I won’t even begin to say I understand the economics involved in the “Tax the Rich vs. Don’t Tax the Rich” debate. I will also say that I don’t understand and frankly couldn’t give a rat’s stinky butt about the politics. None of that stuff matters to me. I really don’t care. The economics would be fascinating if I knew it was hard science. Unfortunately, economics, like everything else is politically tainted and it is impossible to find an objective position. So I won’t address it.

Here is, however, what I will address: the Christian response to the Occupy Wall Street movement.

As I understand it, the entire dialogue stems from a perception (probably accurate) of corporate greed. It is assumed that the vast majority of the riches individuals in America are greedy. And because of their greed they are unwilling to pay what some perceive to be their fair share of America’s financial responsibilities. Of course, there is no clearly defined notion of what a “fair share” is. The richest Americans are already paying a higher percentage of taxes than the rest of America, but apparently, according to the protestors this isn’t enough. I also understand that it goes MUCH deeper than this. But the general feeling is that these Americans, some of which fell into family money and privilege, others of which worked harder than 99% of the protestors to get where they are today, should share. For not wanting to share they are considered greedy.

There is this great passage of scripture in the Gospels. Its found in Matthew 7:1-6. It says…

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”

Jesus makes some very strong statements here concerning the judging of others. The thing about it is that He is particularly making statements concerning judging people for doing the same thing they themselves are doing. What has gripped my heart so strongly during these past two months or so of protests is the way many Christians have been thoroughly up in arms, on both sides. In my opinion, both sides are extremely greedy!

Let’s start by looking at those on the side of the protestors. Is there corporate greed going on? Absolutely. Should we encourage those who have the most to give to and help those who have the least? Without question. Is it not proven that many major corporations subjugate people around the world in order to make a higher profit margin, in turn circumventing American workers causing the problem to be exacerbated locally? No doubt. Are they being greedy? Unquestionably.

And so, because of this great injustice they are perpetrating, you cry out and judge them. They should be taking care of others. They should be helping the little guy. Thats the right thing to do. So at what point do you need to start being responsible for those around you? Is it only if you are economically well off that you are responsible to help? Are you free and clear from responsibilities until then?

In the book of Acts, regular every-day members of the church frequetnly decided of their own free will to sell many if not most of their possessions in order to provide for the poor and needy among them in the church. The different churches would also take up offerings and send them to other cities to take care of the needy there. And the first people they took care of were people in the family of God. So in light of this I ask you:

1. When was the last time you sold something you have in order to help out a hurting fellow Christian?
2. When have you been generous with a missionary, church planter, or fellow congregant of your local church?
3. Are you as passionate about your fellow Christ-follower and the plight they are working through as you are the stranger on the street?

There are those who are STRUGGLING within your local church and you are complaining at Wall Street when you could be doing something about it yourself. Get the plank out of YOUR EYE! Stop telling sinners how to live. You’re casting your pearls before swine. They can’t be right into righteousness. Making them act in one area like Jesus will not make them like Jesus. You are wasting your time. Help those you can help. Help your friends. Help your fellow family members in Christ. Help the poor everywhere, including the ones sitting on the pew next to you.

But now let’s also look on the other side. There are those who don’t feel like the higher bracket should be taxed. They don’t feel like it is the job of the rich, or the government, to take care of the less fortunate. It is the job of the church. They feel the economics and political strategizing bear out to a fair and biblical stance on sowing and reaping. And that though some have had legs up along the way, generally if you work hard you can accomplish whatever you want. And if you do that you should be able to keep your money.

A number of places in the gospels we see people who when confronted with Christ immediately make financial restitution. Zacheaus gave back everything he had taken above what he was supposed to and repayed people above and beyond what he had taken. Jesus specifically told one man to sell all he had and follow him. Following that man’s disappointment, Jesus’ response was that it is “easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter heaven.” We have no idea how the rich young ruler got his money, only that it was a barrier between He and God. And once again, in the book of Acts, people who had more than others willingly and freely responded to the need and gave sacrificially to take care of others. Finally, the greatest example of a right heart when it comes to money is the story of the poor woman who gave all she had, two little pennies, to God. The rich men standing by mocked her meager gift in light of their substantial one. Yet Christ said because she sacrificed and gave, her gift was so much greater. So I ask you…

1. When in the history of the world has the church been able to handle all the poor people without the assistance of the state?
2. When was the last time you gave sacrificially, or was it just out of your abundance?
3. Do you give anywhere near what poorer people give to great causes percentage wise?

Get the plank out of YOUR EYES! Stop judging those who want others to give when you yourself are not giving? Are you even tithing? Do you support any missionaries? Stop casting your pearls before swine and associating with people who lie, cheat, and swindle others. Its not cool, and its not Christlike.

Here is the problem: WE ARE ALL GREEDY! One side wants someone else’s money to take care of the problem. The other side doesn’t want to give away their excess. NEITHER SIDE IS WILLING TO GIVE!

SO SHUT UP, GET OUT YOUR WALLET, SEND A MISSIONARY/CHURCH PLANTER/OR THE DUDE ON THE PEW NEXT TO YOU A CHECK AND BE THE CHURCH!

Its time to bare each other’s burdens, not matter who we are and no matter who they are. Then, if YOU are taking care of the people around YOU, maybe its ok to throw in a little social critique every once in a while.

About a month into the church planting process, nearly two years ago, I heard Craig Groeschel, author of Christian Atheist and pastor of LifeChurch.tv speak at the Christian Leadership Forum at Southeastern University. He was talking about the things that God calls some churches to do. His premise was that God has a unique plan for every church in a city. The problem is that very few churches every ask God what it is that He wants from them. They assume and then act under those assumptions concerning God’s plan for them, most often merely replicating what other churches are doing. Inevitably, there will always be overlap in churches. Every church is going to have a worship service. But as Groeschel explains, every church is in the neighborhood or city it is in for a reason.

He told the story, and I believe I am retelling it correctly, of when he decided this for LifeChurch. They were a large church of around 2,000 adherents and he decided they needed to change into the church God wanted them to be, no more, no less. They prayed and felt like there were 5 things the LORD wanted from their church. They began to cut every ministry that did not fall into those 5 areas. It didn’t mean they weren’t good ministries, they just were not a ministry that was supposed to be happening in their church. As I remember, he says that they lost about 40% of their church membership over the next 6 months as a result of these changes. A decade or so later now LifeChurch is extremely healthy, having made a huge impact not only in their neighborhood but also the entire state of Oklahoma with campus locations and churches worldwide through their free resources. They also run in excess of 15,000 people…

Upon hearing this, I began to pray about what God wanted for our church. Truth be told, why would God want all churches doing the same things? If we are one body, and one baptism, then He has to look at us as one church in spite of our denominational and other differences. All churches in a city make up the reflection of Christ and His kingdom in that city. It only makes sense that He would want different churches doing different things in order to ensure the city is covered in Kingdom business.

With my church, I have felt like we were suppose to do 3 things. These three things make up our mission statement, our praxis, and our spiritual growth plan. They are 1) Worship Experience, 2) Small Groups, 3) Service Oriented Ministry/Missions. This is why our missions statement is Experience a loving relationship with God and other, Equip each other for a lifetime of following Christ, and Engage in the Mission of God both home and abroad. This is also our spiritual growth plan. If someone attends worship services, participates in a small group, and involves him/herself in ministry, they will grow spiritually. Everything we do is wrapped up in one of these things. Nothing more, nothing less.

When you figure out what God wants you to do, it will cause you to do church in ways you never thought you would. For instance, we wont have a large children’s ministry. Its not in the DNA of us. We also don’t have a lot of kids in our neighborhood. Kids will stay in service with us, and grow spiritually through some kids specific service elements, and through Christlike worship modeling. Eventually as we grow, we may add children’s and youth small groups. But we will cross that bridge when we get there. The point is that just because everyone else says you have to have it, doesn’t make it true.

You need to pray and find out what it is God wants from you. Don’t waste your time with good things that may work great in other places but that will reap no eternal dividends where you are and will cause unnecessary competition with other churches.

What’s He going to do through you?

In my last post I started a series on Developing a Missional Strategy for Church Planting. I started with the idea that you have to understand yourself before you can understand anything else. This is part two, understanding your neighborhood.

The entire idea of being missional is to relate to people exactly where they are, within the culture they live in. Unfortunately, too many American ministers are ignorant, either intentionally or unintentionally, of the variety of cultures in the United States. None of them would admit this however. They would acknowledge a narrow variety of cultures along socioeconomic and racial lines. But they would generally stop there. The truth is that cultures and subcultures exist WAY beyond those narrow definitions. According to research by Dr. Mel Ming,  not only has it never been that narrow, in the past 50 years the number of subcultures have exploded. In the 1950′s America had around 4,500 subcultures. Today, that number is closer to 45,000.

With that many subcultures, it is impossible to have a cookie-cutter, formulaic approach to ministry. There is no “American Culture” that every local church deals with. People do not think and act the same in the Bible Belt as they do on the coasts. Millennials do not think or act like Boomers. Gays in Houston do not think or act like Gays in New York. Blacks in Birmingham do not think and act like Blacks in Portland. Subcultures are different everywhere.  Local church ministry must be a reflection of Christ through an assimilation of culture. Every neighborhood will be different, and will have a number of subcultures in them. It’s your job, in order to effectively minister, to understand these subcultures. But in order to do so you need to do a few things.

1. Understand the not all cultures are unhealthy and need to be changed.
   - I have heard it said, and you may be saying to yourself right now, “I don’t want to get to know or assimilate to the culture (world) around me. It is through the power of Christ in me that I am going to change culture!” This is a dangerous, arrogant, and ignorant approach that will make it extremely difficult for you to minister, and will probably embarrass the name of Christ in the long run. There is not a missionary in the world that shows up trying to change the culture of the people they are ministering to. They come to try to change their hearts. And not all cultures need to be changed. What is wrong with a culture of hardworking people? What is wrong with a culture that values education? What is wrong with a culture that is proud of its history? What’s wrong with a culture that values being involved in helping other and bettering society? I do believe, and I think the bible attests to this, that as we lead them to become followers of Christ, they will grow into the culture of Christ and that will inform their own culture, causing inevitable change
2. Study the culture
   - You should start by doing a demographic study of the neighborhood and surrounding area you want to plant/minister in. You can pay to have these done from a number of missions sending agencies. Or, you can do like I did, and realize that everything you could want to know is found on the US Census website. You will want to know how many people there are, what their age make-up is, what their sexual and racial stats are, and what educational and financial compositions exist. All of these things inform your ministry approach. For instance, we have only 17% of our population that is under 18 years old. Right at 78% of our neighborhood consists of 1-2 person households, and they are not single parent homes. So, knowing that information it would be a waste of time, energy, and finances for us to launch with a large, well resourced childrens ministry, even though most church plant experts say that its necessary. Those same church plant experts also acknowledge that the vast majority of their planting experience and plants they have overseen where in suburban neighborhoods with large family networks. Knowing the make-up of your neighborhood will inform you as to the types of ministries you need to do.
3. Get involved.
   - You have got to get involved with what the community is doing. A lot of people make the mistake of jumping into a community and starting new initiatives that the neighborhood does not need. You would be much better served to participate in what the community is already doing. This will do a number of things. One, it will demonstrate to the community that you are concerned about the same things they are, which is an instant bridge builder and will open doors for further conversation. Secondly, it will inform you of the values and tendencies of the the neighborhood. When you serve beside people they will show and tell you who they are and what they think. Thirdly, it will provide you information that you would not otherwise have. There is some valuable information that you would never find out just through demographic studies. I am particularly thinking of marketing and advertising. Just by participating in these activities you are marketing and advertising for your ministry, but you will also find out what people respond to. Some communities respond really well to mailers, doorhangers, and fliers. But some communities do not. Conversations with people will let you know. This will save you a lot of effort and A LOT of money!

So get to know your neighborhood and your neighbors. Reflect the culture of Christ among the cultures of the earth. It will make all the difference and open up doors to minister to people that you never had before!