Archives by: Gary Hoag

“Never lay up money for yourselves or your families. Trust in God from day to day, and verily you shall be fed.”

Adoniram Judson (1788-1850) missionary to Burma (Myanmar) in “Advice to Missionary Candidates to the Foreign Missionary Association of the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution” June 25, 1832, in The Life of Adoniram Judson, Volume 3, by Edward Judson (New York: Anson D. F. Randolph & Company) 577.

I arrived safely in Hong Kong today with my good friend, Chi-Chung Keung. We will meet church planters this weekend that serve God throughout Asia. If they ask my advice, I will likely share something similar to this statement that Judson gave with nine other brief statements to missionary candidates. Why? There’s no other way to live than to depend on God from day to day.

“I wish with all my heart, that everyone who loves our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, would in some way or other engage in [missions]…In respect to contributions for defraying the expenses, money will doubtless be wanting; and suppose the rich were to embark a portion of that wealth over which God has made them stewards, in this important undertaking, perhaps there are few ways that would turn to a better account at last. Nor ought it to be confined to the rich; if persons in more moderate circumstances were to devote a portion…of their annual increase to the Lord…here would not only be enough to support the ministry of the gospel at home, and to encourage village preaching in our respective neighbourhoods, but to defray the expenses of carrying the gospel into the heathen world.”

William Carey in “An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathen” (Leicester: Ann Ireland, 1792) 84-85.

Over the next week I will be traveling to Hong Kong and Thailand with Pioneers Hong Kong. Consequently, the focus of my meditations over the next week will center around comments from noteworthy missionaries and Christian servants who spoke of the connection between the resources in our stewardship and the deployment of the same toward missions. The apostle Paul described this engagement as “partnership in the gospel” (cf. Philippians 1:3-6)

Few make this connection more clearly than Carey, whose two points are both profound and pointed. First, he argues that “there are few ways” funds could be used better. Seriously, can you think of a better use of funds than helping a spiritually dead person find life in Jesus Christ? Second, he says that if the rich and those of moderate means all participated, then money would not be an issue at all, in the work of the gospel both at home and abroad.

“Stewardship is nothing less than a complete lifestyle, a total accountability and responsibility before God. Stewardship is what we do after we say we believe, that is, after we give our love, loyalty, and trust to God, from whom each and every aspect of our lives comes as a gift.”

Ronald Vallet in “The Church: Its Mission and Its Funding” in Journal of Stewardship (Indianapolis: Ecumenical Center for Stewardship Studies, 1994) as recounted by Wesley K. Willmer in God & Your Stuff: The Vital Link Between Your Possessions and Your Soul (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2002) 53.

I am working on an outline that I will co-teach with mentor and friend, Wes Willmer, so I was re-reading parts of his classic book, God & Your Stuff: The Vital Link Between Your Possessions and Your Soul, which is must-read if you have not already read it.

I appreciate Vallet’s definition because when we understand our role as stewards and embrace the attitude that everything is a gift, it changes how we interact with God, with others, and how we handle all that God has placed in our stewardship. We take a step toward becoming grateful, generous stewards.

“All that exists is God’s gift to man, and all exists to make God known to man, to make man’s life communion with God. It is divine love made food, made life for man. God blesses everything He creates, and in biblical language, this means He makes all creation the sign and means of His presence and wisdom, love and revelation.”

Alexander Schmemann (1921-1983) in For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy (Crestwood: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2000) 14.

Tonight Jenni and I will begin attending a seven-week video series with couples at our church called “For the Life of the World: Letters to the Exiles” inspired, at least in part, by this classic book. Schmemann’s thesis is that everything is a gift from God to man to be enjoyed and shared for the life of the world. The video series presents this idea with contemporary genius! Schmemann does it with celebration and caution: spelling out the implications of both living and not living in accordance with this reality.

Schmemann adds “as long as we live after the fashion of this world, as long, in other words, as we make our life an end in itself, no meaning and no goal can stand, for they are dissolved in death. It is only when we give up freely, totally, unconditionally, the self-sufficiency of our life, when we put all its meaning in Christ, that the ‘newness of life’ – which means a new possession of the world – is given to us. The world then truly becomes the sacrament of Christ’s presence, the growth of the Kingdom and of life eternal” (90).

“To die to self is to set aside what we want in this moment and to focus instead on loving God with everything we’ve got and valuing others as highly as we value ourselves (Matt. 22:37-39). This moves us away from self-centeredness and closer to becoming open-hearted followers of Christ who care deeply for others. It’s much easier to pay attention to the concerns, interests, and needs of people when our own interests no longer consume us.”

Jan Johnson in “Discovering Much More: Moving Away from Self-centeredness to Caring Deeply for Others” in Christian Leader magazine, January/February 2015.

What consumes your thoughts? I’m serious. What stuff dominated your mind yesterday? The day before? God desires us to think about Him and those around us. Do we? Why or why not? And if we are honest with ourselves, what do our answers to these questions reveal about us?

“I’ve discovered that it is always inconvenient to love my neighbors. I’ve learned that every person God brings into my life has unsurpassable worth, and that they are worth Jesus dying for. It is irrelevant whether or not they help increase attendance or help us meet our monthly giving. They are my neighbors, and I am called to love them. The church is not a business where we evaluate how our time affects the bottom line. There is only one bottom line for the church–to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves.”

John Richardson in “God calls us to love our neighbors even when it hurts” article in Christian Leader magazine, January/February 2015.

This California pastor is spot on! Far too many churches measure “the bottom line” in terms of money and budget, when it should be associated with loving God and loving our neighbors. Before the new year gets rolling too fast, let us pause and ask ourselves these questions: What’s my church’s bottom line? Should we find ourselves understaffed, the Master said to pray for laborers (cf. Luke 10:2). Should we find ourselves in need, He said to ask the Father for what we need (cf. Matthew 7:7-11). In the meantime, we must focus on what He asked us to focus on: loving God and loving our neighbors.

“The profane is the opposite of the sacramental. “Profane” means flat, empty, one-dimensional, exhausted. The market ideology wants us to believe that the world is profane–life consists of buying and selling, weighing, measuring and trading, and then finally sinking down into death and nothingness.

But Jesus presents and entirely different kind of economy, one infused with the mystery of abundance and a cruciform kind of generosity. Five thousand are fed and 12 baskets of food are left over–one for every tribe of Israel. Jesus transforms the economy by blessing it and breaking it beyond self-interest. From broken Friday bread comes Sunday abundance. In this and in the following account of a miraculous feeding in Mark, people do not grasp, hoard, resent, or act selfishly; they watch as the juices of heaven multiply the bread of earth. Jesus reaffirms Genesis 1.

When people forget that Jesus is the bread of the world, they start eating junk food–the food of the Pharisees and of Herod, the bread of moralism and of power. To often the church forgets the true bread and is tempted by junk food. Our faith is not just about spiritual matters; it is about the transformation of the world. The closer we stay to Jesus, the more we will bring a new economy of abundance to the world.”

Walter Brueggemann in “The Liturgy of Abundance, the Myth of Scarcity” from The Christian Century, March 24-31, 1999: 342-347. This whole article is worth reading.

While I quoted a different excerpt on 27 June 2012, I am thankful that long time friend, Brian Fort, at the Mission Increase Foundation recently urged me to read it again. I actually am heading over there today to meet with Bryan and Suzanne Chrisman of National Christian Foundation with whom he shares office space here in Denver.

We must cease following the market ideology of scarcity and, for our own good, stop eating junk food! Why? Our existence in God’s economy is abundant and there’s more than enough of the bread of life for everyone to go around (cf. John 6:35)!

“Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace. Money will come if we seek first the Kingdom of God — the rest will be given.”

Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997) in A Gift for God (New York: Harper Collins, 1996) 33-34. I’m thankful my friends at Generous Church brought this quote to my attention in their 7 January 2015 blog post, and I located the source in this classic book.

What does it mean to raise funds of love, kindness, understanding, and peace? It’s making the Kingdom of God a higher priority than anything else, including what we will eat, what we will drink, and what we will wear (cf. Matthew 6:25-34)!

“The Christian movement must be the living, breathing promise to society that it is possible to live out the values of Christ–that is, to be a radical, troubling alternative to the power imbalances in the empire. In a world of greed and consumerism, the church ought to be a community of generosity and selflessness. In a host empire that is committed to marginalizing the poor, resisting the place of women, causing suffering to the disenfranchised, the Christian community must be generous to a fault, pursuant of justice, flushed with mercy.”

Michael Frost in Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2006) 15-16. I’m thankful my friends at Generous Church brought this book to my attention in their 7 January 2015 blog post. I read excerpts online and just purchased a copy.

Today I am at the Evangelical Free Church of America office in Minneapolis. I am thankful for the privilege of rallying pastors and leaders in this movement to live as generous and selfless exiles in the empire. We experience elements of God’s kingdom now, but much of it we have not grasped yet. So what should we do? We must show the world the radical, generous love of God.

“There are basically two kinds of people: givers and takers. A taker’s gonna take because at the core of their being they are convinced there will never be enough. In other words, they are practical atheists. They really don’t believe in God. A giver’s gonna give because at the core of their being they are convinced there will always be more than enough. They believe in the abundance of God. We all want to think of ourselves as givers. Thinking it doesn’t make it so. Wise living means generous giving. It’s how God created the world to work. It’s how God created us to live.”

J.D. Walt is Chief Sower at www.seedbed.com and today’s Meditation comes from his 11 January 2015 daily text entitled “A Taker’s Gonna Take. A Giver’s Gonna Give”. I subscribe to this daily text and commend it to you: it’s spiritually rich and free for everyone.

Here’s the Scripture on which J.D. based today’s post: Proverbs 11:24-25 (NIV).

One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.

So are you a giver or a taker? In other words, do you live like you believe in God or not?