Archives by: Gary Hoag

During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Acts 16:9-10

“Words matter. The change of one simple word in a phrase can make all the difference.

Words convey a message, which is why it is so important for us to consider the difference between “ministry to/for the poor”, and “ministry WITH the poor.” The change of a single word makes ministry look different.

At its most basic, one form of ministry is a hand out and the other is a hand up. One form of ministry is hands-off, and the other is relational. One form of ministry will help someone out, and the other will transform lives.

It is crucial that in our churches we put an emphasis on ministry WITH the poor.

Why is that? When we are in ministry with, rather than to or for, we are respecting cultures, practices, resources, and giftedness of any given people or community. In ministry with we take the time learn names, stories, and real needs. Ministry with takes out the assumptions we tend to make about people and situations. It empowers and equips people to live into God’s reality for them.

When I’ve visited places of brokenness, poverty, and suffering, both in my community and abroad, in most cases what I’ve witnessed are not needy, helpless people. Instead I’ve met hard-working, passionate, creative, faithful people who don’t need someone to do for them, but rather someone to walk alongside them, offering support, resources, or a hand when needed.”

Katie Lineberger in “Why the “WITH” Matters in Ministry WITH the Poor” a post of the WNNC.

Notice in today’s Scripture that cross border ministry engaged a person standing and begging. This implies he was in the posture of a servant and needing some assistance. The vision was to come and to help.

Lineberger is spot on in speaking about the importance of ministry with people. At GTP we also say that such giving provides a hand up rather than a hand out, which actually creates unhealthy dependency.

If this post resonates with you, then I’d encourage you to support GTP. This is what our work all over the world is all about: empowering national workers to build trust and grow local generous giving to God’s work.

Skilled servants are crying for help! We are praying for $75,000 in the next month or so to add staff in 2022 to respond to unanticipated demand. Got a grant for part of the funding. Praying for the rest. Click to give here.

You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. Revelation 3:17

“The region of Asia Minor (called simply Asia in Roman documentation) was rather wealthy, especially its western coast and the valleys of the Lido and Lico Rivers, where the churches mentioned in chapters 2 and 3 of the Apocalypse [a.k.a. the book of Revelation] are located. During a certain period of the first century, this region underwent a time of economic recession, which reduced its relative importance in the Roman empire, but it remained a prosperous region in general terms.

Cities such as Smyrna, Ephesus, and Pergamum were important centers for that era, and others of lesser demographic importance, such as Laodicea or Thyatira, were experiencing good economic development both through their rural surroundings and through certain prosperous regional industries.

These cities, mainly Greek in origin and certainly empowered during the Hellenistic period, had been integrated into the Roman save system. It could be said that, in general, they had been transformed into cities that followed the imperial economic scheme in terms of their social formation, stratification, and class division.

This means that the “urban prosperity” to which we refer is prosperity for the aristocratic sector, the decurions supported by the Roman system under the patronage of Caesar. It is no accident, then, that in this region of the empire the worship of the emperor became very powerful, with Smyrna, Sardis, and Ephesus as important centers for this practice.”

Néstor O. Miguez in “Economics in the New Testament Apocalypticism” in God’s Economy: Biblical Studies from Latin America edited by Ross and Gloria Kinsler (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2005) 229-230.

The idea of “urban prosperity” or that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer is not a new idea. It’s also the precursor to apocalyptic times for a society.

What does this have to do with generosity? Everything. As a society flourishes, it tends toward being less generous. From there it idolizes the economic system to preserve comfort and place.

What will we do? Live according to the system or live differently? The choice is up to us. God is watching. But know this. The system we serve shows whom we worship.

If you think I am trying to shake and wake you with this post, sit with Jesus to discern what He may be saying to you. I am not trying to rob you but help you.

Read for yourself the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3. Which church are you? Some will be rich materially and yet poor because they followed the wrong system.

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need. Acts 4:32-35

“There was a community of possessions that was made concrete by giving to each one according to his or her needs, so that the community lived an alternative form of economic and social organization in which the person was more important that possessions or money. The logical consequence of this lifestyle was the absence of needy persons among them.

This constituted a unity so strong that it made possible, within an economic organization in which some had many possessions and others were hungry, a different style, in which first place was giving to the well-being of all the brothers and sisters of the community, more than individualistic well-being.”

Franklyn Pimentel Torres in “The Practice of Christian Communities” in God’s Economy: Biblical Studies from Latin America edited by Ross and Gloria Kinsler (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2005) 213.

I have safely returned home from Guatemala. Reply if you’d like a copy of my trip report. And, as this book has one more chapter, I will make one more post from it tomorrow, and move on to other reading.

I hope you have appreciated the Latin American insights linked to generosity.

Let’s sit with Torres and soak in this core idea that he has shared with us: “the community lived an alternative form of economic and social organization in which the person was more important that possessions or money.”

This is a profound idea, and as Torres notes, it’s different.

When we get to heaven and all the material possessions we possessed will be long gone. All that will be there is people. There will be no marriage or families. Just a host of brothers and sisters in God’s family.

Our generosity in this life is one of the ways we demonstrate our faith as one of those people.

It’s not that we don’t care for our immediate families. We do. But God wants to make us into a radical people that care more for the larger group, that is the family of God, because that is what we are.

So, think about it. Most people hoard for their earthly family rather than caring for their eternal family.

Rather than tell you what you should do in response. Consider yourself alerted to this eternal reality now. Sit with the Father. Reflect on the teachings of Jesus. And follow the leading of the Spirit.

My hope is that God leads you to take concrete steps that look different.

“‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” Luke 16:30-31

“It is common for societies that are nominally Christian or have a Christian background to locate the concepts of repentance and conversion within the sphere of religious language. They are conceived of as breaks in the daily march of life, a reflection of the attitudes, mentality, conduct; a recognition of errors; a change in one’s way of thinking and acting; a turning to God, and so on.

For repentance and conversion to be considered authentic, they must include all spheres of life: thought, sentiment, language, interpersonal relations, labor, and of course, economics. This is where major problems tned to arise, for egotism is manifested fundamentally in the sphere of goods, money, capital, treasure, and possessions.”

René Krüger in “Conversion of the Pocketbook: The Economic Project of Luke’s Gospel” in God’s Economy: Biblical Studies from Latin America edited by Ross and Gloria Kinsler (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2005) 169.

While sitting in Guatemala on the final morning of my visit, a poor country with amazing people, today’s Scripture strikes a chord with me. Jesus basically says that if the rich do not care about the poor, even a dead person coming back to life will not shake and wake them to repent of their egotism. That’s a strong statement.

When I board a plane later today, I will be transported back to the States. After reading Krüger’s thoughts, I am struck that the only right path to take is to ask God where repentance and conversion is necessary in my own life? As my eyes have been opened, what will I do about it? How will this experience shape my generosity?

There is one thing I know I will continue to do. After a fantastic trip with fruits that exceeded expectations, I will continue to help those in the majority world, like poor Lazarus in the parable, not with a handout that would create dependency but with a hand up to build them up as disciples. God show me areas for repentance and conversion. Amen.

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:8-10

“The story of Zacchaeus provides evidence that through actions that caused harm, through fraud, and through the thefts connected to his profession, he damaged and in fact made impossible a life of dignity for many people. The relationship with Jesus brought Zacchaeus back to his origins, restoring justice.

The fourfold return in the case of theft of means of production or of products, an act that took place during the collection, was foreseen in Exodus 21:37 (see also Numbers 5:6-7). The purpose of the return, as part of the Jewish tradition of the Jubilee, is the opportunity for the impoverished people to be rehabilitated, so that they can return to having their own independent means to produce and to live, free of processes of indebtedness! Thus, the damages can be, if not compensated, at least alleviated, and the persons who were deprived can once again have at their disposal the capital that was taken from them by fraud. They can reorganize their lives.

Moreover, Zacchaeus reclaimed a tradition of his people, namely, returning fourfold more to persons he had robbed and giving over half of his goods to persons who had entered into a process of impoverishment, perhaps even precisely because of those fraudulent actions. Zacchaeus practiced the forgiveness of debts in its full and profound sense. With that, old Jubilee traditions were revived that had been proclaimed and longed for by the suffering people.

The grace of Jesus in relation to Zacchaeus is converted into relationships of grace and commitment in the social and communal life of the people. Only in this way do rich people have a space in the ministry of Jesus and in the communities of Luke.”

Ivoni Richter Reimer in “The Forgiveness of Debts in Matthew and Luke” in God’s Economy: Biblical Studies from Latin America edited by Ross and Gloria Kinsler (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2005) 166-167.

I hope you like the new header photo of the chapel in Antigua across the street from the hotel where we are facilitating the Journey of Empowerment retreat this weekend. I also must say that am learning a lot from these Latin American authors whilst traveling with this book full of articles by Latin American scholars on God’s economy.

Today’s reading helped me see something I’ve missed in my reflections on Zacchaeus over the years. His distribution of funds must not be understood as generosity per se, as it is not portrayed as such by Jesus or Luke (though we may read it that way). Instead we must see Zacchaeus (and rich people in Luke’s narrative) as doing justice.

The giving of Zacchaeus to the poor must not be understood as generosity. His accumulation and subsequent redistribution of that which, in God’s eyes, belonged to the poor and those he cheated must be seen instead as making right the wrongs he had done. This reading is affirmed by the fact that the measure He chose linked back to justice requirements in the law.

To be generous and to do justice are different. To apply the lessons of these texts in modern times leads to two conclusions. First, sharing surplus with the poor may not be generosity after all but may, in God’s eyes, be doing justice. Two, the kind of giving Jesus celebrates demonstrates sacrificial (like the widow who put in everything) and does justice (like Zacchaeus).

So, for “salvation” to come to your house, is there a need for redistribution and justice? I am not saying that our giving can secure our eternal salvation. What I am saying is that God sees everything, that our handling of money reveals what we believe, where we place our trust, and whether or not we take seriously the teachings of Jesus regarding the handling of money.

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Matthew 6:26

“The stunning suggestion in Matthew 6:25-34 is: in order to solve the crucial human problems of sufficient food and clothing, “just say no” to the greater production values of the modernized economy of ancient agriculture with its advanced technology of sowing and reaping and storing in barns. At the same time, the text disparages—by seeing through—the dazzling refinements of imperial civilization. In contemporary terms, the proposal of Matthew 6:25-34 would be that the solution to widespread hunger and the threat of exposure is not to be found in the pursuit of ever more efficent means of material production and better distribution. Nor are the Solomonic virtues of exceeding wealth and advanced wisdom, or free-flowing international exchange and expert scribal knowledge, to be trusted. Instead, we are instructed to imitate the birds of the air and the flowers of the field… Human existence need not be imagined to occur in spite of nature but as part of the realm of God’s continuing beneficience.”

Leif E. Vaage in “The Sermon on the Mount” in God’s Economy: Biblical Studies from Latin America edited by Ross and Gloria Kinsler (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2005) 144-145.

I will share another lesson from the coffee plantation, pictured above, that illustrates the point of today’s post. Vaage rightly notes that the answer to the world’s economic challenges is not to stockpile harvest in barns but to enjoy and share all God richly supplies and to sow it for sustainability.

On the coffee tour I learned that the two seeds in each coffee bean must either be planted or consumed promptly. The coffee plantation that had thrived for over a century had no barns on it. One seed is planted right away. The other bean is dried and only good for a year after being packaged. Once opened, the bean is good for only three more months whilst ground coffee is only good for one month.

What’s the point? If we imitate the birds, we see that they enjoy and share God’s provision promptly and generously. Storing them up is senseless. It is not big barns but rather God’s beneficience that sustains the birds and us. So, why would Jesus say to imitate the birds? A closer look reveals that He is pointing us to the realities of God’s abundant economy.

This heavenly economic model demonstrates the belief that, like the birds, we can even reap where we do not sow because God can supply all things beyond our limited capacity in his abundant economy. The world’s model does not comprehend that what sustains us is not our advanced technologies but our generous God.

When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God. Leviticus 19:9-10

“Ruth works as a day laborer in the field. All day long she gleans to feed herself and her elderly widowed mother-in-law. Ruth faces exile, displacement, poverty; she takes on the chores reserved for men, bearing the sun, hunger, and cold; she valiantly develops what is considered to be her only possibility. She does not want to become a burden to anyone; she cannot and will not be idle. So she taks on the economic task on the basis of her possibilities: to work for another.”

Carmiña Nevia Velasco in “Women and Neoliberalism” in God’s Economy: Biblical Studies from Latin America edited by Ross and Gloria Kinsler (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2005) 121.

Reading this book by Latin American scholars combined with serving this week in a poor country like Guatemala has been eye-opening for me. I am seeing a new dimension of generosity. The biblical character, Ruth, was poor, but she could still be generous. She could work to care for her mother-in-law. I am learning that her choice mirrors the decisions that many people make in the majority world.

I visited Finca Filadelfia, a coffee plantation (pictured above), and took a tour with my colleagues. When I saw the workers preparing for harvest time which is coming soon I thought of Ruth. Do you know anyone who does not want to be burden on anyone but could use a break? How might you help ease the load of someone who works to care for others? Could you empower them with tools to bless those they serve? Speaking of empowering…

Today through Saturday, GTP will host the second cohort of Journey of Empowerment, or JOE, for Guatemala. To multiply faithful stewards, I will facilitate with two people who attend the first cohort last year. Pray for us. God has brought together a great group of about two dozen influential workers. Many labor for the poor, the blind, and other groups who glean. Pray the retreat is a life-changing adventure for all. Thanks.

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” Luke 10:36-37

“There is no insinuation that the needy ask for help. This may be for two reasons: to emphasize the other part, that attitudes of solidarity through be taken. Or it may be because the text is speaking about a “situation,” internalized as “normal” both for those who are fine and for the others.

And this is serious. The prophetic message acts then as a wake-up call. It makes the hearers take note of what is happening in the society, or of the social differences that divide and generate sectors of “classes” in the community.

Even more: if the text says nothing about what the needy do, or about what they should do, the force of the oracle is for those who can—and it says to them what they should do—show solidarity with them. In other words, the prophetic message proposes what Jesus in the parable of the Good Samaritan says—to be neighbor…

“Neighbor,” therefore, is not oen who is near (to the other) but one ho draws near to the other. One “becomes a neighbor” by approaching the other, by taking an initiative to draw near and help.”

José Severino Croatto in “Leviticus Jubilee Year to the Prophetic Liberation Time” in God’s Economy: Biblical Studies from Latin America edited by Ross and Gloria Kinsler (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2005) 104.

Again, I hope you are appreciating these Latin American scholarly perspectives on generosity whilst I travel and serve in Guatemala this week. Croatto helps us see that the generous neighbor for Jesus is not one is near but one who takes the initiative to draw near and helps a person in need.

Today at 8am Denver time / 4pm Cairo time, I am participating in a webinar promoted by GTP and NABLA, entitled “Steps from External Support Dependency to Local Sustainability.” But why mention this? In the webinar I cite the Good Samaritan in contrast to some helping can actually hurt.

Some help can create unhealthy dependencies rather than build healthy disciples. The key is in the movement! We cannot throw money at a problem and call it “generosity.” Instead, we show solidarity with the hurting. We take the initiative and draw near to those in need, as Croatto says, and lift them up.

Is there someone you know that you could show solidarity with right now? What if you took the initative to move toward them, to draw near to them at this time and lift them up? How might you avoid giving a handout that creates a dependency and give a hand up to build a disciple?

If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal; charge no interest. If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, return it by sunset, because that cloak is the only covering your neighbor has. What else can they sleep in? When they cry out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate. Exodus 22:25-27

“In the biblical tradition, the sabbatical year is an important law and a tradition to safeguard the people of Israel. It is a time to begin anew. After a sequence of six years of work and also of economic successes and failures, the seventh year is considered to be a time in which social relations should be restructured.

The tradition of the sabbatical year is an application of the days of the week to a sequence of years. In the Bible three variables of the theme are linked together: rest for the land in the seventh year (Exodus 23:10-11), the freeing of slaves (Exodus 21:1-22; Deuteronomy 15:12-18), and the forgiveness of debts every seventh year (Deuteronomy 15:1-11)…

The seventh year became a special year of liberation. It is a Jubilee time, a time of grace… The laws of liberation of slaves and remission of debts constitute a profound intervention in the social relations of dependence in ancient Israelite society, establishing a “time of grace” so that the impoverished and indebted can begin life anew.”

Haroldo Reimer in “A Time of Grace in Order to Begin Anew” in God’s Economy: Biblical Studies from Latin America edited by Ross and Gloria Kinsler (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2005) 71-72.

Whilst I am traveling and ministering in Guatemala, I hope you are enjoying the insights from Latin American scholars on topics related to generosity. And the new header photo above is the time of sharing biblical teaching and practical tools with 28 workers in the G2G network of ministries yesterday.

Haroldo offers us keen insights on the sabbatical year in the teachings of the Old Testament as a “time of grace” mapped out for His people by their compassionate God. The teachings related to rest for the land, the freeing of slaves, and forgiveness of debts. They were safeguards to ensure that God’s people offered the needy a time of grace.

We need such safeguards today. These do not appear as not handouts that create dependencies but rather seasons of providing a helping hand so that after the season, the person is free to begin life anew. Some people might think this teaching as utopian. On the contrary, grace makes us such people in the New Testament.

It is happening now. After yesterday’s session (pictured above) Laura Mazariegos of Potter’s House came to me and thanked me for coming to Guatemala on multiple trips. She said the generosity and accountability teachings have shaped her life and service and influenced how they many live and work, and also impacted many ministries too.

What’s my point and how does it related to generosity? When God’s people lived out the sabbatical year, they gave a hand up with compassion and multiplied people of grace. In the early church, this led to no needy people among them (Acts 4:34). Know anyone who is impoverised and indebted that you could assist over time toward freedom?

Then [Jesus] said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” Luke 12:15

“I would dare to point out at least four themes that run through the different interpretations of the Bible with respect to economics.

1. The condition of the poor—aliens, widows, orphans, the weak or vulnerable—appears almost always in the interpretations, even in the cases in which it is seen as a result of laziness or carelessness, as a challenge or a call to piety, almsgiving, justice, solidarity, or vindication.

2. Economic life is conceived always as a question of community. Rich and poor are always interrelated. “Economic destinies” are not isolated but related—in solidarity, destructively, or through dependence. In the final analysis, all are included as conflict, as demand, as promise.

3. God demands justice: Clement can see it as sharing; Calvin distinguishes charity and communicative justice; Duchrow sees it as a structural matter. But all, in one way or another, try to link the theme of economics to the demand for justice.

4. All these texts underline the risk that economic power represents, either by enclosing human beings in the realm of the material, by making them insensitive to the neighbor, “prisoners of Mammon,” or by leading them to the “idolatry” of wealth, of money, or of vanity.”

José Miguez Bonino in “The Economic Dimension of Biblical Hermeneutics” in in God’s Economy: Biblical Studies from Latin America edited by Ross and Gloria Kinsler (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2005) 41.

Bonino does a great job summarizing the themes linked to money in the Scriptures. Which one stuck out to you? I am in Latin America right now, and the point which jumped out to me was #2.

Latin Americans grasp the “community” aspect of money and possessions. As an American, my culture tells me everything I possess is mine, because I earned it. This thinking disconnects me from others. It’s toxic.

Jesus would say “Beware!” because such thinking turns us into rich fools instead of generous stewards. Our care for the poor is a reflection of our piety or lack thereof. God demands justice and care of neighbor.

At dinner last night I learned that a network of churches in Ecuador said they were raising money for missionaries and the effort reached its goal. Then, sadly, the funds were spent on other efforts.

This example of corruption in the church caused shame to be brought to the name of Christ and crushed local giving. Julieta Murillo was wounded from this. She said our meetings are “healing” her and giving her “hope.”

Today is a full day of meetings and biblical teaching with Christian workers. The goal is to multiply faithful stewards and equip national workers to follow standards to grow local giving. Appreciate your prayers.