Promises

The 7th Tradition

7^th Tradition: "Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions."

Yesterday in the Oregonian Jason Quick wrote an article on Billy Ray Bates, the phenom that amazed Portland Trailblazer fans in the early 1980s. That was before drugs and alcohol destroyed his basketball career and his life. Now he lives and ex-felon, unemployed, looking for a hand out.

Addict / alcoholics have a habit of looking for hand outs, asking for something for free, thinking that the world owes them something, and when it's not provided for them they often explode into an all too recognizable black holes of need and desire. They fall further down into their hopeless pit of addiction and respond by picking up and using some more.

I groaned as I read the article on Billy Ray. I used to love to listen and watch him play. He was truly an amazing basketball player. But here he was saying to Jason Quick that he was a completely different person from the addict that went to prison still with his hand out asking for help… telling people that he felt that the Blazers owed him.

The 7^th tradition of AA has this tendency alcoholics have in mind. It is designed to help an addict / alcoholic see that they need to take responsibility for their worlds. It is a change to taking care of oneself rather than looking for others to meet their needs. It is practiced by the group and individuals learn that with others they can be self supporting.

The tradition is a tradition not a rule. When new groups begin, often another group provides seed money to help out until the new group can support itself. Recovering alcoholics and addicts can be some of the most generous people you'll ever meet, helping each other out before they are asked to

The book Growing up Holy and Wholly, compares growing up in an evangelical home to growing up in an alcoholic home. The church’s accretion over the years has given it a reputation for holding out its hand looking for help much like the addict does. In recent years people have come to view the church as being not unlike the beggar next to the freeway exit, playing on peoples’ guilt. While people should help. It is counter to the Spirit for them to be "guilted" into helping. And the church shouldn’t beg.

Recovering alcoholics give to an AA meeting because they know the meeting needs the money to survive. They also know where the money goes and that it will not be wasted. The money doesn’t go to line someone in powers pockets. The money doesn’t’ go to a beautiful new building, or a new roof for an old building. The money goes to help other drunks stop being drunks.

When people give to many churches they do not have that confidence. Today there is a clergy class that needs to be supported. There are buildings that need to be paid off, and debts that need to be satisfied.

Many missions require that  missionaries raise close to $100,000 a year to stay missionaries. The amount of money that American religious professionals "demand" is unconscionable by the world's standards. The average pastor in America makes over $84,000 a year, and that doesn't include his benefit package.

It is not uncommon for people making less than $2000 a month to be asked to give to a missionary or a pastor making over $6000 a month. It is no wonder people often decide to give directly where there is need instead of their local congregation. They figure if they can educate a child in Africa or the Dominican Republic for $30 a month, it is money better spent. They are probably right

Until many of the other traditions are followed it is nearly impossible to follow this one. The church needs to try, however. This is not to say that organizations and foundations shouldn’t give money to the Christian enterprise, but I wonder if maybe they should give to the para –church organizations and allowing the churches to be fully self supporting. Churches need to become fully self supporting once again, and where they are guilty of acting like addicts not in recovery, holding their hands out and looking for the “easy money” --  They need to stop.

Thoughts on Church buildings and waste

A couple of weeks ago I received a letter from one of my friends in India asking if we would sponsor their building a church building. If we did, they would call it the "Ruth & John Grant Memorial Church." A little bit of my heart broke off as I read the letter.

As Dad and I travelled with this very pastor across Maharashtra a little under three years ago we spoke of the way that American Missions had taken the worst of our culture as well as the best with us as we tried to proclaim Jesus and that the idea that material opulence in church buildings was part of that sin.

In India more than 600 million people live on less than $2.00 a day. Somehow they survive. Here a pastor wants several thousand dollars to erect an additional church building when they already have a compound built as an orphanage. Something is out of kilter.

Unpacking some of my library I came across two books that speak to this issue. The first is by John Alexander. It was never published so it sits on my shelf in two notebooks. Its title says it all, Stop Going to Church and Be the Church. “How can we go to something we are?” he asks. Yet, that is the nature of how we think: “Do you want to go to church today?” Or, “Come on kids, we’re late for church!” we yell angrily because we are going to look bad, arriving late for the church gathering.

The second book, The Torch of the Testimony, makes the statement that if the evangelical church in North America was to divest of all it’s property the church would have over two billion dollars to spend on feeding the poor, clothing the destitute, and generally fulfilling the great commission of our Lord, Jesus.

One of my favourite churches is called the Evergreen Community. Because it meets in pubs throughout Portland, my wife and I were married in a Pub. I think it is one of the best possible partnerships. The pub isn’t going to open on Sunday morning (because it is not a sports pub). And so their space goes unused. Some of the church stick around to have lunch also helping the pub’s bottom line. The elder who preaches encourages people to tip well and most do. Jesus smiles.

Now, if you talk to the church planter that started it all he will tell you that not having a building sucks sometimes. Evergreen is truly missional and wants to be involved in feeding the poor and clothing the homeless. But because they have no building, they forgo the opportunity for a food pantry or a clothing bin for the homeless. In today’s day and age, there is little need for an office, though at times it would be nice and having a print center could be a great cost savings. There is a cost to not having a building.

Matt Hannan is a pastor at another of my favourite churches, New Heights, in Vancouver. A few years ago the church truly was out of space. They were meeting five times a weekend because there weren’t enough seats in the building for everyone to sit. Matt, who is probably Portland’s preeminent preacher was running out of voice by Sunday night, and the energy outlay of the weekend had to take it’s toll on his effectiveness during the week. However, when the church planned expansion they didn’t plan a seat for everyone. Instead they planned to still have three services and so they planned their expansion accordingly to save dollars so they would have more to throw into church planting and community engagement.

Another church here in Portland partnered with local businesses to build their building as part of a retail, and office space complex. By partnering with business the cost to each party was less than it otherwise would have been.

There is no right answer to these questions. And so even I have a suggestion to add to the mix. It might help someone somewhere. Let’s see. What if several church’s here in Portland that do not own their own building got together to lease space together… not to meet mind you, but for mission purposes. An old warehouse could be turned into a copy center, food pantry, clothes closet, or who knows what else, people could share the space. Church communities could work together to make it functional and fir their needs. Costs could be shared and kept low, and so congregations that could not afford their own space might be able to share space.

I fear that this would only work if the commitment of the leadership was to not see this as a stepping stone, “until we can afford more” but as a commitment to Kingdom values, and doing it in order to be missional. Anything less would lead to outward selfishness, conflict, and eventual collapse of the venture.   

I haven't forgotten India

I am hoping for a fundraising weekend in November. I’d love for there to be a rock concert on Friday, a symphony on Saturday and a raffle for a car and an online auction all weekend long too. At the concerts there will be opportunities to give and also opportunities to sign up to sponsor an orphan. If we could raise $10,000 that weekend it would be great.

Later I hope that three teams will form to travel to India for two weeks. There will be a construction team that will spend two weeks in a village building a church building and helping villagers with their homes. There will be a medical team comprised of a couple of doctors, some nurses, a dentist and two dental hygienists that will set up shop in the same village. Meanwhile a ministry team comprised of both Indian nationals and Americans will spend the first week working with the Bible school students, the local evangelists, and local pastors in training and preparation for a week long mission in the village that the building team and the medical team have already been working. The second week would be a mission and the goal is that at the end of the second week a church would be planted in the village.

Leighton always taught us to dream dreams too big to be accomplished by human power alone. This is such a vision. It is going to be fun to see how it works out. My job is to be faithful and do the next right thing. His job is to make it happen. Anybody up for helping make all this happen?

Thinking about India

I returned from India knowing that I couldn't consider myself a Christ follower unless I was willing to do something to make a difference somehow, someway. There are so many challenges, but quite honestly, I cannot forget the faces I met that need help, like these two little orphans...

Raising Money for Emanuel

    Friday night I put on a rented penguin suit, and emceed a black tie optional fund raising dinner and concert for Emanuel Hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. I had no idea how fortunate we are to live in a city with such a facility. It is a level four NICU. There is another one in Seattle and another in San Francisco but no others until Los Angeles.
    A few months ago I posted about Madison, the baby born with Tri-some 18 who lived with us for twelve days before moving on to better things. She was cared for at Emanuel.
    Rarely have I been as impressed with a hospital as I was during those dark days. Madison's mother, Natcharee planned and hosted the fund raising event. All totaled we raised over $2000.00 for the NICU.
    It was fun to revisit an old role of fund raiser. It was fun to work a crowd and meet and talk to all sorts of interesting people. It was also exhausting. I may be good at such things but they sure don't come easily.
    The NICU will be a little better off because we did the next right thing in front of us and people chose to dig deep and write some substantive checks. I'm glad I got to be a part of that.