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I may have written on this before… sorry… hahahaha… But even if I have I think it’s something worth reflecting on again 
. It’s harsh, so buckle your seat belts and enjoy (or not) the ride 
I watched a video recently of a preacher calling prosperity into the lives of his congregation through prayer… Everybody responded, naturally, I mean who doesn’t like the idea of earning more and living better? His ministry, it would appear, was succesful also – there was a LOT of people crammed into that building – they were clapping and cheering and taking notes… but again, who wouldn’t do those things if they thought that they brought a big fat cash blessing…?
I have 2 thoughts on the topic.
1) Absolute Arrogance
Every Sunday in every country on every continent people hear prosperity teachings… things like pressed down, shaken together and pouring over or Jesus came so that we may have life and life in abundance get thrown around to inspire people to give more, attend more, pray harder, read more, serve longer… We have honestly given ourselves the idea that IF we are good christians God will bless us… BUT IT’S CRAP… and just quietly it’s both arrogant and offensive to live in that mistaken mindset…
Here’s why.
In 2009 I travelled to Fiji – I preached in a few churches and did some leadership training with a bunch of youth leaders… I met a guy there called Richie. Richie is a pastor’s son – he is a strong, intelligent and good-looking guy with a BUNCH of dreams… Things that HE wants to do in the name of Jesus. I had the privilege of praying for Richie one evening and watching the Spirit of God come upon his words and upon his music. His passion was always people… it always will be… The struggle for Richie is that there isn’t a lot of money or resource where he comes from. food is scarce amongst the people in the surrounding villages, the church is like a lean-to – random bits of timber or sheeting nailed together as best it could be… There isn’t entertainment like there is here, not a great public transport system, he can’t just send out a mass text or email because not everyone has access to that kind of technology……… by the standards of a prosperity preaching church Richie (obviously) just isn’t connecting enough with God… or maybe he doesn’t tithe enough… perhaps it’s because he doesn’t read as much as other people? BUT IT’S CRAP… That night amongst those people Richie prayed as hard and as passionately about seeing God touch his community as anyone I had ever seen… His love for God is genuine – his commitment to seeing people FIND God is real… His financial situation and that of the community he lives in has NOTHING to do with how christian he is… because truthfully – if it was the measure – he would be living better than me… than all of us…
Truth is after travelling throughout large parts of the third world I have met 1000′s of people like Richie. Christians who give up EVERYTHING to serve God… missionaries who left their homes, pastors who run 5 or 6 churches in 5 or 6 different villages every week, doctors and nurses who administer medication for free every single day of their lives… I am not worth more than them… and frankly assuming that my blessings are as a result of my faithfulness to God is a slap in the face to those people… and they deserve better from us than that.
2) Absolute Ignorance
I believe that we are blessed so that we can be a blessing. The bible tells us that to whom much is given much is expected… And for some reason we think that going to church, being involved in a ‘team’, going to a small group, paying our tithe, sponsoring a child, even going on a short-term mission trip is somehow going satisfy God… as if that even comes close to the blessings we have because of him?!
We know the statistics about poverty – we know how many hundreds of innocent children die every day of preventable diseases, we know that water is the biggest killer on the planet, we know that most of the world lives on less than $2 a day… we know it… and yet somehow we still believe that those things I mentioned before are somehow enough?
I remember a conversation that Jesus had with the Disciples about forgiveness – how many times should I forgive he was asked… Jesus response was profound… and gut wrechingly, life changingly, pain stakingly DIFFICULT… you must forgive them seven times seventy seven… What Jesus was trying to tell them was: YOU CAN NEVER FORGIVE THEM ENOUGH… ever… it’s ongoing, it’s always, it’s with everything you have… And our life is meant to be lived that way…
If we aren’t constantly giving, constantly praying, constantly serving then we aren’t doing it enough… And (this is where it gets brutal) if you think that it’s okay to live at all in excess while God’s children suffer then your living in absolute ignorance…
Sorry for the downer…….. we’ll… kinda… hahahaha
Adam
This took up a fair amount of my time recently… This video was done by our friends in Epik Films and Bulls and Arrows – enjoy
So it took a little while longer to churn this one out than I had promised… my bad… I got out of the discipline of writing here – and it may take me some time to get back into it…hahaha…
I spent a bit of time reflecting on how angry Tim is at the institution we call ‘church’ and if you read my last post you will see that I at least acknowledge his right to feel that way and even go so far as to agree with him on a few thoughts…….. That being said Tim is at risk of himself being painted in the same unjust and hypocritical light he paints the church in…
For centuries the church has been criticized for standing on it’s ‘soap box’ to condemn the decisions man makes away from God… Murder, adultery, jealousy, greed, manipulation… and yet as loudly as they have stood against them they have lived in them… and for the outsider looking in it would seem that the church doesn’t put it’s money where it’s mouth is… You say God is love? then why worship in multi million dollar facilities when children die of curable diseases? And honestly Tim, that frustrates me too… BUT I want to remind you that the largest independent aid organizations in the world are christian organizations… Salvation Army, World Vision, Compassion International, Samaritans Purse… the list goes on… The fact is ‘The Church’ is responsible for delivering Billions of dollars of aid to third world countries every year… But you choose not to acknowledge that… Or even see it?
Why?
Perspective… Your perspective has been so clouded by the apparent hypocrisy of the church that even when it DOES do something good you don’t see it… and that my friend is unfortunate – because everyday on every continent around the world something beautiful happens as a result of a very real God being reflected through his church… and I would LOVE for you to see it …
Here is where you need to be careful Tim, you stand on your soap box and you condemn a group of people for the choices they make… and whilst some of them need condemning you need to be aware of the fact that people like you are watching you make those comments… and they are watching the things that you do… and asking of you the same questions that you are asking of the church…
Does he know how many lives that (insert item here) could have saved?
Is he aware that 1000′s of children die every year to produce clothing made by that brand?
Unfortunately Tim your human… as are the people charged with leading our churches… and as such your fallible… and you make decisions that aren’t always in the best interest of the world… and you want me to be okay with that???? Sure bud – I’m okay with that … I just hope one day you can be okay with it too……
Peace
Adam
Sooooooooooooooooo it’s been a while… partly because I’ve had a LOT on my plate, partly because I haven’t had much to say, and partly because I haven’t felt like I’ve entirely been in a place where I should be saying things… I’m not going to revisit that stuff but if you want to know more you can dig through the archive’s and read some of my older posts… what’s important is I’m on my way back …
I recently had the privilege of seeing Tim Minchin perform his new show with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra… First up the guy is an INCREDIBLE showman… he is funny, he is intelligent and he is extremely talented… That being said – he HATES the church… and our expression of what God looks like. So much so that he has hundreds of thousands of people around the world singing his humourous exaggerations about what the church looks like and how irrelevant it is… His show this time was no different – going so far as to call God a **nt. Obviously, I don’t like it… and my being there is in no way meant to seem as a support of that opinion…
But I figure I can have 1 of 2 responses… one, do what most christians do and get frustrated with his ‘attitude’ and his ‘unwillingness to reason’ and write the guy off completely… or two, get fascinated as to WHY someone would reach that conclusion and improve HOW we communicate the gospel better… I chose option two …
And honestly, that is a MUCH harder choice to make because it means we… I… Have to look INWARD at our… my… own error and ask the tougher question – how did we… I… contribute to this mentality? Not just with Tim, but with anyone?
Honestly, Tim’s frustration is valid… and to remove his right to be frustrated is not a path we have authority to go down… so what is Tim’s frustration? He is frustrated by some of the things that frustrate many who opposed ‘The Church’ in recent years… our perceived focus on money, questions around why a loving God would let people starve, why middle class people pray middle class prayers while kids die of curable diseases, why churches have multi million dollar facilities and multi million dollar budgets without a perceived accountability to how THEIR money is spent… and of course like many ‘intellectuals’ – using the bible to prove God’s existence to someone who doesn’t hold the bible as credible seems like stupidity… at best…
All that laid out – do we really WANT to learn from someone so ‘critical’ and so ‘unteachable?’ short answer: yes, and the future of the church depends on our ability to listen to our critics… And most importantly – how do we do it without compromising the gospel…
For starters there is no short answer to any of his, or anyone’s, frustrations – but that doesn’t mean as a church we aren’t responsible for trying to address them… And honestly, SOME of his frustrations need to be looked at, scrutinised and addressed INTERNALLY and others are things that will not change without an acceptance for the need to have faith.
Take our nature for prayer… we pray for US all the time – for our church to grow, for our programs to improve, for the healing of our family or friend, for financial prosperity… and those things ARE important… but externally, looking in, it does look selfish… and hypocritical for God to do MORE for us when it would appear he has done so little for others… truth is – we know God has done EVERYTHING necessary for life and godliness through the full knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence. (2 peter 1:3). But the part of that puzzle we always leave out is that PART of that everything is in us… is us… part of God’s response to the plight of the hungry, the naked, the imprisoned, the sick and the homeless is us… and we don’t take the call to THEIR needs as seriously as we take the call to our own… and that IS sad…
What about money? for decades people have accused the church of being ‘money focussed’ – and we have argued it and justified it and largely ignored their feedback as ‘opposition’ rather than seeing it as a chance to change our perceptions… I wonder how many churches are even committing 10% of their total budget to missions… or 10% of their total budget to local community work?! I promise you this: No body is going to wake up on Sunday and decide to go to church for the first time because you have a new lighting desk… they would go if they felt like you actually cared about them… and about their community… but they don’t feel that – and that is our fault…
I wonder how Tim would criticise the early church? how would he criticise a movement of people who committed everything that had to the service of the kingdom and to the caring of the poor? How would he criticise a community that shared and divided everything – regardless of race, regardless of stature, regardless of gender… could he criticise a movement like that?
I am going to do another piece entitled ‘Thing’s Tim Minchin could learn from the church’ – but I think it’s always better to look internally at growth and change before we try and look at what needs to change externally…
much love,
adam
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