Sep
30
2011

Finance Fridays: Defining Blessing

An article by Matt

This week a series of blog posts from TJ Addington, Jamie the Very Worst Missionary, and Steve Saint have really gotten me thinking about the messages that we send to our congregations and the world about finances and blessing. Each of these three stories talk about how we show up in an area of the world that has a different standard of living than ours (note that I didn’t say poverty stricken) and instantly assume that they are in horrible shape because they are different than what we are used to. While we may be intending to send a message of compassion and the love of Christ to people that we are serving, the message that we often end up sending is “you shouldn’t be happy in your present circumstances, you should be more like us.” Instead of educating people on who Christ is, and what he has done for them, we educate them on the stuff that they need to have a better life.

I wonder how often the way we communicate our messages unintentionally leaves people with an inaccurate or unhealthy idea of what it means to be blessed. Do we subtly suggest that affluence equates blessing? Do we inadvertently communicate that more is better, or that material goods will improve someone’s life?

Several months ago Andy Stanley preached a sermon series looking at how we handle our finances. The fifth installment of that series spoke of how awareness breeds discontent… or how once we know about something we don’t have we obsess about having it. While Madison Avenue exists solely to make people discontented with their lives in order to convince them to buy stuff, I wonder how often with unintentionally reinforce that message. Three different thoughts I had about this:

Steve’s story of Mincaye, a Waodani Indian that he used to live with, paints the picture of awareness creating discontent quite clearly:

Mincaye is a rich man. Or, he was until someone taught him to drive a golf cart and he started thinking how much fun it would be to take his 57 grandchildren for rides up and down the Nemompade airstrip where we used to live together. Now he wants his own golf cart (which means he would need a charging station, and a solar panel farm to power it, and a shop to maintain it, and spare parts to keep it running….).

There are streams of the church which believe a pastor should drive an expensive car, wear expensive clothes, and live an affluent lifestyle. This is encouraged by the church because those in attendance are discontented with their own way of life and want to be associated with, and live vicariously through, someone who is considered wealthy.
On any given Sunday morning you can overhear conversations in church about how God is good because a business is thriving, when we are able to shower gifts upon people, or write big checks… but is that message communicated with the same zeal when our finances are tight?

Do we believe that God is just as good when we are affluent as we do when we are poor?

How do YOU define blessing in YOUR congregational language?