A friend of mine is a pastor in another denomination. He called me last night (pretty late, I might add) to blow off some steam after he got home from his version of a church council meeting. He was not only angry, but in his voice it was easy to hear that he was dejected, heart-broken and even to the point of actually crying!
To make a long story short, they were planning (or so he thought) a mission trip to Haiti to rebuild a church and to build some semi-permanent housing. Over the last several months, the mission trip was the focus of sermons, Sunday School lessons and Bible studies. It was also the focus of their collective prayer time, as they fasted and prayed for good weather, success in mission, money and supplies to do what was needed, and volunteers who had the skills to do the work.
Months passed and Thursday night's meeting was supposed to be the "big reveal", as the pastor was going to get both the list of who was going, as well as the total amount of money given to the project. (Incidentally, after speaking to denominational officials and some people in Port-au-Prince, he had set a goal of $10,000.)
The good news came first, and it was good indeed: they had raised almost $6000 more than their projected need--somewhere in the neighborhood of $16,000! Yet before the pastor ever had a chance to enjoy the moment, the other report was given; the report of how many people had signed up. And this, as you'll see, was the sourse of my pastor-friend's anger, frustration and tears. Because it turns out that after all this time of preparation, prayer and publicity--and after raising all that money--only two people had signed up to go to Haiti. And one of them was the pastor!
"Why did no one else sign up to go," he asked the church council as his voice was breaking? There were no answers. So he asked the question again. This time, however, a man--a member of his Finance Committee--stood up and said "We gave you the money, Preacher. What else do you want?"
What else do we want, indeed! The truth is, it's not what we want at all; it's not what the pastor wants. Rather, it's what God wants; what God demands. And God demands that we go. Go out into the world. To Haiti, to Hampton, to Hemingway, to Hartsville, to Honea Path (and to other places that don't start with the letter "h")! God demands that we go get involved in every way we can in this world. To be the hands and feet and voice and heart of God in the world. To build up lives as we build up the Kingdom. To "show and tell" the Good News of Jesus Christ as we share and embody his love with everyone we meet.
Sure, we need money to do this. And we truly appreciate all we get. But all the money in the world won't help a bit if there is no one to put it to use for the cause of Christ in the world.
"We gave you the money," the man at the meeting said, "What more do you want?"
"I want you to GO," is the Lord's reply, "I want you to go!"
Apparently no stranger to this kind of thing, Mother Teresa once addressed it directly when she said, "Let us not be satisfied with just giving money; money is not enough, for money one can get. The poor and the lost need our eyes to look for them, they need our hands to serve them, they need our voices to speak for them, our lips to pray for them and our hearts to love them. The religion of Christ is love, the spreading of that love always and everywhere.”
And love is not only something money can't buy, it's also something money can't show or tell. Which is precisely the reason that God has left that job to us!
2 comments:
Wow...how sad. I'm praying for that friend, and the church.
I remember reading that Mother Theresa said, " I always ask that people give from their poverty". For those of us who are "comfortable", that is usually our time.
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