Imagine two churches. The Church of God’s Blessings looks like what it’s name suggests. It’s been blessed to grow in a new suburban development. The staff has boomed along with the membership. Thanks to a recent campaign, they have a new building with pipe organ, sound system, video equipment. It’s all top notch. And of course, they have numerous programs to meet the needs of their people. And yes, once a year a big mission festival with food, decorations, games, etc to think about those outside their church and around the world. Afterwards, the members hop into thier shiny cars and head back home.
Then you look at 
the Church of the Suffering Servant. It’s a 50 person congregation in West Africa that meets under a large shade tree becuase they have no building. The people have subsistence style lives. The members endure sickness, hunger, and war in their country. Yet they also gather faithfully and listen to sermons and sing about God’s love and his mission for their lives too.
Imagine what would happen if the Church of the Suffering Servant got a look at the Church of God’s Blessings. What would they think? What would their hopes be? This is how Stearns begins part 4 of his book, A Hole in the Church.
He imagines that if this was to happen, 2 Cor. 8-9 would come to mind. Words from Paul talking to his churches about their need to care for each other, words like, ” And here is my judgment about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. 11 Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. 12 For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have. 13 Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. 14 At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality.”
Is this a little convicting? It’s not that the stuff in the first church is bad, but Stearns continues to push us in terms of thinking about how what God has given us should be shared with our brothers and sisters around the world. He asks churches to look at their programming and wonder, how much internal ministry do we have compared with external ministry. He talks about the American Dream and wonders how it’s distorted our perceptions of money, where we feel entitled rather than realizing what we have and get is all a gift entrusted to us by God and for us to steward towards his purposes. He notes that the average churchgoer today give 2.58% of his income as a tithe. And what’s interesting is that this number has actually gone down as our wealth has increased. It was better in the Great Depression… wow! And then you extend that to churches. The average American church gives 2% of what it receives to overseas missions and charity. These can be some heavy thoughts.
And yet, he does offer some contrasting thoughts and hope as well. He notes that if American churchgoers tithed, our churches would have an additional $168 billion every year. And remember, with $60 we could look around the world and elminate the most extreme poverty. It would only take$9 billion to provide clean water. Only $6 billion to provide primary education. And can you imagine what the world would say if this all started happening? We often talk about the Church’s image problem today. How people see us as hypocritical and negative. How much would that change if the Church became that which provided the money to end the worst hunger, disease, water, and education problems around the world?
These are certainly encouraging thoughts, and I appreciate Stearn moving the chapter towards this hopeful thought. Also, he does quote Eph 2:8-10 and note that we are saved by grace for the purpose of good works, which does connect the engine of grace to the output of what we do for our neighbors. It’s good to see that. The problem is that he mentiones it but he doesn’t really rest in that. In one chapter he rails against the inward focus and almost calls out our prayer, worship, etc as empty. Yes, we cannot be completely inwardly focused, becasue that can become empty, but he needs to be careful, because when you say these things, you can start to forget that it is worship, Bible study, prayer, and those inward ministries that are so vital to build people up in God’s grace and forgiveness so that they really can move outward. This is often the temptation. To motivate wholly by the law rather than by motivating with grace. And that’s again my caution in this book.
So there continue to be some really good thoughts in this and by all means we need to let the law he reveals work on our hearts, but as we do so, we also need to run to God’s grace and find both forgiveness and motivation.
