Implications of "The Rally To Restore Sanity" -- Review By Jason Linkins

Image by jacdupree via Flickr
Jason Linkins writes over at Huffington Post (the emphasis is mine):

For my part, I found Stewart's last commentary to be extremely effective, if only because it inspired me to take a searching self-inventory. Here's the question I asked myself: Pick a political opponent, someone you really hate, in terms of political positioning. Yeah, it might be knives out between you and them, in terms of cap and trade or tax policy, but ask yourself: would you celebrate their daughter's graduation from college? If they told you their father had died, would you lend a consolatory embrace, or would you take a secret glee? If they were broken down at the side of the road, would you pull out and offer up your jumper cables, or drive on by....

So, while I wasn't too terribly impressed with the comedic content on this occasion, I was nevertheless plenty moved by Stewart's soliloquy on decency and how the overamplification of our worst impulses and arguments tend to overshadow it. It's a tough remember at election time. We're taught to think of democracy as two sides that want a chance to steal the other's birthday, instead of a democracy in which ideas compete with one another. But we go on with life together, once elections end. When's the last time someone you disagree with actually came through for you when you needed it? For me, it was this morning. Keeping that in mind would be an eminently sane and decent thing to do.

Praying for $1,000,000 (A reflection based on on Mitch Albom's Book, "Have a Little Faith")

Cover of Have a Little Faith: A True Story

I was given Mitch Albom's book, "Have a Little Faith: A True Story" to read by a new friend in Girdwood.  He thought I'd enjoy it and, being told it contained "a church with a hole in the roof," I thought I would be right at home in reading it.  I haven't made it through all of it yet, but there are moments of great inspiration here as the author weaves the story of being asked to do a eulogy for his childhood rabbi with the story of a church in Detroit.  There's a lot of grace here.  There's a lot of love.  And there is a lot to learn from both the main characters.

There is a whole chapter about Reb (the rabbi) which asks the question, "What is rich?"  It's a question I've asked myself and I struggle with (as anyone who reads this blog knows).  I struggle with wanting more than what I have.  I struggle with wanting to know how much money I'd have to save to be "OK" later in life.  I struggle with wanting to give more to my church, for its work and for its construction.  There is so much to give to in this life and the voice of the world keeps telling us that we don't have enough, even just to get by.

What is it that I've heard?  Everyone, no matter what their income, believes that if they JUST had 20% more than what they had now, they'd be OK.  20% more for the welfare family.  20% more for the millionaire.  20%!

According to Albom, "The Reb had never been big on stuff.  But then, he'd never had much of it."



He goes on to recount Reb's childhood of poverty.  He didn't have fancy toys or fancy food.  He had two sets of clothes...one for weekdays and one for the Sabbath.  He recounts how reb was embarrassed to learn that the nice suit that he was given for his Bar Mitzvah was a hand-me-down from his cousin.  And his father, when questioned about this "injustice" answers in a singsongy Yiddish:

God and the decision he renders is correct.
God doesn't punish anyone out of the blue.
God knows what he is doing. (p. 115)

And Reb, from that day, never judged life by what he owned.

It allowed him to relish simple things.  He was easily impressed.  He was...satisfied.

And this carried over into his work at the temple.  Here's how Albom describes it:

For years, his wife had to pick up his paychecks, or else he'd never bother.  His starting salary at the temple was just a few thousand dollars a year, and after five decades of service, his compensation was embarrassing compared to other clerics.  He never pushed for more.  He thought it unseemly.  He didn't even own a car for the first few years of his service; a neighbor named Eddie Adelman would drive him into Philadelphia and drop him off at a subway so that he could take a class at Dropsie College.

The Reb seemed to embody a magnetic repulsion between faith and wealth.  If congregants tried to give him things for free, he suggested they contribute to charity instead.  He hated to fund-raise, because he never felt a clergyman should ask people for money.  He once said in a sermon that the only time he ever wished he was a millionaire was when he thought about how many families he could save from financial sorrow. (Have a Little Faith,  By Mitch Albom, Hyperion Press, p. 116)

It's that last line there that got to me.  I have wished that I was a millionaire over the last few years.  It's not been for a mansion for my family or a flat screen TV or even for complete college funds for our kids.  I've wished I was a millionaire so I could write over a big ol' check to Girdwood Chapel and pay off our building.  This has been a long road for our church and we really need to be in it.  It's been a long road for me as well.  And, if I just had an extra $1,000,000 lying around, I could come in and "get 'er done."

But such thinking does a couple of things.

First, I'm not sure that's really the healthiest for our congregation.   If "that which is easily attained is not worth having" is true, then this building is definitely worth having.  It should be difficult.  It should require the work of many people and many hands, both here and around the US.  While this process is hard, I do believe that this is good for us.

Second, there is a lot of sorrow in the world that could be relieved by $1,000,000.  I know that we plan on our church being a place where financial sorrow, among other sorrows, is relieved.  But we can't lose sight that we have a God who demands us to work for justice in the world.  Buildings can become idols.  And they can become idols while we're building them too.  I pray that the difficulty of the process keeps us focused on the larger purposes of God in this world.

Working with the Poor: When Our Helping Hurts

I have been doing a lot of thinking about working with the poor. I think it's been coming up in my sermons and in my blogging over the last couple of months. I'm not sure what it is about this that has lit some intellectual fire under me, but it has. Perhaps I struggle, somewhat, with a church setting that is mostly insulated from the poor. Perhaps the Shane Claiborne visit (COMING JULY 4) has convicted me. Perhaps the various conversations I've been having at the Conference level concerning mission and ministry has effected me. Regardless, I'm trying to think more critically about our work with "The Least, The Last, and The Lost."

There are several internal struggles I've been dealing with here.

• The paternalism of much of our help. At what point is it "just a hand-out and not a hand-up?"
• The cultural perspective that makes poverty and homelessness the problem of the poor and does not put the burden on those who have enough in life.
• The ease of taking up a special offering for a cause and the difficulty of getting out to work alongside those who are poor.
• A guilt concerning my own complicity in the problem of poverty in the world.
• A desire to not be involved and keep this part of ministry far away from where I am...keeping with the more "spiritual" or "intellectual" or at least not so "messy" pursuits.
• The sheer size of the problem of poverty and all the related problems.

Well, through a wide selection of links I wound up over at Simple Church Journal. It's a journal about house churches and a lot of the stuff I have swimming around in my brain--missional church, relationships, etc. Over there, they have a post concerning the book, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor...and Yourself. It's by Fikkert and Corbett. The point of their book is that, all work with poverty on behalf of God's kingdom is "to restore people to a full expression of humanness, to being what God created us all to be, people who glorify God by living in right relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the rest of creation." From this basis, the authors come up with some key principles for serving the poor that got my attention:

1. Know the difference between relief, rehabilitation, and development. Know which one is needed in the given situation and apply it. Providing ongoing relief (meeting critical needs in a time of crisis), for example, when community development (empowering people to help themselves) is called for will simply exacerbate the problems and helplessness of those we want to help.

2. Beware the poison of paternalism and “do not do things that people can do for themselves.”

3. Begin with assets not needs. Asset-Based Community Development:

“ABCD is consistent with the perspective that God has blessed every individual and community with a host of gifts, including such diverse things as land, social networks, knowledge, animals, savings, intelligence, schools, creativity, production equipment, etc. ABCD puts the emphasis on what materially poor people already have and asks them to consider from the outset, “What is right with you? What gifts has God given you that you can use to improve your life and that of your neighbors? How can the individuals and organizations in your community work together to improve your community?”

“In contrast, needs-based development focuses on what is lacking in the life of a community or a person. The assumption in this approach is that the solutions to poverty are dependent upon outside human and financial resources. Churches and ministries using a needs-based approach are often quick to provide food, clothes, shelter, and money to meet the perceived, immediate needs of low-income people, who are often viewed as “clients” or “beneficiaries” of the program. Pouring in outside resources is not sustainable and only exacerbates the feelings of helplessness and inferiority that limits low-income people from being better stewards of their God-given talents and resources.”

4. Use a participatory process that engages and energizes as much of the community as possible.

I really like the notion of Asset-Based Community Development. This seems to be much more of a grass-roots approach to work with the poor and seems like it would have much more sticking power. So much of our ministry with the poor is done just like it is through the car window when we see a homeless person with a sign that says, "Homeless vet. Any help is appreciated." We drive by. We throw our money at the problem. We don't work with the person on the street.

This makes me wonder about many of the ministries that I've been part of over the years...food pantries, clothing drives, special collections.

Book Review: Change the World. By Mike Slaughter

This is a book review of Mike Slaughter's – CHANGE THE WORLD: Recovering the MESSAGE and MISSION of JESUS

This new book put out by Abingdon Press was published in conjunction with the United Methodist Church’s RETHINK CHURCH campaign.  And, more, it was designed to be used by churches as they committed to a “CHANGE THE WORLD” weekend in April and by pastors as they focused on the mission and ministry of their own churches.  Let me make a couple of points at the outset.

First, this is a very good read for a pastor (or, even better, a small leadership team from a church) who realizes that there is something not quite working in their church.   Perhaps “church” is happening but disciples aren’t being formed.  Perhaps “church” is happening but the building budget is taking away from the mission and ministry of the congregation.  Perhaps “church” is happening but there are segments of the population who are not being reached.  Perhaps “church” really isn’t happening at all and there is a growing sense that the proverbial “writing is on the wall” if something doesn’t happen…something big.  In other words, this is a good study for most of our churches.

Second, it is hard not to read this book and not think that a chapter or two was written just for you and your ministry situation.  I read this as pastor of a church with a large building project and a small congregation.  Our mission and ministry for a few years has taken a back seat to our building “needs.”  We’re in the process of trying to transcend this.  However, when Mike Slaughter talks about “Mission vs. Mortar” in chapter 6, it’s hard not to get a sense that we've confused these on occasion during the last several years.  The mortar doesn’t make disciples.  I’m reminded of the phrase, “a church that is not involved in mission projects will soon find that they, themselves, are a mission project.”

Likewise the chapter on “Micro vs. Macro” should hit home any of our larger churches.  We have had a push, over the years, to grow the church.  At times this has seemed to not mean “make disciples” but “bring more people in.”  However, growing larger facilities and congregations is not the most effective way to form real relationships and have personal discipleship opportunities.  And so, Rev. Slaughter talks at length about house churches and cell groups.

This book is not “15 Ways to Grow Your Congregation” or “Five Easy Steps to a Contemporary Worship.”  You’ll get none of that here.  But the book asks some hard questions and asks us to look honestly at our disciple-making and to really RETHINK CHURCH.  The concepts are accessible and the chapters are easy to work through, full of personal accounts of the ministry of Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church in Tipp City, Ohio.  After a forward by Jim Wallis, the chapters are as follows:

1. Missional vs. Attractional
2. Inclusive vs. Exclusive
3. Disciples vs. Decisions
4. Micro vs. Macro
5. Multiplication vs. Expansion
6. Mission vs. Mortar
7. Courage vs. Compliance

As you can probably tell, the first word in each chapter heading is what Miks Slaughter thinks we need more of as we go about the business of “doing church” while the second word is how we’ve often understood church in the 20^th Century. 

One more thing I’d want to point out is the “Keys to Revitalizing a Dying Congregation."  Ginghamsburg UMC has a lot of experience in this area and I think the guidelines would be helpful to any who find themselves in a congregation that is in decline.

While this is not exclusively for United Methodist Churches, this is by one of our own missional leaders and is a great resources and discussion starter for churches in the Alaska Conference.

Posted via email from The Prodigal Blog