I had a nice long conversation on Sunday night with Melissa and I was sharing my heart as one might say. In the midst of exhaustion, a level of discouragement has been setting in from time to time as of late. I know the Lord has more for His people and yet I don’t know what to do in getting us all there.
I’ve now been in California for over a month on this furlough. In so many ways, being here feels like one of the last places I want to be and yet I know that the Lord has me here for His own purposes. Five Sundays and six churches behind me, I’m left wanting. I have spoken at good churches full of people that I love and that God loves. Yet, there’s so much more that we could be doing, there’s so much more that we should be doing.
I can’t tell if its wrong of me to say all this or if it would be wrong of me to not say it. Lord, help me. Shane Claiborne talks about a visit that he had to a church in Iraq. In seeing the vibrancy of the church and the amount of believers, he shares his amazement with the pastor. The pastor smirks and notes that America didn’t invent Christianity, we just domesticated it.
Domestic gospel. We are to be the salt and light of the world, we are the bearers of the good news and our message comes across domicile. That’s wrong. It doesn’t even make sense and yet that appears to be what’s happening.
Potential. That’s one thing that I kept repeating over and over to Melissa the other night. There is so much potential in the United States church. Do we really care about our witness or are we more interested in image management? There are some incredible ways that we could be living out our faith that would revolutionize not just our own lives but also the way that people see us.
Let me throw out something radical. There are about 143 million orphans in the world. The global church, or even just the American church, has the power to eliminate that number. I’m not exaggerating. It may not all look like adoption, it could have to do with larger homes like TOA, it could have churches taking on communities to sustain them and stuff like that. But could you just picture that? Christ’s body steps up and tells the world “Oh the orphan problem? Yeah, we’ll take care of that” and then we do. That would make some serious waves and so many people that ride the church for all her transgressions and perceived transgressions would almost completely be silenced. People would not be able to say of Christians, “they’re bad people,” because we just unilaterally solved the world’s orphan problem. We get hyped and then realize that we could go through world crisis by world crisis and by the power of the Holy Spirit be the answer to the world’s ailments. His Kingdom come, His will be done. That’d be incredible. Undoubtedly, as Jesus said, many would stand against us still, but our discipleship in Christ would be unmistakable.
And yet the reality is that opportunities to engage in radical deeds to see His Kingdom come are always present, but people just allow such to go by. I never realized that being an orphan advocate and overseas missionary meant that I also had to be an excellent marketer to the church. In light of the biblical mandate to take care of orphans, I’m astounded at how lightly people take it. There is of course many other “issues” that are equally relevant to this conversation, but I speak in regard to my line of ministry.
I see the number one reason that people aren’t radical is because it takes sacrifice. I don’t know how to navigate through all this. There is a severe misappropriation of funds and time in the church. American Christians give less than 4% away to Kingdom causes, 85% of church income go to staff and facilities. Things like High-Def televisions, surround systems and fancy computers that are not necessary are often found in the homes of Christian Americans. I do the bookkeeping at TOA so I’ll just let you know that if you were to not buy that $1000 TV and instead gave the money away, you could buy the food for 26 orphans and the staff that work at the home for three weeks. I fully realize that those things are cool. If I came to your house, I’d probably use them, because they’re cool. But there is no eternal value to any of them and those things will be destroyed.
You want to know what’s radical? Following the teachings of Jesus and the words of the Bible. Its radical to actually take the verses that are meant to be taken literally, literally. Matthew 6:19-20: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” What are the first two words of that verse? “Do not.” So should we do what it says not to do? No. And yet there are so many Christians in this country (its not as readily available in the majority world) that are doing just that. It would be radical to actually get rid of that stuff and store up some treasure in heaven.
Another verse that leads to radical action is Psalm 82:3-4: “Defend the poor and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and the needy. Deliver the poor and needy; free them from the hand of the wicked.” What if our church gatherings looked more like this? What if our churches just practiced this on a regular basis? That would be radical. There are a lot of defenseless poor and fatherless people. There are a slew of injustices enacted upon the afflicted and needy. There are plenty of poor and needy that need deliverance and this verse is written in command form.
Following what the Bible teaches and the promptings of the Holy Spirit lead to radical living. It is the only logical outcome of a life that is devoted to God. There are some challenges that are presented to us in the word and we are called to take them seriously. Living radically is beautiful and leads to world change for Christ, for this we give praise.
I’ve now been in California for over a month on this furlough. In so many ways, being here feels like one of the last places I want to be and yet I know that the Lord has me here for His own purposes. Five Sundays and six churches behind me, I’m left wanting. I have spoken at good churches full of people that I love and that God loves. Yet, there’s so much more that we could be doing, there’s so much more that we should be doing.
I can’t tell if its wrong of me to say all this or if it would be wrong of me to not say it. Lord, help me. Shane Claiborne talks about a visit that he had to a church in Iraq. In seeing the vibrancy of the church and the amount of believers, he shares his amazement with the pastor. The pastor smirks and notes that America didn’t invent Christianity, we just domesticated it.
Domestic gospel. We are to be the salt and light of the world, we are the bearers of the good news and our message comes across domicile. That’s wrong. It doesn’t even make sense and yet that appears to be what’s happening.
Potential. That’s one thing that I kept repeating over and over to Melissa the other night. There is so much potential in the United States church. Do we really care about our witness or are we more interested in image management? There are some incredible ways that we could be living out our faith that would revolutionize not just our own lives but also the way that people see us.
Let me throw out something radical. There are about 143 million orphans in the world. The global church, or even just the American church, has the power to eliminate that number. I’m not exaggerating. It may not all look like adoption, it could have to do with larger homes like TOA, it could have churches taking on communities to sustain them and stuff like that. But could you just picture that? Christ’s body steps up and tells the world “Oh the orphan problem? Yeah, we’ll take care of that” and then we do. That would make some serious waves and so many people that ride the church for all her transgressions and perceived transgressions would almost completely be silenced. People would not be able to say of Christians, “they’re bad people,” because we just unilaterally solved the world’s orphan problem. We get hyped and then realize that we could go through world crisis by world crisis and by the power of the Holy Spirit be the answer to the world’s ailments. His Kingdom come, His will be done. That’d be incredible. Undoubtedly, as Jesus said, many would stand against us still, but our discipleship in Christ would be unmistakable.
And yet the reality is that opportunities to engage in radical deeds to see His Kingdom come are always present, but people just allow such to go by. I never realized that being an orphan advocate and overseas missionary meant that I also had to be an excellent marketer to the church. In light of the biblical mandate to take care of orphans, I’m astounded at how lightly people take it. There is of course many other “issues” that are equally relevant to this conversation, but I speak in regard to my line of ministry.
I see the number one reason that people aren’t radical is because it takes sacrifice. I don’t know how to navigate through all this. There is a severe misappropriation of funds and time in the church. American Christians give less than 4% away to Kingdom causes, 85% of church income go to staff and facilities. Things like High-Def televisions, surround systems and fancy computers that are not necessary are often found in the homes of Christian Americans. I do the bookkeeping at TOA so I’ll just let you know that if you were to not buy that $1000 TV and instead gave the money away, you could buy the food for 26 orphans and the staff that work at the home for three weeks. I fully realize that those things are cool. If I came to your house, I’d probably use them, because they’re cool. But there is no eternal value to any of them and those things will be destroyed.
You want to know what’s radical? Following the teachings of Jesus and the words of the Bible. Its radical to actually take the verses that are meant to be taken literally, literally. Matthew 6:19-20: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” What are the first two words of that verse? “Do not.” So should we do what it says not to do? No. And yet there are so many Christians in this country (its not as readily available in the majority world) that are doing just that. It would be radical to actually get rid of that stuff and store up some treasure in heaven.
Another verse that leads to radical action is Psalm 82:3-4: “Defend the poor and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and the needy. Deliver the poor and needy; free them from the hand of the wicked.” What if our church gatherings looked more like this? What if our churches just practiced this on a regular basis? That would be radical. There are a lot of defenseless poor and fatherless people. There are a slew of injustices enacted upon the afflicted and needy. There are plenty of poor and needy that need deliverance and this verse is written in command form.
Following what the Bible teaches and the promptings of the Holy Spirit lead to radical living. It is the only logical outcome of a life that is devoted to God. There are some challenges that are presented to us in the word and we are called to take them seriously. Living radically is beautiful and leads to world change for Christ, for this we give praise.
i'm echoing you with a big amen on this one.
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