Living in an affluent society does not mean we enjoy an endless reservoir of resources. Such is the disparity of our lives. For example, consider our school system. Evidence of affluence is demonstrated by clean and modern buildings, children are bussed from home and returned at each day’s end, and an assortment of extracurricular activities are provided. In spite of affluence, the lack of an endless reservoir of resources is felt when our children are often forced to share textbooks with limits placed on who gets to take them home each night. The disparity is present when facilities are not always maintained; we find potholes in the parking lots, dated bathrooms, and crowded classroom space. Copy paper is rationed throughout the year, often running dry before year’s end. And then there’s the pay grade of teachers, who are expected to do more and more on less and less pay.
Churches feel the same disparity. Ministries are created with the vision of an “all-you-can-eat” smorgasbord. We see the possibilities, generate the excitement, and believe the new ministry will add strength and vitality to the church. Then reality sets in as they begin placing the resources on the table. Instead of the “all-you-can-eat” buffet, it feels more like the meal prepared by the mother in Jack and the Beanstalk; the one bean is hardly enough resource and nourishment for an entire meal.
God expects his people to carry out his ministries. Given the available resources, such expectations don’t always seem possible . . . or seem fair. Compared with the job in front of us, we lack the number of people, and those that do volunteer sometimes burn out. We find too few gifts to accomplish the tasks while feeling the financial burden of the job. We know that people are overextended at home, not to mention at work, for them to give their time and energy. With so many demands, we wonder where we will find the resources for ministries.
The Corinthians had committed to a ministry; Paul persuasively convinced them to collect funds as relief-aid for the church in Jerusalem. Palestine was suffering from a severe famine, and many were suffering in an impoverished land. Prayerful and financial support collected and distributed by Gentiles churches for the Jewish church would aid in the recovery, while helping bridge Gentile and Jewish church relationships.
Unfortunately, along the road to completing this ministry, the excitement wavered, the ministry slowed, the interest waned, and they finally stopped collecting the money. Why they were failing in this ministry is multi-faceted. For one, the initial excitement faded as the discipline needed for setting the money aside each week turned from joy to drudgery. The layaway plan became harder and harder to maintain. For another, people stopped talking about the need for the collection as fewer and fewer words were spoken of the ministry. If the church must be reminded of its vision once every three weeks for them to carry out their obligations, then they had all but forgotten about their promise to Paul. Speaking of Paul, the relationship between Corinth and the apostle impacted the ministry. Since Paul originally invited them to participate in collecting the funds for relief aid in Jerusalem (1 Cor. 16:1-4), their relationship experienced a falling out. No doubt, some were withholding their funds because they no longer trusted Paul.
To combat the fledgling ministry, Paul shifted focus to encourage joyful generosity among the Corinthians, for “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7). Drawing the analogy from agriculture, the amount you plant is in direct proportion to the harvest; they needed to sow generously (9:6). If they decide to cut corners with their planting, the result will be seen in their harvest. Generous planting leads to a bumper crop. The result of their generosity was seen in people offering thanksgiving to God (9:11). Our generosity leads to people praising God. Regardless of his words, you can almost hear their skeptical rebuttal, “But Paul, where are we going to get the necessary resources?”
Somewhere along the way, all of us have had to answer that question, whether as individuals, a family, a service organization, or especially a church. We look at what’s on the table, and then wonder how it can be stretched to feed so many.
By faith we focus, not on what is on the table, but on what God can do with what is on the table. The Israelites wander in the wilderness, a wilderness filled with limited resources. Yet, every morning when they step out of their tents, laying on the ground is a honey tasting wafer provided by God. They fill their baskets in the morning and whatever is leftover at days end is thrown out because God will provide more manna the next morning (Ex. 16:1-36).
Elijah finds himself in Zeraphath, the heart of Baal’s domain. He’s following God’s Word to seek out a pagan widow. When he finds her and asks for food and water, he learns that she has only enough oil for one last meal. Hearing her dilemma, Elijah promises that God will provide enough oil for herself, her son, and himself. God will provide that oil every day until he sends rain upon the land (1 King. 17:7-16). And he did.
A creditor is about to foreclose on a widow for her late husband’s debt. To recoup his losses, the creditor threatens to sell her sons into slavery, a dehumanizing but common practice. The widow seeks help from Elisha. With barely a drop of olive oil to her name, Elisha tells her to go to her friends and neighbors and collect as many jars as she can find. He stipulates not to collect a few, but as many as possible. Then, behind closed doors, he instructs her, to take the jar that holds the one drop of oil and start filling all the empty jars with the oil until every jar is filled. Then, sell the oil to pay the debt and keep the rest to live on (2 King. 4:1-7).
A small boy’s lunch is insufficient to satisfy the hunger of an adult, or a family. Five cakes of bread and two small fish will fail to feed five thousand hungry people. Andrew was right, “How far will they go among so many?” Well, the obvious answer is, “Not far.” However, Jesus takes the limited resources to provide enough, more than enough food for the people. When the feast was finished and the people were satisfied, twelve baskets full of leftover scraps were collected (Jn. 6:1-13).
When I grew up, Mom and Dad made deliberate choices that cut into their finances. They raised five kids and sent us to a local Christian school, a cost that ate into their money belt. To cut expenses, we did without a lot of luxuries. Mom was a creative cook who had the knack to stretch a meal. To make her spaghetti feed seven, she went to the cupboard to see what she could use to pad the sauce. Green beans, black olives, green olives, peas, carrots, and canned tomatoes found their way into the spaghetti sauce. With seven at the table, mom always had more than enough to feed us, and to feed anyone else who happened to have showed up that night. Our table always had room for one or two more. Always. And like Elisha’s widow, the pantry never seemed to empty.
Steve Birley tells of a church comprised of retired members trying to keep their church alive by reaching out to the young. They added ministries and changed their worship style to attract the youth. Disappointingly, the more they worked the less success they experienced. They were attracting members, but the new members were all retired people. Their “graying” church wasn’t getting younger, and worries intensified because they believed that within a generation closing their doors was inevitable. Conversely, their worries dissipated when they realized that God was using them to reach a segment of the community largely ignored by the big, “growing churches” in the area.* What looked like limited resources was actually God providing more than they needed.
The central nerve of Paul’s thought is found in 2 Corinthians 9:10-11,
Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
Paul says that if we trust God’s provisions, then we can join God in this cycle. God provides the resources. In doing so, we’re (expected to be) generous with what he’s shared with us. When we are generous, then God increases our resources so that we can continue being generous. We stop hoarding and start sharing. As someone said, “We build longer tables, not taller walls.” The result is a praise of thanksgiving to God.
The affluent society does not mean endless resources. We could make numerous contrasts between the school system and the church to highlight their differences. But do you know what the real difference between the school system and the church is? It’s not the available resources. The real difference is that when God provides the resources for ministry, he gets the credit. If he wants that credit, don’t you think he’ll provide the resources? Yeah, so do I.
Soli Deo Gloria!
(i.e., only God is glorified!)
*Steve R. Bierly, Help for the Small-Church Pastor: Unlocking the Potential of Your Congregation (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995), 67-68.