Doing More With Less

On July 31st, 1917, the Allied Forces launched a ten day artillery bombardment using 3,000 heavy guns and 4,250,000 shells. Canadians are inspired by the story of Passchendaele where a relatively few band of brothers, Canadian soldiers, fought, bled and died in what was, many agree, a stupid, wasted war (as perhaps all wars are), believing themselves to be securing many of the freedoms and a new sense of national identity that we too often have taken for granted. Of all the Allied armies, the Canadians were most feared by the enemy. The Germans coined the phrase ‘storm-trooper’ to refer to us.

Remember how in the awful events of September 2001 New York fireman rushed in and up the stairs of the Twin Towers while others were rushing out? – entering in to save the lives of others while, quite understandably, office-workers were scurrying out to save their own. And, have you read of those heroic souls in the early Church who remained in, or actually journeyed to villages and cities, to care for those suffering deadly plague, which often resulted in the loss of their own lives.

In a day of economic downturn and shrinking budgets, of tired workers and flagging loyalties, how may churches with flagging zeal and resources respond to the challenges we face? We have biblical examples of God’s provision and of God’s People's faithful resolve and fruitful responses. There is a Gospel wisdom that shines through the (almost) planned obscurity of some of Jesus' parables that reveal that there may be other ways of communicating truth than through normally trusted, clear and logical precepts. In the Old Testament we find the Gideon story in which God kept sending home large numbers of Israel’s troops, culling the army down to the relatively few 300, a then-strategic, wise and faith-filled group of fighting men. There is a littleness, a weakness, a hiddeness, a ‘cracked-clay-vessel’ approach in which God’s purposes still get done (or normally get done in the greater Real of the spiritual realm). Gospel people appreciate these upsidedown strengths and realities of God's Rule so that they do not despair in such times. Inspired and enabled by God Himself, they rise to such challenges, see them even as opportunities, even though their numbers have been reduced and their seems to be only scant, meagre resources at hand.

Jesus pointed to the potency of tiny mustard seeds and the leavening power of wee bits of yeast. He revealed a God who ‘keeps score differently’ – who celebrates the sacrificial, miniscule contribution of faithful widows, in contrast the large (but ‘no sweat’) contributions of wealthy Pharisees.

Whether or not we have dreamed of winning a lottery, haven’t we all wished God would somehow grant us more dollars so we could bless the ministry of our church?. We could always do more with more, But God shows us that sometimes we can do more with less.

How does God us to do what we must, and more, in these times? With passion for the ‘missio Dei’ and in a desire to increase our loving service to our neighbour, how can we ‘lean into’ the times when others are leaning away from them. Many of us have experienced financial decline and even ruin in the downtown of world markets. Perhaps we are winded by uncertain markets, fearful of even further economic down-turn. The budgets of churches and Christian ministries have taken a hit and we have fewer dollars (discretionary and otherwise) to share. How will we look after our own families, churches and ministries let alone respond to the needs of others? Surely we have to curb our ministry expenditures; others will just have to look after themselves.

But these are the very times when others need our help. People are stunned by their own present economic realties. Many are depressed; some are homeless, starving, almost suicidal. They need our practical love, the ministry of our churches, our sharing of resources, even more? Can we cut back when they need us more?

Can we not be more imaginative in how, where and when we spend our shrinking resources? Can we at least give more ‘in kind’ – perhaps more of our time, our passion and creativity? Can we in other ways make shrinking dollars spread-out to close gaps between income and expenditures?

Some of us have lost thousands of dollars – perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars. It may have been ‘just on paper’ and we never really held it in our hands. It was faithfully, sacrificially set aside over the years, perhaps intended as retirement security or for that trip. But our security has been eroded. We might just as well have invested, and perhaps we still may, those dollars in more overt ‘Kingdom purposes,’ making eternal investments in the promise of heavenly rewards?

What if Jesus meant it when he talked of the lilies of the field that do not labour and the birds that do not spin – and of the Father’s similar concern and care for each of us? What if we’ve explained away, as mere advice or opinion, his command to: ‘take no thought for the morrow? Or, changing the metaphor, what if we ‘cast our bread on the water’ and faithfully, patiently waited to see its promised return?

What blessings await those who give themselves to our Lord and others in new and risky ways, who perhaps through utter abandonment, trust and give more away? What if these times give new opportunity for believers to show that they do indeed believe, in the faithfulness of God and in His provision precisely in such times. Joining still in Kingdom work and trust in such times, what if, with increased faith and ecstatic abandonment to God, we gave more?

Denominational Roles Yet?

Denominational leaders, whatever else their job may continue to be today, are to be Holy Spirited disturbers and catalysts who also are to exhort and encourage churches towards their missional purposes in their communities. They will try to find and help to tell stories of where faithful, continual and new mission-shaped ministries are happening. They will seek to leverage such forward so that other examples and attempts at faithful mission-shaped living and ministry may occur.

Perhaps, as with a Google Browser home/search page, there will be little further there than pointers and search-links, to stories and resources, to gifted enablers and leaders who can help teach, challenge, nurture and enable, based on the queries and needs of those who seek their assistance.

The stories of churches still linked in the sharing of resources, mutual encouragement and inspiration, will serve as stimuli that provoke others to similar good works in their own respective, local and regional contexts.

Vulnerable in our Mission

In Luke 10, Jesus appointed 70 disciples and sent them out to the towns and villages where he intended to visit. We know that Jesus with His disciples was on his way to Jerusalem, where he would die an ignoble death on a cross.

The sending of the 70 reverberates with Old Testament imagery. Here are appointed, in one sense, the new 'elders' of Israel. They are commissioned to go and, as it were show and tell God's Presence and Rule (His Kingdom) to villages in varying places.

Thus commissioned, the disciples are to take with them no provisions - no script, no sword. They are to forage. as it were by living from the hand of those villagers in whose homes they are given entrance. They have been living and sharing the journey of Jesus. They have become, to some extent, like Him. The flavour of His life was upon them. His humble, vulnerable, not-having-a-permanent home was now also their lot. The One who showed up in a Manger and the dirt, dust, squalor and stink of a stable, was sending them to out, without many resources at all. The outcome was, to say the least, uncertain.

In the old covenant economy, vital import was given to how Israel treated guests, the strangers and foreigners among them. Remembering they had once been ill-treated foreigners and slaves in Egypt, they were commanded to treat guests as they themselves had not been treated, but rather to treat them as one of their own, to house, clothe and feed them as opportunity arose. Who knows but what they might (like Abraham and Sarah) have opportunity to entertain angels (and even the Lord) unawares?

But the seventy are sent out with quite different mandates. They are not now those 'within' - to whom outsiders might come expecting food, housing, clothing. Now the outsiders and strangers, they were to go to the villages of 'outsiders' who did not know Jesus nor the Gospel message. Instead of being the host they were to be the visitor. They were not to go only to give; they had to learn what it mean to receive.

Thus, too, their mission was one of vulnerability and necessary trust: trust in God and in the welcome, or otherwise, and the ability or want of the home-owners and hosts to whom they sought and gained entrance, to give them welcome. There's was a great mission: they were bringing the Gospel of the Kingdom. They were bringing - speaking 'Peace' to that home - the peace, as Israel knew it even if imperfectly, that embraced the entire shalom of God. They were advancing and seeking entrance for themselves and for God's message, that of the Kingdom perfection and New Creation gifts that were near, that would fully come when Jesus Himself came, bringing within him all the reality of God's Reign. It would be the shalom of healing, meaning, proper integration of all creation, justice, and the proper rule and placement of all people and places. All of God's purposes and all that was created and good in God's world, in embryonic potential and reality was very close to those who would open their door to God's people and to God's message.

We must reverse our thinking of how it is God sends forth missioners in the New Testament economy. Indeed, we are not to be static, to remain at home; we are to go. We are sent ones (apostoles). We go to their village, their home, their culture just as Jesus lay aside and came from Glory and was 'embedded' in Jewish village life and culture for the first 30 years before emerging into His public ministry. We are to go to the turf of others, to go without all the things we have as resources available to us at home and which we take for granted.

Our churches are to welcome and embrace people from other cultures and lands, with all with various kinds of illnesses or needs they may have. But in this passage Jesus sends us out without all of the resources we have been used to having available. We are vulnerable and dependent.

When sent ones go they don't always know how they're going to survive, whether they'll make it or not. Not everyone will find welcome. Words and deeds of peace and blessing may rebound off some who will stubbornly refuse to allow entrance of missional messenger into their home. And if rebuffed, we are to go on to the next home, seeking to bring near the Kingdom and all the Good News, reality and integral-shalom that God offers.

This reversal of Israel’s normal role and its transfer or incorporation as principle into the Church as a missional community reveals a new way (but a way very much as modeled by Jesus). It is a way of humility and vulnerability. It is the way forward in mission often for Jesus' disciples, also. We are sometimes simply to obey and to go, to simply show up and see whether homes and hearts will be open to us and to the Gospel.

Who's Already Doing It?

As we seek to get to know our neighbour, our community, our setting, the culture and the people we long to reach, we need to find out: Who’s already doing It? -- doing something that will help, bless and enable people in that context.

What is the ‘good news’ to this people group before or as they are introduced by our showing and telling them the GOOD NEWS? What are other churches, ministries, missions, ‘secular’ agencies, state doing already (in the direction of Kingdom work – good work, even if not yet done clearly ‘in the Name of Jesus?’

God’s work is not just done by Christians. Where can we partner, join, etc. with others (government, secular, other denominations, even other faith-groups), while still keeping our Christian witness intact & with integrity?