to the ordinary

Hat-Trick: Part 3

I met a real estate agent in a coffee shop last week that asked me what I do. It's been one of the toughest questions for me to answer. I told him I was going back to school and was a pastor in the area. We talked about the connotations that come with telling someone you're a pastor. He told me, "I'm embarassed to tell people I'm a Christian." When I asked him why, he started talking about a widely known person reaching millions of people through television, radio, and ministry outlets. He said the individual had a home of 26,000 sq ft, which was only one of the homes they owned. He voiced that this person pleads with people to give money to kids in Africa, and that if they sold one of their homes, it would probably take care of the kids for a year.

It boils down to the disconnect between our words and our actions. The real estate agent was communicating the frustrations of so many people. Those that take time to observe see the misrepresentation of so many people who speak on Jesus' behalf.

Back to my friend:

He asked me, "Where's the line?" He meant, "If I live in a 2,000 sq ft house that I can't afford, am I any better than the person who lives in a 26,000 sq ft house that they can afford?

The answer we came up with was Jesus' response to Peter at the end of John's gospel: You follow me.

Excessiveness, responsibility, the consumerist trap, materialism, and the like are topics relevant to the conversation. From Alan Hirsch's perspective, the greatest threat to Christianity in America is not Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, or New Age philosophies, but consumerism (The Forgotten Way, see side bar). I think he's on to something.

My friend is going through a defining time in his relationship with God. He's shared that his greatest financial difficulties have come since he began following Jesus. He wonders why things aren't great financially now that things are great between he and God. I told him, "Maybe things need to be tough financially for you to realize your dependence on God."

Hat Trick: Part 2

When talking about the cost of what my friend is doing with the homeless guys downtown, I told him that I saw that as his tithe. As I've been challenged with the biblical picture of the tithe, our understanding must move past Old Testament thinking.

In the same way that the Old Testament understanding of God's dwelling place was eradicated with Jesus (He said we are the temples of God), the OT teaching of the tithe was moved to new horizons when Jesus taught, "Freely you've been given, freely give." It is easier for my wife and I to write a check for 10% of our income and be done with it. The reality is: Statistically, of the people that actually do tithe, only 2.7% of their income is given. Evidences of the way people give of themselves and their money are all around us, it's just that people won't give to what they don't believe in. As the church shows people the beauty of community versus the norms of institution, giving where there is legitimate need will increase.

When Jesus tells us to give as we've been given, it must take on new forms. Income, possessions, time, and more must be considered. As I shared these things with my friend who is a new follower of Jesus, he voiced what is common among the church -- an internal focus.

As our focus tends to be upon ourselves, the use of money tends to be internally focused. When the mission of Jesus is the driving force in our lives, then the use of our money, time, and resources will look much differently than they currently do with the average church.

Hat-Trick: Part 1

A good friend of mine started following Jesus about 10 months ago. Although he still has his ups-and-downs, he no longer uses cocaine, has an increasingly strong marriage, and is being stretched in his faith toward trusting God.

A few weeks ago he was talking to an area pastor and was hearing about how the church never does anything. My friend finally said, "I'm tired of talking about how we don't do anything, let's go do something!" At that, he led the way in purchasing sandwiches to distribute to homeless people in downtown Ft. Myers. They passed out sandwiches, talked about Jesus, and asked the homeless guys to come back to the same spot the next week.

Since then he has gone back and given out socks and cigarettes and shared the Gospel with the people on the street. My gut reaction about the cigarettes was, "Aren't you contributing to their bad habits?" We talked about it and his response was: "If people want to criticize what I'm doing, I tell them to get off their butts and go do something. The people who usually criticize are the ones who are spectators. It's a good sign if you are being critcized, because it probably means you are actually doing something."

I look at my friend as a walking picture of grace. He is Jesus' disciple -- the witness of his life, his words, and the sacrifice of himself for the sake of the mission of Jesus are evidence of this.