Missions 101

There is news out of South Africa where the people at Emoya Lukury Hotel and Spa have built a fake shanty town so that guests can "experience" what it is like to stay in a slum over night.  Siji Jabbar notes some of the problems people experience living in slums:

• Overcrowding - shanty towns tend to have a population density.
• Fires - fires can spread quickly in shanty towns, and shacks burn very quickly.
• Overpopulation - resources insufficient to support the population.
• High competition for jobs, because they’re in short supply
• Disease - poor sanitation and limited health care can lead to the spread of disease.
• Infrastructure - services are poor, public transport is limited and connections to the electricity supply can be limited and sometimes dangerous.

The hotel offers:

• Under floor heating                
• Electrical geysers                    
• Donkey geysers
• Braai facilities on request       
• Bathroom with shower
• Long-drop effect toilets 
• Electricity
• And of course, Wi-fi 

In a recent article by the Barna Group, their study found:

• Based on current data from the World Bank, the percent of the world’s population living in extreme poverty has decreased from 52% to 21% over the last thirty years. If this trajectory continues, extreme poverty will be eliminated by 2030.

• The Barna Group’s study also found that 84% of Americans admitted they were unaware “global poverty has been reduced so drastically.” The majority of Americans (67%) said they believed extreme poverty had increased over the last thirty years.

Why don't people realize this is happening? Barna found that:

• 21% believe poverty is simply inevitable and will always exist. Because it will always exist, poverty couldn’t possibly be decreasing.

• 20% don’t think enough people care about the issue for poverty to decrease.

• 17% feel there isn’t enough of a collective global effort to reduce poverty.

• 17% feel the problem of poverty is too big to be reduced.

• 14% do not trust what they see as corrupt governments in impoverished countries.

Planning a budget is always a difficult thing for churches and organizations. It can bring out all sorts of tension, especially between numbers people (typically accountants) and big vision people (typically vision castors of the organization). The accountants often need a little more faith while the big vision people need a leash put around their neck.

Before your next budget cycle, consider Bill Bright as told by Steve Shadrach:

Each director laid out to the others what he or she believed God wanted to do through their particular ministry the next 12 months. No one was allowed to mention how much different programs might cost until after they had prayed, discussed, and agreed on the overall Crusade ministry plan for the upcoming year. Then, and only then, did they start attaching price tags. Afterward, Dr. Bright would draw a line under the total and say something like, “Here is what we believe God wants us to do throughout the world this next year. The total is $246 million. Now let’s trust Him and go out and raise those funds to fulfill this vision.”

Do you see the difference? Budget pulls one train, vision the other. One way is focused on what things cost, the other on how to fulfill the mission. Sometimes a person will ask me how much a certain project or equipment or materials or training costs, and I’ll shoot back, “It doesn’t matter, because we’re going to spend whatever it takes to fulfill God’s calling for our ministry."

 Shadrach, Steve (2011-03-25). ViewPoints: Fresh Perspectives on Personal Support Raising (pp. 17-18). The Bodybuilders Press.

The fair trade movement has become popular over the last decade or so. You see it in coffee shops and many young evangelicals argue that Christians should support the fair trade movement as form of social justice ministry. Here is an interesting article from Joe Carter, Does Fair Trade Help the Poor?

In the article he writes:

Economist Victor Claar argues in his new book, Fair Trade: Its Prospects as a Poverty Solution, that the fair trade movement simply “cannot deliver on what it promises,” and Christians would do well to pay heed. 

Sometimes popular movements need to be examined beyond the surface level. There is another side to this issue and Christians should take heed before supporting something with great intentions but not a lot of thought.