World missions after Covid-19

Let us consider a few undeniable facts. 

First, the American church has spent a lot of money on church construction over the last two generations.  Measured in the billions of dollars we have thrown money at buildings in ways that most of the Christians in the world cannot imagine.  From gigantic fish tanks to coffee shops to climbing walls, to smoke machines and high tech lighting systems churches have spent money on buildings in ways that are hard to comprehend.  That is not to mention the capital we have poured into salaries, seminars, and publicity.

Second, despite this incredible spending the church in America is actually in decline both in terms of absolute numbers and in terms of market share of the hearts and the minds of our nation.

Third, all of those things for which we have spent copious amounts of money have for the last few weeks for the most part been left idle.  The Covid-19 shut down has closed churches in America more effectively than any persecution might have.  For the sake of community health and well being the church has abandoned mass meetings and centralized gatherings.  

The church worldwide needs venture capitalists to bank roll their work.

While in the midst of the Covid-19 shut down it is a good time to rethink or even reset our spending priorities.  Instead of the church seeing itself as an entrepreneur on a quest for the latest and greatest new building, software system, marketing campaign or location, perhaps there is a better metaphor for self-understanding.  I suggest that we become for lack of a better term, “Spiritual Venture Capitalists”. 

A spiritual venture capitalist understands that workers in the worldwide church do not need “know-it-all experts” who export their systems and forms of church.  A good venture capitalist discovers underfunded workers who can take advantage of untouched market shares.

A spiritual venture capitalist is not the micro manager who is a busy body and wants to be the center of the effort and attention; rather, they understand that value of local expertise and has complete confidence in them and becomes for them a partner who knows to trust and invest in the locals.

A spiritual venture capitalist is not a person looking for a short-term profit, but is wise enough to see the long-term potential.  We must get away from the ideal that an investment in a mission now will result in a great revival in 6 months.  Especially with unreached people groups the R.O.I. may not happen for years or generations.  A people without a Bible in their own language may require years of ministry before they ever hear the Gospel for the first time. 

A spiritual venture capitalist most of all realizes that the resources are not theirs, but belong to another.  We will give an account of what we do in this life with the God-given resources entrusted to us.  As the church, when we neglect the needs of missions, when for the sake of a more satisfying worship time here and now we ignore the great commission we do so anticipating the owner calling us to account.

Hit the reset button

In terms of the biggest of pictures, we would have been better off if over the last 40 years we had poured our resources into world missions, especially in focusing on unreached people groups.  Covid-19 gives us the opportunity to hit the reset button on our spending priorities and move world missions and especially serving the unreached peoples ahead of another domestic, mega project. 

For some time, I have been praying that God would lead world leaders to pass and enforce laws that benefit the Kingdom of God, even if they didn’t realize that it was what they were doing.  That prayer has been answered in one place in response to Covid-19.  The Prime Minister of India, who has not been friendly towards Christians, has recently sent lost, hungry, and needy people past the doors of Christian workers.  As a result of India’s business shut down because of Covid, thousands of unemployed day workers are flocking out of the cities trying to go home.  In response to this river of humanity, Mid-India Church Partners is distributing food packets to traveling families.  Packages of grains, beans and cooking oil costing about $7 will feed a couple for a month.  Additionally, they are providing masks and vitamins C and D.

Think about it, thousands of potential disciples are walking home, hopeless and depressed. Then, because of Christians, they experience help, hope, and love.  Who is to say that this will not become a river of traveling evangelists taking the Gospel to places completely unreached?  That is why I’m asking you for $7.  DON’T SEND IT TO ME!!!

Send $7 to Mid-India Church Partners

You can do this by going to their website: http://midindia.org/ and following the donate links and while you are at it, why not round that up to $10 to help cover the cost of the vitamins and mask.  In fact, you can do what Lorie and I did.  We keep a little money in an “emergency missions fund”.  We emptied that out for this occasion.  I’m not bragging.  I am saying, I will not ask others to do what we don’t do.  We believe this is a God-given opportunity, so we are giving to God.  Please join us!

As a way of saying thank you, I invite you to enjoy my latest book, FREE.  I just finished a devotional study of Mark.  It is free for anyone but you are among the first to be invited to review it and use it freely.  http://Devotions4Disciples.blogspot.com/  There is a donation tab on that page, but that is NOT for Mid-India.  That supports my writing ministry.  You can donate there if you like, but first donate to Mid-India. 

Message from the fall

To my Meridian Bird Removal co-workers and friends:

So while I wait for my ankle to stop swelling and become able to bear some weight I have been able to catch up with a friend in India.  Covid-19 is having a profound impact on India right now.  My friend (among other things) runs an orphanage for children whose parents have been murdered or can’t live with surviving parents due to the danger.  This man has a heart of gold.  

Now as a result of Covid-19 and the government shut down of almost all businesses there are 1000’s of people who are trying go from big cities to their ancestral homes, walking in some cases for days or weeks with almost no food.  Starvation is for some a real possibility.  My friend has begun to feed these people.  For $7 he can feed a couple for a month. (beans and rice and rice and beans).  Some of the children in the orphanage are sewing mask and giving them away, and as able they are distributing vitamins.  

Since I’m not doing anything else at the moment I’ve decided to ask EVERYONE I know (and even folks I don’t know) for $7 for this project.  If you want to give more that is okay.  My wife and I have an emergency fund for our personal living expenses we also have an emergency giving fund to help people with a real emergency crisis.  We have emptied that fund for this cause.  My wife is working Instacart till her other job re-opens.  She is giving all of her cash tips to this project as well.  We are all in and I’m asking you to at least get in a little.  

This morning my wife said to me, "You realize that what we spent on that pizza last night could have fed a husband and wife of a month? Kind of puts things in perspective."   Times are tough but there are not many people who still have a job that can't afford $7.  If you are a Christian I'm asking you to give because you don't want to be a goat (sorry for the esoteric comment).  If you are not a Christian I will ask you to give for the sake of your own humanity.  

DO NOT SEND ME ANY MONEY.  You can give securely by going to http://midindia.org and following the donate tab on the upper right of the opening page.   

In conclusion if this request bothers you blame me, not Mid-India, MBR, Covid-19, or the people needing food in India.  This is on me and you can reply with any disapproval or hate mail to tonlogon4me@gmail.com  If you want more detailed information call me 352-548-4837 or email Kathy@midindia.org.

Have a great and SAFE day

Charlie

After Covid-19 (Part 1 of 4)

One of the greatest inventions of the electronic age has to be the reset button.  When your device gets cluttered or confused or simply stops doing what it needs to do, the reset button will allow you to return it to its state of original effectiveness.  The reset button may mean you lose some of your favorite presets, but sometimes the reset button is the best option.

Maybe the church should use this Covid-19 time out as a reset button for our ministry.  Many of us in our heart of hearts have for some time felt things were not quite right.  But we have also been unsure how to take an honest and fearless inventory of our churches and ministries.  This may be the greatest opportunity in many generations to be absolutely ruthless with ourselves. With a great deal of uncertainty about when the church will return to “normal” let’s not miss this time to plan for greater service.  When things return to normal we need to celebrate our return to corporate worship.  But we mustn’t stop with a celebration and then return to the status quo.    Here are a few places where we need to press the reset button. 

First, we need to repent for making the church 'irrelevant'. 

Let me say that like many of you I hate the word “relevant” as it relates to ministry.  We have used this word to describe our services without giving much thought to what it can mean.  We have reduced it to mean, “music, programing and sermons that those who attend will like and that will touch them at some level of felt need”. 

In effect, relevance has often been reduced to 'opinion-driven' ministry so that whatever folks like we will serve them.  If their ears itch we will find some way to tickle them.  The result of this approach to ministry is that we have collected a group of people who support the ministry because it gives them what they want.  In so doing, the church has in many ways become profoundly selfish.  I have in the past referred to a study of church bulletins and newsletters that indicated 90% of the churches activities and ministry were directed to and for the membership.

One of the questions I have asked a church when I consult with them has been, “If your church closed would anyone notice?”  That question has always been somewhat theoretical and speculative, until now.  Covid has provided the answer.  And that answer is, “No.”  In most cases, no one outside of congregation has noticed that churches have in effect been closed.  For the most part, all we have heard from churches has been arguing for the “right” to meet, with the associated threat of lawsuits.  The practical or relevant services needed by the community have for the most have been offered by secular organizations.  With the exception of those who go to weekly meetings, if churches never opened again almost no one would notice. 

By our selfishness and focusing our ministry on ourselves we have made the church radically and almost totally irrelevant.  If you have it, please send me a link to the news article that asks the question, “What will we do without the vital services provided by this ministry?”  Maybe it is out there, but if it is, it is a rarity.  It is a shame that there is greater concern over not having football this fall than the church not being about its ministry.   It ought to be true of every congregation that its absence in the community would leave a gaping hole, but that is simply not the case.

By the way, don’t be surprised if there is greater hostility toward the church’s privileged position.  The rational for churches being tax exempt is that they are so valuable to the community that taxing them would result in loss of much needed public service.  Those who dislike the church might soon argue that the church does nothing for the community, but rather is a drain.  At this time it is hard to disagree. 

“God, break our hearts that we have been so selfish that we have made it hard for our communities to hear the Gospel. Whatever it takes cure us of our own selfish agenda.” 

The Bad Gift Giver Hall of Fame

When they open the “Bad Gift Giver Hall of Fame” I will certainly be an early if not a founding inductee. I am not saying that every gift I give is a bad gift.  I have at times really thrilled those I love with my gifts.  It would be fair to say that I am near or just below average on the scale of gift giving I.Q.  What sets me apart in my poor performance is that when I make a bad choice it is monumentally bad.  Not just a little poor, but Mount Rushmore Bad, Great Pyramid of Giza, Czar Bomba kind of bad.  It is not that I am unperceptive; in fact, I am highly perceptive.  It is that perceptiveness combined with my great vice of practicality that adds up to really bad gift giving at times. 

I will here present three classic and monumental examples of my poor choices for gifts that will usher me into the Bad Gift Giver Hall of Fame. 

Case Study #1

Some years ago, as spring was beginning to hint at its arrival my dear, long suffering and kind wife was talking about a garden.  She talked about all the plants she wanted to see growing and the resultant fresh veggies.  I perceived her excitement and made a mental note.  That year when Valentine’s Day rolled around did my wife receive some dead cut flowers?  No!  How about a box of candies that would soon be eaten (mostly by kids) and then forgotten?  No!  She received a garden, well sort of a garden.  What she got was a wheel plow.  If you are not sure what that is look it up.  The large box wrapped in a sheet (I don’t do gift wrapping) was revealed with a flourish, but didn’t result in much excitement. 

Case Study #2

One of the constancies of my wife’s life is diet and cooking.  She is an excellent and conscientious cook balancing great taste with healthy content.  She can do more with less than anyone I have ever known.  Her grocery budget is typically half of what similar sized families spend, because she cooks mostly from scratch.  I love her cooking.  So, when we were at a store and she stopped to thumb through a book, a cookbook, I paid attention.  When she said, “I like that; it seems like an good idea,” I made a note.  When her birthday came around I bought for her a book on how to lose weight with this style of cooking.  Note to rookie husbands; buying your wife a diet book for her birthday is not a great plan.  You will get to return the book and then desperately try to figure out what to give your beloved.  Fortunately, I was able to find a car top carrier for her station wagon that was on the discount shelf having been recently returned.  Face it, I have a gift.

Case Study #3

Having botched the preceding Valentine’s Day gift with the aforementioned wheel plow I was determined to do better the next year.  One of the problems with the wheel plow was that while practical she pointed out that it would not be used very much.  I said to myself, “Take a note, gifts need to be the sort that are frequently used.”  I paid close attention over the next few weeks listening to a word of discontent from by wife, hoping to find that one thing that I could buy for her to make her life a little better.  I heard the comment, I saw the inadequacy, I developed a plan and seized the opportunity.  A couple of days before Valentines Day I casually suggested that my wife accompany me to a local hardware store. She had not an idea what was coming.  I was so pleased with my planned purchase and the clever way I could have her there for the big reveal of this gift that would certainly thrill her.  As we approached the counter I told her, in the hearing of the young lady at the cash register, “Happy Valentine’s Day, honey, I know you have been wanting this, I heard you complain about your old one.”  Picture me beaming at my long-suffering wife as the gal at the counter said, “You are giving your wife a bucket and mop for Valentine’s Day?  She ought to beat you with the mop handle.”  That comment and a quick look at my wife convinced me to cancel the purchase and begin formulating plan B.

Even more amazing than an obtuseness and dimwittedness is the faithful persistent love of my wife.  She has never been anything less than gracious, kind and loving in response to my inaptitude.   A lesser woman would have plowed a furrow in my back, made me eat the cookbook and, while I slept, impelled me on a sharpened mop handle.  But my wife has taken it all in stride and loved me, and laughed with (perhaps at) me all along. 

I think she is a lot like Jesus.  We offer Him the gifts of our lives, worship, love and service and in reality it is not much.  He could get better sermons from the mouth of an ass, greater affection from an ancient madam, and more fervent prayers from a mantis mantodea (look it up).  We are more inept than profound, more flighty than committed and more seeking our own than His Kingdom.  Nevertheless, He loves us and accepts our offerings and counts them as better than they are.  In this chaotic moment, we are running about helter-skelter trying to figure out what to do next and what would please our Lord.  All the while He loves us and accepts us with a lot patience and grace beyond measure.  There is a lot of uncertainty right now.  But of this we can be sure, Jesus loves us and has us securely in His hand.

By the way, my wife’s birthday is Wednesday. She is going to be so happy with Bacon and Sausage, the breeding pair of Potbelly Pigs I have for her.  Just last week she said, “I would love me some bacon and sausage.”

On a more serious note I wanted to report and ask for your continued help.  A few weeks back I told you about a project I am working with called “Preachers on Bikes”.  This is an effort to raise $10,000 to buy motorcycles for church planters in India.  The church planter effort continues even with the threat of Covid-19 and persecution.  I am also happy to report that many generous gifts have been given to purchase the motorcycles for these ministers.  To this point we have raised about $3500 toward the goal of $10,000.  I am asking you to help with that last $6,500 dollars.  For some of you a gift of $10 would be gloriously sacrificial for others a gift of $1000 would hardly be noticed.  I am not terribly concerned with individual gifts.  I only want to see these heroic church planters equipped. 

So please help us to get these preachers on bikes.  DO NOT send any money to me!  Send all funds directly to Mid-India.  For details on how to do so contact Kathy Sparks. Kathy@midindia.org.  If you have a bike you are not using and wish to give that bike to the mission for them to sell I will come and get it and ride it down to them.