For us to be missional, we need to encourage missional church leaders. The average pew-warmer, no matter how many sermons on outreach they hear, will only be involved with people outside of their comfort zone on occassion, and still be ill-equipped to know how to speak Christ cross-sub-culturally.
So we need to develop missional leaders. Yet, in my experience, the established church is focused on developing what they already have, to replicate what they consider to be "successful programs." But true outreach is not to reach out to a culture already sturated by some kind of gospel teaching, but to connect with cultures and sub-cultures that are not experiencing the true gospel of Jesus in word and deed.
The middle class Americans already have the Warren- and Hyble-clones. African Americans, both older and newer have their own sub-culture outreaches and churches. And the emerging church is a strong beginning for the up and coming educated class. But there are many sub-cultures in America that aren't being reached effectively. The homeless, for instance, who have many "missions", but few churches. The alternative cultures. And those completely disenchanted by church culture in any form (I saw today a church board which said, "An opportunity for those who are disgusted by church-- every Sunday morning" I laughed to myself because if they were disgusted by church, why do you think they would come into a church building on the standard Christian morning. Cultural assumptions like that are exactly the kind of stuff they are trying to avoid.)
Why don't we have more churches for these folks? For sub-cultures that reject standard church culture altogether? Because the standard church won't pay for missional leaders to do this. Now, I admit that many missional leaders are expecting to be paid full salary for full time work, and given the financial structure of the church, that just won't work. But the church also is unwilling to pay for alternative churches, which will not abide without full church support, both financial and encouragement-wise. Churches are willing to pay for a small "outreach" or "mission", but not accept it as a full, equal church unless they accept the cultural assumptions of the original church.
I recently heard of a church in Seattle who had a pastor couple who was interested in doing outreach to homeless youth. After ten years of "paying thier dues" in the large middle class church, they were finally supported to begin a homeless youth church. With only one condition-- that they do the church plant somewhere other than Seattle. Not because the original church would have competition from the other church (the middle class church would never fully welcome homeless youth), but because they needed some distance between the churches.
I am not faulting the church in Seattle. Actually, it shows some cultural insight that many of us lack (myself included). The alternative cultures, we need to remember, aren't just looking for a new kind of church-- they are rejecting church culture. And this is something that the current parishner can't accept. They can't accept that the songs, service and preaching they are so blessed by actually drive some people away from God. But it is the truth.
How can the church really support true outreach to the lost? How can this be done, given that a missional leader would have to be on both sides of a cultural war, a double agent, so to speak?
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
A Memorial
Ron Ferber was attacked. That is how he felt, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
He was a homeless man who dealt with mental health issues and mostly kept to himself. He dumpster dived for a living, recycling cans and bottles and eating what decent food he could find. He was also a collector of various items that he found. He had one tub full of jewelry he found in dumpsters, another plastic bottle full of bottle caps. Another container was full of old coins. He would take whatever others thought were worthless, collect them and protect them. Once a container was full, he dug a hole near his camp and buried it.
He suffered the indignities of all the homeless. There are always difficulties finding a safe and clean place to go to the bathroom. Some would yell at him for being in or close to a dumpster, and he would move on. Some would look at his obvious homeless attire and state of hygine and tell him to get a job. All of this bothered him, but there was one indignity that he couldn't abide: harrasement of the police.
As far as Ron was concerned, he shouldn't have to be approached by the police at all. First of all, he was a citizen of the U.S. Secondly, he was law-abiding. He didn't break in anything to steal, most of the dumpsters he went into he had permission to go in. He kept to himself, and bothered no one who didn't bother him. But the police would seek him out. They would ask for his I.D. and ask him questions as if they assumed he was a criminal whom they had to keep track of. Perhaps he could go a month without them stopping him and putting him through the ritual of humiliation, but they would always find him again.
He couldn't stand it. He couldn't live with it. After one time of being questioned by the police, he announced, "The next time the police question me, I'm going to kill myself!"
The next time he was found, he was dead in his sleeping bag in the midst of his camp.
Unfortunately, this is not the end of the story of Ron Ferber.
One of Ron's aquaintences found Ron, dead. He wanted Ron's body to be treated with respect and buried, but he feared the police too much to call 911 for the authorities to care for his body. So the body was left.
Rumors among a few people spread that a body was lying there, just a stone's throw from a busy street in Gresham. A couple of meth addicts, housed in downtown Gresham, decided to check it out. Just for fun, they brought a video camera. After they found the body, they immediately opened his mouth and found what they were looking for-- fillings. They took a pair of pliers and pulled out all the teeth with fillings, videotaping the whole scene, enjoying themselves greatly. They sold the fillings for some twenty bucks, enough for a single hit of dope.
They had so much fun doing this illicit deed that they couldn't keep it to themselves. So every time someone came to visit them, they would sit the person down and show them the videotape, laughing all the while. Finally, one person was so disgusted with the abuse of a corpse, with the disrespect of a human being, he decided to do something about it. Again, he didn't want to get too involved himself. He was homeless and did not want any contact with the police. So he came to my house and told me about it, hoping that I would have compassion for this poor man.
That very Sunday afternoon, he and I went to the body. I wanted to see the body before I called it in to make sure that it wasn't just a rumor. I took a flashlight and peered into the wood box that Ron called his home. Outside the box, the smell wasn't as bad as I expected. As I looked in, I couldn't see much at first. Just a sleeping bag and a rotton banana resting on it. Then I looked closer. That was not a banana, that was his arm, shriveled and darkened by heat. I pulled the bag down a bit and flashed the light to his face. It was all decayed, the flesh mostly gone, eaten by various animals over the months he had laid there.
I backed away from the camp and called 911. The police came, and the coroners. I left just as the news crew arrived-- it must have been a slow news day for them to have bothered covering a dead homeless man discovered in the brush. Of course, after the news of the corpse abuse came out, there was certainly something newsworthy about that. Each of the corpse abusers received a few month in jail for their fun.
But why was Ron put in that situation? Because he was homeless. If he were not homeless, then the police wouldn't have bothered with a man who prefered to keep to himself. If he were not homeless, he would have had the dignity to not commit suicide. Were he not homeless, the body would have been disposed of immediately, with dignity. If he were not homeless, he wouldn't have been seen as a means of income, a thing to be played with.
The question I have is not how could we have helped Ron not be homeless so that he could have avoided such indignities. Rather, I am asking why our society feels it necessary to dehumanize the homeless to such a degree that anyone could think that treating the homeless in this way-- with humiliation, with abuse, with neglect--would be acceptable.
Should any human being be treated in this way? If not, then why do we allow the homeless to be dehumanized to such a degree during their life so that some can feel right to treat them with humiliation after their death? What caused this abuse? The desire for drugs? The treatment by the police? Or the attitude of society as a whole about the homeless?
Let's face facts: None of us would want to be treated like we treat the homeless. None of us would want our children or parents treated this humiliation. None of us would want our friends to be seen as unworthy of food or a decent place to go to the bathroom. So why should we allow the homeless to be treated this way? And what can be done to deliver other Ron Ferbers from a cycle of indignity and suicide?
He was a homeless man who dealt with mental health issues and mostly kept to himself. He dumpster dived for a living, recycling cans and bottles and eating what decent food he could find. He was also a collector of various items that he found. He had one tub full of jewelry he found in dumpsters, another plastic bottle full of bottle caps. Another container was full of old coins. He would take whatever others thought were worthless, collect them and protect them. Once a container was full, he dug a hole near his camp and buried it.
He suffered the indignities of all the homeless. There are always difficulties finding a safe and clean place to go to the bathroom. Some would yell at him for being in or close to a dumpster, and he would move on. Some would look at his obvious homeless attire and state of hygine and tell him to get a job. All of this bothered him, but there was one indignity that he couldn't abide: harrasement of the police.
As far as Ron was concerned, he shouldn't have to be approached by the police at all. First of all, he was a citizen of the U.S. Secondly, he was law-abiding. He didn't break in anything to steal, most of the dumpsters he went into he had permission to go in. He kept to himself, and bothered no one who didn't bother him. But the police would seek him out. They would ask for his I.D. and ask him questions as if they assumed he was a criminal whom they had to keep track of. Perhaps he could go a month without them stopping him and putting him through the ritual of humiliation, but they would always find him again.
He couldn't stand it. He couldn't live with it. After one time of being questioned by the police, he announced, "The next time the police question me, I'm going to kill myself!"
The next time he was found, he was dead in his sleeping bag in the midst of his camp.
Unfortunately, this is not the end of the story of Ron Ferber.
One of Ron's aquaintences found Ron, dead. He wanted Ron's body to be treated with respect and buried, but he feared the police too much to call 911 for the authorities to care for his body. So the body was left.
Rumors among a few people spread that a body was lying there, just a stone's throw from a busy street in Gresham. A couple of meth addicts, housed in downtown Gresham, decided to check it out. Just for fun, they brought a video camera. After they found the body, they immediately opened his mouth and found what they were looking for-- fillings. They took a pair of pliers and pulled out all the teeth with fillings, videotaping the whole scene, enjoying themselves greatly. They sold the fillings for some twenty bucks, enough for a single hit of dope.
They had so much fun doing this illicit deed that they couldn't keep it to themselves. So every time someone came to visit them, they would sit the person down and show them the videotape, laughing all the while. Finally, one person was so disgusted with the abuse of a corpse, with the disrespect of a human being, he decided to do something about it. Again, he didn't want to get too involved himself. He was homeless and did not want any contact with the police. So he came to my house and told me about it, hoping that I would have compassion for this poor man.
That very Sunday afternoon, he and I went to the body. I wanted to see the body before I called it in to make sure that it wasn't just a rumor. I took a flashlight and peered into the wood box that Ron called his home. Outside the box, the smell wasn't as bad as I expected. As I looked in, I couldn't see much at first. Just a sleeping bag and a rotton banana resting on it. Then I looked closer. That was not a banana, that was his arm, shriveled and darkened by heat. I pulled the bag down a bit and flashed the light to his face. It was all decayed, the flesh mostly gone, eaten by various animals over the months he had laid there.
I backed away from the camp and called 911. The police came, and the coroners. I left just as the news crew arrived-- it must have been a slow news day for them to have bothered covering a dead homeless man discovered in the brush. Of course, after the news of the corpse abuse came out, there was certainly something newsworthy about that. Each of the corpse abusers received a few month in jail for their fun.
But why was Ron put in that situation? Because he was homeless. If he were not homeless, then the police wouldn't have bothered with a man who prefered to keep to himself. If he were not homeless, he would have had the dignity to not commit suicide. Were he not homeless, the body would have been disposed of immediately, with dignity. If he were not homeless, he wouldn't have been seen as a means of income, a thing to be played with.
The question I have is not how could we have helped Ron not be homeless so that he could have avoided such indignities. Rather, I am asking why our society feels it necessary to dehumanize the homeless to such a degree that anyone could think that treating the homeless in this way-- with humiliation, with abuse, with neglect--would be acceptable.
Should any human being be treated in this way? If not, then why do we allow the homeless to be dehumanized to such a degree during their life so that some can feel right to treat them with humiliation after their death? What caused this abuse? The desire for drugs? The treatment by the police? Or the attitude of society as a whole about the homeless?
Let's face facts: None of us would want to be treated like we treat the homeless. None of us would want our children or parents treated this humiliation. None of us would want our friends to be seen as unworthy of food or a decent place to go to the bathroom. So why should we allow the homeless to be treated this way? And what can be done to deliver other Ron Ferbers from a cycle of indignity and suicide?
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
"To Be Loved"
Excellent video on the homeless shot in Philedelphia. Only 12 minutes and has a good song by Peter Gabriel:
http://www.markberger.com/movie/tobeloved.htm
http://www.markberger.com/movie/tobeloved.htm
Discussion on healthcare
Unfortunately, Bono was right about the way things are for many Americans these days, when he sang, “The rich stay healthy, the sick stay poor.”
JDaniel
jdaniel,
I don’t think it is the state’s job to help anyone. They are to prevent harm, to protect rights, and to enforce contracts. But not help the needy. That is the unique and exclusive responsibility of the church.
Is a direct benefit better than an indirect benefit? Necessarily?
I am against regulation and oversight because I am against the existence of a pagan institution holding the authority to oversee or regulate, and I see no reason to believe why such a regulatory institution would have incentives more correctly aligned with consumers than insurers Insurance companies face more immediate feedback from consumers than regulatory agencies do, and have incentives to lower costs and make processes more efficient, while regulatory agencies have incentive for spending and expanding their budgets.
Unfortunately, Bono is wrong, because only a very small percentage of the poor remain poor for a significant length of time in relatively free economies. Everywhere we find poverty we will also find privileged individuals protecting their privilege.
Nathanael Snow
Bono’s not wrong. Although in that song (”Crumbs Under the Table”) he was specifically speaking of developing countries, the quote could just as well have been talking about the U.S.
I work among homeless folks. About one tenth of all people in the US are under the poverty line. And about one tenth of those folks will spend time on the street each year. Many of them spend all of there time there. And of those who are on the street, 55% have no kind of health insurance, as opposed to 15% of the rest of the population. I have personally seen two people die because they were given serious hospital care and then released to go back and live on the street or in a shelter.
“Free” economies have their scapegoats. The way of the world is that if someone is to have success and health then someone else must do without.
May the kingdom come.
Steve K
“Opening the free market I highly doubt will fix this, since a free, open market in every other sector has led to monopoly and higher costs.”
The free market tends to lower prices. Governmental intrusion almost always raises it.
Every working American in this country owes the Federal Government $405,000 dollars. The country is 9 TRILLION dollars in debt. Who is going to pay for this “universal health care”?
“About one tenth of all people in the US are under the poverty line.”
What is poverty? People in third world countries build boats out of tires to become this nation’s poor. No one starves to death in America.
-Somasoul
(Almost) no one starves to death in America, it is true.
But when people are treated as less than human because of the economic disparity, is that not poverty?
Amartya Sen, a Nobel-prize winning economist, said, “Poverty is primarily sociological, not economic.” In other words, when people outcast you because of your economic lack, that is what poverty is.
There are more ways to die than simply starvation.
A homeless man I was aquainted with was constantly being stopped by the police and harrased. He hated these stops to such a degree that he often reponded dramatically to them and so the stops increased. Finally, he made a general announcment, “The next time the police harass me, I will kill myself.” Which is exactly what he did.
But the story doesn’t end there. A few folks on the street knew that his body was in his old camp, but were afraid to contact the police, so they let the body stay. Soon a couple of housed men heard about the body, so they found the camp and pulled the old man’s teeth so they could sell the fillings. They were so pleased with this that they filmed themselves abusing this man’s body, and showed it to everyone who came over to their house.
Finally a homeless man couldn’t stand the disrespect the old man was receiving and so he came to me, knowing that I would have no fear of calling the police. By the time I found the body and called 911 about it, the man had been in his camp for six months, through the summer heat and his arm looked like an overripe banana and the flesh of his face had been chewed off by animals.
There is more than one way to be poor.
Isn’t it poor to have a hospital reject you for treatment because they suspect (without proof) that you are a drug addict or an alcoholic?
Isn’t it poor to have frostbite on your feet because you won’t be treated for your oxygen deprivation in freezing temperatures?
Isn’t it poor to be stopped by the police every time you are in city limits, no because you do or do not have a house, but simply because you look homeless?
Isn’t it poor to stand for your religious convictions and immediately be taken away from your church and all of your friends for six months while you are committed to a state hospital in a trial with no witnesses, no evidence presented?
Isn’t it poor to have to beg for gas or food, only to be treated that you are a criminal?
This and so much more is what my friends on the street face. I could go on. And probably will somewhere else.
But the point I am making is that this is what the people under the poverty line are in danger of– one paycheck, one firing away of. And this is what the homeless face everyday.
So, please, don’t tell me that there is no poverty in America or that conditions aren’t that bad. If there was somewhere for my folks to go, they would collect tires to make boats.
Steve K
JDaniel
jdaniel,
I don’t think it is the state’s job to help anyone. They are to prevent harm, to protect rights, and to enforce contracts. But not help the needy. That is the unique and exclusive responsibility of the church.
Is a direct benefit better than an indirect benefit? Necessarily?
I am against regulation and oversight because I am against the existence of a pagan institution holding the authority to oversee or regulate, and I see no reason to believe why such a regulatory institution would have incentives more correctly aligned with consumers than insurers Insurance companies face more immediate feedback from consumers than regulatory agencies do, and have incentives to lower costs and make processes more efficient, while regulatory agencies have incentive for spending and expanding their budgets.
Unfortunately, Bono is wrong, because only a very small percentage of the poor remain poor for a significant length of time in relatively free economies. Everywhere we find poverty we will also find privileged individuals protecting their privilege.
Nathanael Snow
Bono’s not wrong. Although in that song (”Crumbs Under the Table”) he was specifically speaking of developing countries, the quote could just as well have been talking about the U.S.
I work among homeless folks. About one tenth of all people in the US are under the poverty line. And about one tenth of those folks will spend time on the street each year. Many of them spend all of there time there. And of those who are on the street, 55% have no kind of health insurance, as opposed to 15% of the rest of the population. I have personally seen two people die because they were given serious hospital care and then released to go back and live on the street or in a shelter.
“Free” economies have their scapegoats. The way of the world is that if someone is to have success and health then someone else must do without.
May the kingdom come.
Steve K
“Opening the free market I highly doubt will fix this, since a free, open market in every other sector has led to monopoly and higher costs.”
The free market tends to lower prices. Governmental intrusion almost always raises it.
Every working American in this country owes the Federal Government $405,000 dollars. The country is 9 TRILLION dollars in debt. Who is going to pay for this “universal health care”?
“About one tenth of all people in the US are under the poverty line.”
What is poverty? People in third world countries build boats out of tires to become this nation’s poor. No one starves to death in America.
-Somasoul
(Almost) no one starves to death in America, it is true.
But when people are treated as less than human because of the economic disparity, is that not poverty?
Amartya Sen, a Nobel-prize winning economist, said, “Poverty is primarily sociological, not economic.” In other words, when people outcast you because of your economic lack, that is what poverty is.
There are more ways to die than simply starvation.
A homeless man I was aquainted with was constantly being stopped by the police and harrased. He hated these stops to such a degree that he often reponded dramatically to them and so the stops increased. Finally, he made a general announcment, “The next time the police harass me, I will kill myself.” Which is exactly what he did.
But the story doesn’t end there. A few folks on the street knew that his body was in his old camp, but were afraid to contact the police, so they let the body stay. Soon a couple of housed men heard about the body, so they found the camp and pulled the old man’s teeth so they could sell the fillings. They were so pleased with this that they filmed themselves abusing this man’s body, and showed it to everyone who came over to their house.
Finally a homeless man couldn’t stand the disrespect the old man was receiving and so he came to me, knowing that I would have no fear of calling the police. By the time I found the body and called 911 about it, the man had been in his camp for six months, through the summer heat and his arm looked like an overripe banana and the flesh of his face had been chewed off by animals.
There is more than one way to be poor.
Isn’t it poor to have a hospital reject you for treatment because they suspect (without proof) that you are a drug addict or an alcoholic?
Isn’t it poor to have frostbite on your feet because you won’t be treated for your oxygen deprivation in freezing temperatures?
Isn’t it poor to be stopped by the police every time you are in city limits, no because you do or do not have a house, but simply because you look homeless?
Isn’t it poor to stand for your religious convictions and immediately be taken away from your church and all of your friends for six months while you are committed to a state hospital in a trial with no witnesses, no evidence presented?
Isn’t it poor to have to beg for gas or food, only to be treated that you are a criminal?
This and so much more is what my friends on the street face. I could go on. And probably will somewhere else.
But the point I am making is that this is what the people under the poverty line are in danger of– one paycheck, one firing away of. And this is what the homeless face everyday.
So, please, don’t tell me that there is no poverty in America or that conditions aren’t that bad. If there was somewhere for my folks to go, they would collect tires to make boats.
Steve K
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Homeless Humanization
Among the homeless in Gresham, there is fear.
The official statement in Gresham is that homelessness does not exist in their town. This is the statement of the mayor and the police. However, there is at least a hundred chronically homeless folks in the city of Gresham, a suburb of Portland, OR. Yet the homeless that are there, for the most part, have been raised in Gresham, and the town in their permanent residence, so to speak.
The police have done what they can to force the homeless to move out of town, to make the official statement to be true. They regularly force people out of their camps, even throwing away their tents and blankets and sleeping bags. They regularly check on people who look homeless, whether they are or not. In the past, they have waited for the homeless outside of churches where the street folks worshipped in order to pick up anyone who happened to have a warrant. This practice was stopped because of the concern of middle class citizens who express their dismay at that practice. The police also attempted to deny some homeless folks access to the library because they were camping on public property. This attempt was thwarted by a Multnomah County judge.
But more than this, some people have been targeted with brutality. Mitch, a gentle, quiet homeless man, was attacked by a police dog and so was walking with a limp for the rest of his life. Another couple was recently beaten senseless by the police. The homeless are regularly threatened. I, myself, was last year threatened with arrest because I was a witness to the verbal abuse they poured upon innocent people.
The problem, as I see it, is not one that can be rectified by judges or by taking each situation as it comes.
The city that denies the existence of homelessness is only one issue. In Portland, public bathrooms are closed so that the homeless have no place to use the toilet. This is a basic human necessity, yet it is denied to one segment of the population. We all need to have sleep in order to live and to function appropriately, but the homeless are denied the right to sleep because they cannot establish a place themselves. If they get a place to sleep then they know that they will be rousted out of their sleep one of these nights and told to move on. It is a basic necessity of life to eat, and yet some cities are denying even churches an opportunity to feed street people. It is a basic necessity of life to have shelter from the cold, yet every neighborhood wants to deny any place for the homeless to congregate indoors.
Ultimately, all this is based on one issue: the denial of street people’s humanity.
Everyone in all segments of society would agree that street people ARE people. Yet societal forces are denying their humanity, taking away their ability to function as physical beings. They are being denied the very survival necessities that would be considered abuse to any animal—denying sleep, a place to go to the bathroom, a place out of dangerous weather, and food. It is not that there are not resources available for the homeless to have these human necessities met, it is that society is denying their humanity to grant them access to these resources.
My main question is, what can be done? How can we communicate to a society that denies our humanity, our very existence? Is there a peaceful means to establish the re-humanization of the homeless? Does anyone have any ideas?
The official statement in Gresham is that homelessness does not exist in their town. This is the statement of the mayor and the police. However, there is at least a hundred chronically homeless folks in the city of Gresham, a suburb of Portland, OR. Yet the homeless that are there, for the most part, have been raised in Gresham, and the town in their permanent residence, so to speak.
The police have done what they can to force the homeless to move out of town, to make the official statement to be true. They regularly force people out of their camps, even throwing away their tents and blankets and sleeping bags. They regularly check on people who look homeless, whether they are or not. In the past, they have waited for the homeless outside of churches where the street folks worshipped in order to pick up anyone who happened to have a warrant. This practice was stopped because of the concern of middle class citizens who express their dismay at that practice. The police also attempted to deny some homeless folks access to the library because they were camping on public property. This attempt was thwarted by a Multnomah County judge.
But more than this, some people have been targeted with brutality. Mitch, a gentle, quiet homeless man, was attacked by a police dog and so was walking with a limp for the rest of his life. Another couple was recently beaten senseless by the police. The homeless are regularly threatened. I, myself, was last year threatened with arrest because I was a witness to the verbal abuse they poured upon innocent people.
The problem, as I see it, is not one that can be rectified by judges or by taking each situation as it comes.
The city that denies the existence of homelessness is only one issue. In Portland, public bathrooms are closed so that the homeless have no place to use the toilet. This is a basic human necessity, yet it is denied to one segment of the population. We all need to have sleep in order to live and to function appropriately, but the homeless are denied the right to sleep because they cannot establish a place themselves. If they get a place to sleep then they know that they will be rousted out of their sleep one of these nights and told to move on. It is a basic necessity of life to eat, and yet some cities are denying even churches an opportunity to feed street people. It is a basic necessity of life to have shelter from the cold, yet every neighborhood wants to deny any place for the homeless to congregate indoors.
Ultimately, all this is based on one issue: the denial of street people’s humanity.
Everyone in all segments of society would agree that street people ARE people. Yet societal forces are denying their humanity, taking away their ability to function as physical beings. They are being denied the very survival necessities that would be considered abuse to any animal—denying sleep, a place to go to the bathroom, a place out of dangerous weather, and food. It is not that there are not resources available for the homeless to have these human necessities met, it is that society is denying their humanity to grant them access to these resources.
My main question is, what can be done? How can we communicate to a society that denies our humanity, our very existence? Is there a peaceful means to establish the re-humanization of the homeless? Does anyone have any ideas?
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Faith Works
George Mueller is my hero. Okay, one of my heroes.
He was a 19th century missionary to Bristol, England, who determined that the church did not have enough faith. He made two radical transformations of his own parish. First, he changed the way the church collected offerings. The majority of money churches received in the days was to have parishners pay to reserve pews. The ones who paid the most, had a pew closer to the front. It was a social gesture-- it didn't matter if they ever used the pews, just that they paid for it. So George Mueller stopped the practice and instead placed a box in the back of the church. He invited people to put money in the box, and then trusted the Lord.
For years, Pastor Mueller struggled to make ends meet, but all along the Lord provided him with the finances he neede to keep his family warm and fed. Then he decided to make another tremendous step of faith: With his meager resources, he would open an orphanage, but never ask for funds to support it. This was his "experiment"-- his action of faith to prove that God would provide for His work, without any fund raising necessary but to humbly ask God for assistance. As proof of God's faithfulness, Pastor Mueller wrote a journal, full of stories and accounting of the finances that were brought in due to prayer, not charity events or support letters.
In Anawim, we have adopted this method of "fund raising." Diane has always been opposed to any kind of asking for money, and while I have not been as extreme as she, I agreed to adopt this policy for our ministry. Occasionally we would ask for socks or food, but we have not, as yet, ever asked for money.
This proved to be a challenge when the Lord led me to quit my job in 1998. We were to depend on Him and to see Him work, without asking, without income. And yet, in our state of poverty, we were to assist the poor and homeless with our resources. This was not done as a scientific experiment of faith. We trusted that God had already proven himself. So we did this as a simple act of dependence. Of becoming poor so God could prove His wealth.
I see God as my boss and so He will provide. In our community house, those who live there work outside the community as the work is provided, but no one is working a full time job-- only part time and work as it comes. In my household, I require everyone to work for the church or the household for ten hours a week, and that is their rent. If they want to do other work outside, I encourage them to do that, but I do not require any financial return to the household. The Lord has always provided for us so we could pay our bills and buy groceries and still feed more than a hundred people a week outside the household.
A few months ago our household was completely out of groceries and I wasn't happy with the Lord. So I prayed and said, "Lord, my family needs food and you said you'd take care of them. So please provide us with groceries today." That same day, one of our household went out on his bike and found a huge amount of frozen food in a dumpster. And that same morning a friend of mine who I hadn't heard from for more than a year called me up and said he wanted to meet with me. When we met, he gave me 200 dollars, telling me that the Lord told him to give it to me for whatever was necessary. I was able to then go immediately to the store and buy groceries for the house.
Less than a month ago, our electricity was about to be shut off, as well as my phone, which is the central phone for the ministry. We just didn't have money to pay for it. I never ask for money, and though I don't have any problem with asking for money from our congregations, because they receive a lot from us, I don't do that because I don't want to frustrate homeless folks with not being able to help us when we are in need. But we have a new service that has more middle class folks, so, after prayer, I decided to ask them. That evening, after some folks came up to help us out with our need, we counted up the money and it was exactly TO THE DOLLAR of the amount we needed to pay off both bills. No more, no less.
Just two days ago, we were out of wood pellets. I had the money to buy some more pellets-- twenty five dollars-- but when I went to the store they were out. Just as I was driving around to look for a yellow pages, a friend of ours named Tom called me. "Steve," he said, "how are you guys doing for pellets?" I was a little surprised, but I explained our situation. So he told me about someone who had just posted 17 bags of pellets for sale for 50 dollars. I called the man right away and asked if I could just buy half of them, and he agreed. Then Tom called again, and after I explained the agreement, Tom said, "No, that' won't work. Meet me and I'll give you the other 25 dollars." So that gives us heat for the rest of the winter.
God is amazing and He is a great Provider. Sometimes it seems that He's a bit stingy, but it is only to increase our faith and the faith of those who know us. When I mean stingy, I mean that often he provides just barely enough for our needs and little more. Of course, I also think that this might be because of my own weakness. God knows that I'm not great with money. I spend on myself much more than I ought, but I always meet our needs first. So perhaps he just gives me enough to meet our needs so I don't go crazy and purchase what I ought not.
This aspect of our lives is one of the most surprising for those who have lived with us for a long time. Housemates living with us have been anxious, until they see how God provides again and again. We have never had our electricity shut off (close, but it hasn't happened yet). My family has never gone hungry. We have always had gas to get food to our meals. Every time a car has broke down, another had just been given to us or someone was able to give their car up for a week. Sometimes living by faith seems insane. But it works.
He was a 19th century missionary to Bristol, England, who determined that the church did not have enough faith. He made two radical transformations of his own parish. First, he changed the way the church collected offerings. The majority of money churches received in the days was to have parishners pay to reserve pews. The ones who paid the most, had a pew closer to the front. It was a social gesture-- it didn't matter if they ever used the pews, just that they paid for it. So George Mueller stopped the practice and instead placed a box in the back of the church. He invited people to put money in the box, and then trusted the Lord.
For years, Pastor Mueller struggled to make ends meet, but all along the Lord provided him with the finances he neede to keep his family warm and fed. Then he decided to make another tremendous step of faith: With his meager resources, he would open an orphanage, but never ask for funds to support it. This was his "experiment"-- his action of faith to prove that God would provide for His work, without any fund raising necessary but to humbly ask God for assistance. As proof of God's faithfulness, Pastor Mueller wrote a journal, full of stories and accounting of the finances that were brought in due to prayer, not charity events or support letters.
In Anawim, we have adopted this method of "fund raising." Diane has always been opposed to any kind of asking for money, and while I have not been as extreme as she, I agreed to adopt this policy for our ministry. Occasionally we would ask for socks or food, but we have not, as yet, ever asked for money.
This proved to be a challenge when the Lord led me to quit my job in 1998. We were to depend on Him and to see Him work, without asking, without income. And yet, in our state of poverty, we were to assist the poor and homeless with our resources. This was not done as a scientific experiment of faith. We trusted that God had already proven himself. So we did this as a simple act of dependence. Of becoming poor so God could prove His wealth.
I see God as my boss and so He will provide. In our community house, those who live there work outside the community as the work is provided, but no one is working a full time job-- only part time and work as it comes. In my household, I require everyone to work for the church or the household for ten hours a week, and that is their rent. If they want to do other work outside, I encourage them to do that, but I do not require any financial return to the household. The Lord has always provided for us so we could pay our bills and buy groceries and still feed more than a hundred people a week outside the household.
A few months ago our household was completely out of groceries and I wasn't happy with the Lord. So I prayed and said, "Lord, my family needs food and you said you'd take care of them. So please provide us with groceries today." That same day, one of our household went out on his bike and found a huge amount of frozen food in a dumpster. And that same morning a friend of mine who I hadn't heard from for more than a year called me up and said he wanted to meet with me. When we met, he gave me 200 dollars, telling me that the Lord told him to give it to me for whatever was necessary. I was able to then go immediately to the store and buy groceries for the house.
Less than a month ago, our electricity was about to be shut off, as well as my phone, which is the central phone for the ministry. We just didn't have money to pay for it. I never ask for money, and though I don't have any problem with asking for money from our congregations, because they receive a lot from us, I don't do that because I don't want to frustrate homeless folks with not being able to help us when we are in need. But we have a new service that has more middle class folks, so, after prayer, I decided to ask them. That evening, after some folks came up to help us out with our need, we counted up the money and it was exactly TO THE DOLLAR of the amount we needed to pay off both bills. No more, no less.
Just two days ago, we were out of wood pellets. I had the money to buy some more pellets-- twenty five dollars-- but when I went to the store they were out. Just as I was driving around to look for a yellow pages, a friend of ours named Tom called me. "Steve," he said, "how are you guys doing for pellets?" I was a little surprised, but I explained our situation. So he told me about someone who had just posted 17 bags of pellets for sale for 50 dollars. I called the man right away and asked if I could just buy half of them, and he agreed. Then Tom called again, and after I explained the agreement, Tom said, "No, that' won't work. Meet me and I'll give you the other 25 dollars." So that gives us heat for the rest of the winter.
God is amazing and He is a great Provider. Sometimes it seems that He's a bit stingy, but it is only to increase our faith and the faith of those who know us. When I mean stingy, I mean that often he provides just barely enough for our needs and little more. Of course, I also think that this might be because of my own weakness. God knows that I'm not great with money. I spend on myself much more than I ought, but I always meet our needs first. So perhaps he just gives me enough to meet our needs so I don't go crazy and purchase what I ought not.
This aspect of our lives is one of the most surprising for those who have lived with us for a long time. Housemates living with us have been anxious, until they see how God provides again and again. We have never had our electricity shut off (close, but it hasn't happened yet). My family has never gone hungry. We have always had gas to get food to our meals. Every time a car has broke down, another had just been given to us or someone was able to give their car up for a week. Sometimes living by faith seems insane. But it works.
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