy id=’2829′] Kent Ira Groff, a spiritual companion for other journeyers, a retreat leader and author of ten books, calls himself “one beggar showing other beggars where to find bread.” Portions are adapted from Kent’s book Honest to God Prayer (SkyLight Paths) and Clergy Table Talk (Energion). Founding mentor of Oasis Ministries in Pennsylvania, he now lives in Denver, Colorado. See www.LinkYourSpirituality.com Email: kentiragroff@comcmast.net
    [i] Howard Gardner, Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons (NY: Basic Books, 2006); http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/education/ed_mi_overview.html

  • Who guards the Holy City? And Why?

     by Doris Murdoch

     
    Guardians 2This is my fourth post on my Holy Land tour.  I’m trying to allow God to lead me to the content of each post. At this point, I’m not sure why I feel led to this post.  The use of traditional guardians in the Holy City of Jerusalem has left my heart warmed and troubled.
    I’m going to begin with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  The church houses the tomb of Jesus Christ; it is the traditional location of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ which would be of great religious importance to Christian pilgrims as it is the most revered shrine in Christendom.  By long term tradition, the Muslim family of Nuseibeh is the official doorkeeper of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  The holding of the key to the church has been in the Nuseibeh family for more than 1,300 years. (The Judeh family, also Muslim, manage the key for overnight security.) The Nuseibeh family holds this tradition close to their hearts and is very punctual and respectful in unlocking and serving God through this daily responsibility of caring for the church.  Five competing Christian denominations, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, and Syrian Orthodox (also a small Ethiopian Orthodox group) enviously [ene_ptp]manage the church.  The Nuseibeh family has helped in keeping peace among these Christian denominations when conflict arises.  The Nuseibeh family describes themselves as “preserving peace in the holy place.”  This all seems to be a cooperative effort by all, but in contrast, it seems like a strange setup for a church that is internally Christian.  The Omar Mosque sits right next door; the Nuseibeh family worships and prays in the mosque.  Who do you think should be the key holder and the door opener?
    In 1995, Israel turned Bethlehem control over to the Palestinian National Authority in accordance with the Oslo Peace Accords. The Oslo Accords did not create a Palestinian state, but it was an effort to bring peace among the Israeli government and the Palestinians. The Oslo process started in Oslo as a secretive meeting; it resulted in the recognition by the PLO of the State of Israel and the recognition by Israel of the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people and as a partner in negotiations. When pilgrims enter Bethlehem, there are security checks by the Palestinian authority. Does this process seem like an effort to encourage peace and equality of power among the Palestinians and the government of Israel?
    Who should have control of David’s tomb and the upper room identified as the place of Pentecost and the Last Supper?  Should it be the Jews, world Christians, the government of Israel, the Roman Catholic Church or someone else?  Over the years, ownership has been by the early Jewish Christians, the Crusaders, and the Muslims; at present, it is under Israeli control.  It is said that the Vatican now desires control of this area.  Why does any specific religious group have to have control over the religious sites, especially those that have religious beliefs and patriarchs that overlap in religious history, basically the Abrahamic faiths of Islam, Judaism and Christianity?
    Scripture tells us that the Lord gave the “land” of Israel to Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 13:14-15; Genesis 26:3; Exodus 6:8) with Numbers 24 defining the borders.  In Revelation 21, we read that the first heaven and earth will pass away and a New Jerusalem will come down out of heaven and God will dwell among us.  There will be no temple building for the “Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” will be the temple and it will be illuminated by the “glory of God and its lamp is the Lamb”. The residents will be those who have their names in the Lamb’s Book of Life.  Leviticus 25:23 says, “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me.”  The lands of the world belong to God; it is all on loan from God in this transient period. When the Jews rejected Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Gentiles were adopted in to God’s family as adopted sons of Abraham. The Gentiles were formally grafted into the olive tree of Jesus Christ even though adoption in the lineage of Jesus Christ had already taken place in the Old Testament through the relationships of Naomi, Ruth and Boaz.  Confirmed in John 14:6, the New Jerusalem will be available to all believers in Jesus Christ for “no one comes to the Father but through Me (Jesus Christ).”
    Romans 11 speaks of the hardening of the Jews until the day of the fullness of the Gentiles, specifically Romans 11:25-27, that “a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; 26 and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. 27 This is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.’ ” With belief, the Bible tells us that the Jews can be re-grafted into the olive tree of Jesus Christ (Romans 11:17-24).  Belief in Jesus Christ through world evangelism needs to be the focus.
    Luke 21:34-36 states,  “Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation (diversion, mental distraction) and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap; 35 for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth. 36 But keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”  Is it possible that ownership or guardianship of the various religious sites in Israel has become a mental distraction for the Abrahamic religions of the world?
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  • The Paradox of Contentment

    by Drew Smith

     
    DiscontentIn my last column on this discussion network, I wrote about how we can discover contentment through the experience of God’s continual presence, the present that God gives us to live today, and the relationships God brings into each of our lives.
    However, as I thought more about discovering my own contentment through what God has given me, I could not help but be reminded that for followers of Christ there is a paradox inherent in our discovery of contentment.  Yes, in opposition to the temporal and material things of life, we can find contentment in our relationship to God and to others, as Jesus modeled for us.  Yet, through my reflection, I also discovered that my own contentment must never eclipse my discontent about the world’s predicament apart from God’s fully realized redemption.
    There is a degree of discontent we must embrace that keeps us from becoming too complacent and comfortable about ourselves, the world, and the delay of God’s justice and redemption.  I see three particularly important and interrelated areas in which we should discover and express our discontent as those who seek to follow Christ.
    [ene_ptp]First, we ought to be discontent about our failure to be who Christ calls us to be.  While we find contentment in the enabling grace of God that extends God’s forgiveness and restoration to us, we still struggle to be faithful in our discipleship.  We are very much like the person Paul speaks of in Romans 7, doing what we are forbidden and failing to do what we know we are commanded.  We live with the tension of God’s redemptive grace and our struggle to rebuff our sinful natures,
    I am not speaking here of guilt.  Guilt is only a trap that holds us prisoners to our sin nature.  The gospel never calls us to bear feelings of guilt.  Rather, our discontent is expressed in our mourning over our sin to the extent that we are led to repentance through which we find contentment in God’s forgiving grace.  The continuous practice of confession and repentance verbalizes our discontent and opens us to the forgiveness of God.
    Second, we must always be discontent with the evil and injustice that remains in our world.  Often, we ignore the larger world in which we live and we disregard those who suffer under the weight of poverty, oppression and injustice.  We follow the popular preachers of self-fulfillment, who treat the revelation of God in Jesus Christ as primarily the power that feeds our own insular spirituality.  As long as our spiritual hunger is fed, and our needs are met, we find comfort.  But in doing so, we fail to accept the fullness of the gospel of discipleship that calls us to embrace the pain of our world and identify with those who hurt.
    Though Jesus found contentment in his relationship with God and the mission to which God had called him, he was discontent with the hurting people experienced in an unjust society.  His mission and message brought healing to those under the weight of oppression, and judgment against those who oppressed.  He was never content that evil and injustice were ravaging God’s good creation, and his miracles of healing and restoration were works that sought to release those captive to injustice and oppression.
    The third area in which we ought to be discontent is directly connected to the first two mentioned above.  We must remain discontent about the delay of Christ’s return and the full redemption of all of creation.  Although Jesus’ message was that the rule of God had come, the fullness of that rule has yet to be realized.
    We live in the “already, but not yet” interval in which we look in the past to God’s work on the cross and to the future to the emergence of God’s full redemption.  We must long for and pray for the time of Christ’s return when the new creation of God will be made real.  Indeed, as Paul states in Romans, the whole of creation groans with the pains of birth for the day of redemption.  We join creation in that groaning, discontent with the delay of God and calling on God to bring the fullness of God’s rule and justice to bear on the world.
    In this vein, we pray the words of Jesus, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” and we work to create a more just and loving world in which signs of the coming kingdom become recognizable as the work of Christ through the incarcational actions of God’s people.
    In the second Beatitude of Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declared, “Happy are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”  Jesus was not speaking of a general sadness or mourning.  He was speaking of our mourning over the state of humanity and all of creation apart from God’s full redemption.  He was speaking of our discontent over our struggle with sin, the prevalence of injustice, and the delay in the full realization of God’s redemption.
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  • Are Our Sermons Hitting Home?

    by Rev. Dr. Robert R. LaRochelle

     
    PreachingIt has long been a well-established ‘given’ that the sermon plays a crucial role in any worship service. The importance of the preached word was a valuable insight of and priority established in the Reformation and in the years since the Second Vatican Council, the Roman Catholic Church has committed itself to in depth homiletic training of its clergy ( priests and deacons) for whom preaching is part of their ministry.  Yet, in spite of the expectations of good preaching, it is important to raise questions about its effectiveness in local churches and to explore some ways in which messages delivered by a preacher might be even more effective.
    As someone who over a lengthy career preaching in both Catholic and Protestant contexts, I often wonder if the sermon is ever remembered even later on in the service, much less four or five days later. Consequently, one of the most important factors in sermon preparation is my own focus on one particular question:  Does this message connect to the real life of the people who hear it?  In other words, is there something in it that leads people to think that these words of the Bible were not just written for another time and place but instead have incredible relevance to the way they live their lives?
    Likewise, I believe that the sermon has to be presented as a message respectful of peoples’ ability to question and to doubt. So often, I have heard sermons that have presented some pretty incredible pieces of information as ‘givens’. I mean, really, what intelligent person might have some doubt that this Biblical character REALLY lived to be 900??  So, what I am saying is that the preacher must be realistic in her or his assumption that the listeners are capable of intelligent and critical thought.[ene_ptp] In addition, I would like to suggest two approaches I have used which can help complement the overall approach to preaching in a local congregation:

    1. I really like to provide specific opportunities to DISCUSS the sermon. Oftentimes, I have done adult education programs after worship in which the topic was the sermon itself. This is a wonderful way to engage the ‘listeners’ and really help make them participants in a shared breaking open of God’s Word. I was first exposed to this approach as a college student who attended a local church quite frequently where the pastor offered us this opportunity. I loved it then and I find it helpful now!
    2. On occasion, I like to preach a CONVERSATIONALSERMON in which I will say a few things, for sure, but will also open up the conversation to the insights and questions of members of the congregation. When it is prepared and responded to well, it makes possible a preaching dynamic that draws upon the lived real life experience of the participants at worship. At times, I have even done this for several consecutive Sundays using a specific thematic approach to that block of time. Examples of these sermons and a more developed commentary can be found in my book SO MUCH OLDER THEN, published by Energion.

    It is my view that now, as much as ever, the sermon remains an integral part of Christian worship. It is so important that great emphasis should always be placed on preaching well. Good preaching, as I see it, involves a willingness on the part of the preacher to approach this task creatively and expansively, with due respect given to peoples’ intelligence and lived experience grappling with the issues raised in the Scripture we proclaim!
    I look forward to your comments!
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  • Does the Church Confuse Mission with Charity?

    by Allan R. Bevere

     
    HomelessOne November many years ago, I was attending a conference in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. It was late in the afternoon on Sunday. I had bowed out of a couple of sessions to finish some paperwork in my hotel room. Time slipped away from me and when I finally took to the streets to find a place to eat, I found that the only thing open late on a Sunday was a MacDonald’s. Fast food is not at the top of my list in reference to bill of fare, but it was going to have to do.
    As I approached the entrance to the restaurant, a young man, who was obviously homeless, approached me asking if I would give him money for something to eat. A police officer stepped in to keep him from bothering me. I told the officer that I very much appreciated him doing his job, but that it was OK; I would talk to the young man.
    Instead of giving him the money, I offered to buy him dinner. So we took our place in line and when we reached the counter we both ordered our meals. As we left the counter with our respective trays in hand, he looked somewhat watchful, seeing where I was going to sit, and then he started to walk away to sit somewhere else. I invited him to join me and with a look of surprise on his face, he accepted.[ene_ptp] I must say, that in one sense, it was very difficult to enjoy my meal. As a homeless man, he had not bathed in quite a while and the taste of my food was laced with the smell of foul body odor. But in another sense, it was one of the most profound moments of my life that completely changed my perspective on the nature of Christian mission.
    As we talked, he told me that he was from south Florida, and he came not just from a broken family, but a dysfunctional one. His father was nowhere in the picture, his mother was constantly strung-out on drugs and alcohol, and his mother’s live-in boyfriend had been verbally and physically abusive. He did, however, have a sister, still in Florida, of whom he spoke fondly. In such an unlivable situation, he decided to strike out on his own ending up in Atlanta, where he had a job for a little while; but since he had no place of residence, he was let go. It was very clear to me as we talked, that he was very intelligent and articulate; and while all persons are ultimately responsible for what they make of their lives, I could not help but think how this young man’s life would be different had his home-life been different.
    As we continued to talk, I offered to drive him to the bus station and pay for a ticket back to south Florida. It had been unseasonably cold in Atlanta; at least he could go to Florida and be in a warmer climate. Sleeping on the streets is not an attractive prospect, no matter where it is, but if that was going to be his situation, at least he could go somewhere with a milder climate. Perhaps, I suggested, his sister would help him get on his feet. He declined my offer and said something that made my heart sink—”Nobody back home wants me.”
    We talked for a little while longer, and as we prepared to leave he thanked me for dinner, and then he said something that completely rearranged my thinking and approach to the church’s mission. I paraphrase his comments, but in quotations marks: “You know, everyone who buys me dinner takes their food and sits somewhere else leaving me to sit by myself; but you sat with me and talked to me and spent time with me. I often feel very lonely and I have gotten used to rejection and to being ignored. Thanks for your time.”
    The most important thing to this young man was not that I filled his stomach for a few hours, but that I was able to fill a few moments of his time in relationship.
    Too often the church replaces mission with charity. Charity is what we do for the poor and marginalized to make us feel good about ourselves. We put aside funds in our budget for homeless shelters and soup kitchens; we even volunteer to feed the homeless once a week, and at the holidays we prepare food baskets for the “underprivileged,” as we like to call them. Please do not misunderstand me. All of this is important and necessary and part of what it means to be a faithful church. But is this sufficient? Is this enough? Can such giving become a replacement for the mission and service that is so necessary?
    Instead of only providing a space in our churches to feed the homeless, what if we made it a point to join them for lunch and not only offer to them a cup of water and more in Jesus’ name, but offer Jesus himself to them in our presence? What if we invited those persons to worship, and not only invited them, but brought them to worship and sat with them?
    The homeless, the poor, the marginalized will indeed take what we offer them. If we offer them a hot meal, they will take it. The question we must ask as followers of Jesus, who actually spent time with those on the fringes of society, is will they take more? Will they accept our time and our presence? Are we willing to sacrifice some time in order to offer our presence in Jesus’ name?
    The truth of the matter is charity is what we do for ourselves in order to make ourselves feel good; true mission is what we do for others because we the church exist for others. Above all things, Jesus Christ desires to be in relationship with all persons. He cannot be in relationship with others unless we are in relationship with them. Evangelism is not about only conveying information about salvation; it is not about leaving tracts on park benches. Evangelism is about being in relationship with those whom Jesus wants to be in relationship.
    Such mission and service is indeed risky. It forces us to be vulnerable, to step outside of our comfort zones; but our lives, as well as the lives of others, depend upon it. When the church is willing to step out and take the risk of such mission and service, it will discover a kind of joy and satisfaction that far surpasses the momentary thrill of charitable giving, because it will have discovered the adventure that is the gospel!
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  • Remembering the poor and remembering the powerless

    This post is excerpted from Dr. David Alan Black’s blog, “daveblackonline“

     
    BLACKphoto (1)What a powerful statement by Dr. Russ Moore, head of our own SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. Watch The Gospel vs Sunday Morning Gospel Darwinism. I love this touchstone. As I shared with my Greek students this week, my life verse is usually translated “distributing to the needs of the saints” (Rom. 12:13), but I prefer to render it as “Share what you have with God’s people who are in need.” As Dr. Moore insists, we must learn how to read the “other” charitably, including the illegal immigrants in our midst and the Muslims within our land. As I write in the preface of my forthcoming book Running My Race:

    I can say with some confidence: If you find God’s will for your life, you will be happy and content. Then you can begin to work with other happy and contented people to accomplish something great for Jesus. Church, we are all on the same team. That includes you house churchers and you traditional churchers. That includes evangelical Baptists and evangelical Methodists. We are cross-cultural and cross-denominational. We are intentional about overcoming the effects of consumerism (nothing turns off a millennial as much as a preoccupation with our church). The church organization is not central because it was not meant to be. We resist partisan identification as Democrats or Republicans because discipleship requires an abstinence from ego, greed, and selfishness. In Christ’s upside-down kingdom, believers stop being caricatures of their real selves and become real and transparent. We may even begin to change the way we think and act (instead of “Halloween is evil” we start alternative observances in order to leverage the holiday for the Gospel). We lead with love, not with doctrine (yes, I love doctrine, but love comes first according to 1 Cor. 13:13). A Christian gets a tattoo or nose ring and we compliment them and let it go. Enough of church-speak and condescending stares. A missional approach to life puts other people first.

    Notice how Dr. Moore slows his words for emphasis (quoting the apostle Paul): “‘We remember the poor and we remember the powerless, the very thing that we should be eager to do,’ because we are conserving the Gospel for the future.”
    I’ve taken to calling the next year of my life the “Jesus Year.” As much I believe in attending a church, I believe in being the church. Dear Millennial, you are not a “none.” Yes, I realize that small acts of kindness to others seem so inconsequential. A cup of cold water is such a little thing. Yet these simple things are the very things that matter to God. Your little trails of kindness and love and remembering the poor lead straight to God through the Gospel.
    In the coming year, let’s experiment with what Dr. Moore is trying to tell us and take a Christian stand apart from the crowd. Sharing your room with someone who is homeless, giving your coat to someone who needs it more than you do, feeding someone who is hungry, visiting the widow and widower in their grief — Jesus said that such acts reap great rewards (Matt. 25:34-40). Sometimes kindness means refraining from saying something negative that otherwise you have the right to say. Kindness is a bouquet of flowers or babysitting for free or a whispered compliment or a warm smile or a squeeze of the hand. The teaching of the book of 1 John (which we are studying in Greek class) is that Christianity is not a religion but a relationship with a God who is both light and love, and our love for Him can be measured by the amount of time we spend with Him and by how much we allow Him to do for others through us. The Bible declares that Jesus is not some nebulous power but a person as real as your best friend. That’s why I’d like to call the next generation of Christians “Jesus People” (sorry Alvin!) because, like Jesus, their lives are marked first by their love for God, then by their love for others.
    Russ’s video is the kind of video I’d like see every millennial and church leader watch. As Dr. Moore shares his vision for a church that loves the powerless, he is charitable as well as courageous, full of conviction of how we are all to be the church. His words are wise, tender, and beautiful.
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  • Affected lives or continued misery?

    by Iris Davis

     
    OutreachHello Readers,
    I’m sure that I am not the only person who has been through a traumatic event and used it to reach out to others who are experiencing similar circumstances. It is why some say that a “test” is part of having a “test-imony.”  What do you do with that, after you realize that you indeed have a testimony?  I would like to briefly discuss that in this entry, as it was something that I went through as well.
    This past month, my husband and I began attending a new church.  We have become very involved in a short amount of time and lost track of time over the last couple of weeks.  I think that happens sometimes when you go from being in a dry place to one that waters you from the roots up.  Hmm..that’s sounds like a good blog topic![ene_ptp] We met up with this local church while we were doing a Reimagine event in Thomaston, GA, which is about an hour south of me.  Amazing how the Lord connected us to a LOCAL church OUT OF TOWN!! For more information about Reimagine, a project of Doers of the Word, please click here: http://www.reimagineworldwide.org/
    These events, and another one like it, are where my heart came alive for outreach. Missions in your own backyard for hurting people who need healing and help. I was one of those hurting people when I began working with Maximum Impact Love, Inc. in 2007, only I didn’t know it at the time. I only knew that, for some reason, I had a burning place for the addicted and abused people who lived in the “armpit” of the city of Atlanta.  As the years have gone by, I have moved from one geographical area of ministry to another, but the needs are the same. Hurting people need love and acceptance to move out of the jails of their minds.
    This coming up week, my new church is hosting a small event similar to the ones mentioned above.  The similarities are striking even though the geographical area is limited to a 5 block area while the others are whole towns and communities. In one day of preparation, we met a handful of people who desperately need healing, inside and out.  Of course, the common thread, as always, is that only Jesus can meet those needs.
    One man that my husband and I listened to this past weekend shared his story of losing his mother. He kept saying that she was right there with him, and I learned that she is literally buried 150 yards from where he lives. He visits her grave daily and draws strength from those visits. It was hard to accept that he thought he was getting life from a death.  But then I realized that, even though he was in error because his mom is still dead, that we as Christians draw strength from the death of Jesus—because He ROSE again!!!!!!!  Hallelujah!!!!!!!!  This young man shared that his mother was a Christian, so I believe that the Lord will reveal to him, in time, Who he really needs to be focusing on.  And, I hope that we have another chance to minister to him this coming Saturday.  Things happen in stages when the hurts run deep.
    As we have been approaching this event, several ministers in our church have fallen physically ill. Myself included, as of Sunday night. We have all been praying for each other and encouraging each other via texts and email. It is part of the battle sometimes. But, my Lord will have His way as He always does. And, as Paul says, we count it all joy—we must be doing something right to be attacked.  Only the Lord knows the outcome of Saturday’s event, but I believe with all my heart that many people will see Him in a different light.  And, I believe that, for some, it might be their last chance.
    Regardless of when you read this, please lift this event–and so many others like it–up in prayer. These events are a last day strategy to reach all those who need Him but are too broken to pass through the doors of any church.
    The next entry will be a picture of the day!
    Be blessed![slideshow_deploy id=’2787′]

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  • The Command to Compassion

    by Chris Surber

    CompassionJesus is compassionate. While walking the roads of Galilee, Jesus was above all things compassionate.  It is God’s immeasurable compassion that saves us. Were it not for compassion borne of genuine love for His creation surely God would have left us alone in our sin or simply eradicated humanity as an imperfect sinful blight on creation. But He didn’t because God is compassionate and Jesus is that very compassion for man incarnate.
    In the King James Version of the Bible, in the Gospels, the word compassion is found fourteen times. In nearly every instance it speaks directly of the character of Jesus as He shows concern and kindness to individuals, crowds, and multitudes.  Here are three examples from Matthew’s gospel. They give us specific insight into how we can mimic the compassion of Christ in our lives as we shine the light of the Gospel through our lives into this dark world:

    • “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36) They had no leadership.
    • “And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.” (Matthew 14:14) They were sick and in need of healing.[ene_ptp]
    • “Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way. (Matthew 15:32) They were hungry and Jesus fed them.

    Jesus showed compassion because they had no leader. God is calling us to provide godly leadership those who are lost. At the very least this means that we should be active in sharing the Good News. In a richer sense it means that we should be leading the way to wholeness in people’s lives. We should be shining the light of salvation in terms of eternity and in the saving power of God to transform lives today. Get in somebody’s broken life and help them pick up the pieces.
    Jesus showed compassion because they were sick. Jesus showed compassion because they were hungry. It isn’t enough to pray for someone who is in need or to count on somebody else, some agency, or some government office to help those in need. “But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”  (James 2:18 ESV) Do you believe God can change lives? Then make your faith real by being the hand of Christ in the broken life of another human in need of grace.
    My friend, too often we measure our orthodoxy as Christians solely in terms of right belief. We hoard sound doctrine instead of using is as a platform for resounding Gospel living. A recommendation for a new person in our town to a “good church” often means a church with a biblical preacher. There isn’t anything wrong with that but its only part of the story. A bible preaching church should be a compassionate-reaching church.
    Right belief is the foundation for right action, and right action for Christians entails a lot more than writing a check to a missionary to preach the Gospel, or to volunteer once a year for Vacation Bible School at your church. I’ll say it again. These are good things but the life of a follower of Christ also has a lot to do with how we simply interact with the world around us in compassion to the brokenness of this world.
    You’ve got right belief? You own the right study Bible? You prayed the right prayer? You read the right books? Fantastic! Now, what about being the living breathing incarnation of the compassion of God to the people you encounter in your life?  “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” (Hebrews 10:23-24 ESV)
    Right belief and right doctrine are good things but they aren’t the only things! When was the last time you gave a cup of cold water to someone who was thirsty? (Matthew 10:42) Have you visited a widow or an orphan in their affliction lately? (James 1:27) Take note, I didn’t ask if somebody on behalf of your church did it or if some missionary you know did it. What is currently happening in your life that fulfills those commands?
    In Acts 1:8 Jesus spoke to His disciples. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8 ESV) If we are called to pick up our cross and follow Him that means that we too are the disciples that are called to be His witnesses. If we are His witness then we must reflect the truth and compassion of Christ. It isn’t enough to know or even teach the truth if we don’t live it.
    To preach Christ is to be Christ to those who need Christ.
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