Resources

Several weeks back we were driving through Austin, and Stew and his family graciously allowed my family of six to invade their two bedroom apartment for the night. We stayed up wicked late talking, and Stew has no idea how much the conversation we had that night has changed my perspective on several issues.

One comment in particular that Stew made in passing has been ringing in my ears ever since. He was talking about his disgust at hearing someone lament the fact that the Church in such-and-such third world country didn't have much in the way resources, as if that was a major barrier to the health/success of the Church there. Then Stew said something like, "since when is God dependent on resources?" or something to that effect.

I have consciously let this idea inform many conversations that I've had with people about different things since that day. I remember a few years ago reading a great little book that Zac Allen gave me by J. Scott Horrell called From the Ground Up, in which he talks about doing a study with a bunch of pastors in Brasil in which they determined that the majority of activities in the churches there revolve around four central images (1) the building, (2) the full-time minister, (3) the Sunday service, and (4) Sunday, the "Christian Sabbath." Horrell goes on to show that the controlling concepts that would more accurately express the biblical essence of the Church are (1) worship, (2) learning, (3) fellowship, and (4) evangelism/mission. I have found Horrell's simple conception of the purpose of the church really compelling and helpful over the last couple of years.

But Stew's comment really helped drive the point home to me that we in the west assume that where there are no resources, the Church is all but paralyzed. We also assume the inverse of that--that where there are an abundance of resources in and for the Church it is a sign of much success.

This was on my mind this morning as some representatives from Luis Palau's ministry came to our church to talk to us about how our church can participate in the huge Luis Palau evangelistic campaign coming up in a few weeks here in Monterrey. They showed a promotional video, and the whole selling point was what a big production it would be--they're gonna have all these big name Christian musicians in and high-profile converts and whatnot. Luis Palau himself said in the video, that he wants to show the world that Christian artists are first-class.

Now I'll keep my opinions about this kind of thing to myself for now. I don't make the decisions in our church about whether or not we'll participate in stuff like this--if we do participate I'll do it wholeheartedly. But this morning in my own mind I resolved to do what I can to make sure the church doesn't buy into the idea that we need these kind of resources to be faithful in our mission.