Money and the Mouth

We have all heard the expression, “Put your money where your mouth is.” These words have been used to draw some into a wager or to challenge a person who professes one thing and does something else. There is a husband and wife in the Bible who did not put their money where their mouth was and as a consequence they were made to attend their own funeral. Ananias and Sapphira had to leave church, feet first (Acts 5:1-11). This couple promised they would give the whole amount from the sale of personal property and lied about how much of it they were giving to the church. It was highhanded hypocrisy, attempting to appear to be what they were not. We dance to the devil’s tune when we put on the mask of generosity while hiding dishonesty. Think about what this means. Selfishness can masquerade in pious talk, prayers, and church attendance. It is no small thing to give lip service to the greatest story ever told and at the same time love money more than God.

God has made it abundantly clear how we are to love Him with all our money. The Book of Proverbs (application of the Law) tells us that wisdom is better than money (Prov. 3:13-15), that our money is to honor God (Prov.3:9), that money must be acquired in God-pleasing ways (Prov. 10:4-5; 13:11; 11:1-2) and money must be handled with care (6:1-5; 27:24-27; 11:24, 25). The Gospels reveal the special attention Jesus gave to monetary matters. “No one can serve two masters…You cannot serve God and money” (Matt. 6:24). “Seek first His kingdom, and these things (food and clothing) shall be added to you” (Lk. 12:31). “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matt. 6:19). The Pharisees presented themselves as devoted to God, but Jesus knew they were lovers of money (Lk. 16:14). For this reason the damning effect of greed was a regular topic in the Savior’s sermons. The church of Jesus Christ is given explicit directions in how to use money to support the work of God. Christians are to give systematically, regularly, proportionately, and voluntarily to their local church (1 Cor. 16:1-4). Every believer, no matter what their income, is to have a plan of grace giving. God provides for us. We manage these provisions by His wisdom and give proof of our love for God by our spending, saving, and giving.

But we must come back to the responsibility of putting our money where our mouth is. It is possible to know what the Bible teaches about money and still be sucked into the quicksand of materialism. There are sins that must be confessed and repented of if we are to be faithful managers of our money: the refusal to work and provide for our family, impulsive buying, the use of shopping to keep us happy, spending more on entertainment, pet food, and vacations than we give to our church, letting personal debt decrease the amount we give to God’s work, failure to plan our giving, failure to save and plan for emergency giving, being bitter while we give generously, failure to support our local church, relying on feelings (“inner promptings”) to determine how much we should give, making investments and major expenditures without praying and seeking wise counsel, allowing our possessions to become more important than people, envying those who have more than we do, pursuing get-rich-quick schemes as the answer to our money problems, lack of contentedness with what we have. Sin must be tracked down and killed or it will choke out our love for God and the generous giving habits that should characterize people who are on their way to heaven.

As we clear the debris of our own sinful patterns, there are ways we can invest for the eternal glory of God. With an eye on the future we invest in people. One day, money will be gone, but we can have “friends for eternity.” We are to take into account the many opportunities God gives us in this life. If we don’t give as we should when we have very little to give, we reveal where our hearts really are. God is to be our Master not our money (Lk. 16:1-9). With these spiritual realities ensconced in our lives we can make some needed resolutions. I resolve that as a glory-bound child of God I will give generously and faithfully to my local church. I will seek the best counsel I can get regarding financial planning. I will create a discretionary fund from which I can give to emergency needs for missionaries, humanitarian concerns (disaster relief, etc.), and other gospel ministries. I will review my standard of living for the coming year and determine where there are ways to free up more money for giving. I will commit myself to eliminating interest- bearing debt that is limiting my ability to give more. I will quit robbing God by making excuses as to why I can’t give what rightfully belongs to Him. I will figure out my pretax income and, if I am not already, begin to give at least 11 percent.

You may want to determine other resolutions regarding your giving. The most important thing, however, is to examine your heart, life, and checkbook to make sure that you are putting your money where your mouth is. There will come a time when we will stand before Jesus Christ and give an account to Him. Are you preparing for that final audit?

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church

A Call to CareA Ministry to our Missionaries

The call to Christ is a call to world missions. And the call to world missions is the task of the local church which serves as a base-camp for the missionaries its sends and supports. Who are these people we call missionaries? Missionaries are Christians who have prepared themselves for cross-cultural gospel work and carry out that work under the watch-care of their local church. Missionaries are like everybody else. They deal with personal health issues. They have different natural and spiritual gifts. They struggle as they experience heart and life change through the power of the Holy Spirit. They laugh, grieve, get lonely, have conflicts with their fellow Christians, and require encouragement like the rest of us. But in another sense they are not like everybody else. They have to adjust to different cultures. Material things have to be pushed to the edges of life. Good-byes are an all too frequent part of their relationships. Missionaries need every ounce of love that everyone else is to receive in the body of Christ. How then can the church that sends out these foot-soldiers of the cross engage in a ministry of care for its missionaries?

Missionary care begins in the hearts of God-loving, Bible-thinking, and Christ-centered people (Matt. 22:37-40; Phil. 1:8; 1 Jn. 3:16-18). The church is to be filled with gospel-people who look at the world from the standpoint of God’s redemptive purpose in the world. These same gospel-people know how relationships should be nurtured (love, time, attention) and focus their energy upon the exaltation of Christ. Missionaries must have a home church that sees the big picture of why the church exists in this world and how Christ’s love is to be demonstrated. This is the spring from which all missionary care flows.

Missionary care embraces the ministry of hospitality as the expression of Christ’s love for His church (1 Jn. 4:7-10; Rom. 12:10, 13). The church must be a place that is brimming with warm hospitality. American culture has some potentially harmful characteristics. Isolation, individualism, and busyness can suffocate the love that is to drive the missionary programs of the church. Love motivates the gifts of the Spirit within the congregation to help one another bear the burdens of life (Gal. 6:2). An uncaring church is a contradiction in terms. Hospitality is the fruit of brotherly love and gives witness to a watching world that we are Christ’s disciples.

Missionary care enlists all the members of the congregation (Heb. 10:24). There is to be no “missions club” in the church. Some may think that missions is a spiritual gift or “missions is just not my thing.” This is not acceptable. Missions is what we are about as Christians. We must all be involved in some way. Our church must work at keeping God’s global plan before us in all that we do (sermons, missions reports, Bible studies, Sunday School classes, etc.). This is one of the values of well-planned missions trips. Those who have participated in these can attest to their life-altering nature. You gain a new perspective and appreciation for what is involved in a missionary’s life and the overwhelming needs outside of our American bubble. The pastor must set the example and take his wife with him on missions trips. We are all in danger of creating a small world for ourselves with little or no real knowledge of what missionary work is really like.

Missionary care refuses to relinquish responsibility for its missionaries to mission’s agencies or any other outside organization (Eph. 4:11-16). Mission Boards perform a useful service to the local church. They can assist with missions strategy, networking, and the administrative details required to send and keep a missionary on the field. It is wise for the church to build a working relationship with the missions agencies under which their missionaries serve. This will involve good communication, visiting the mission agency’s home office, being thoroughly familiar with its doctrinal statement, and how it views the meaning of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20). A mission agency that does not consult with the sending church of one of its missionaries when personal problems arise is working contrary to biblical principles.

Missionary care necessitates the full attention and participation of the pastoral staff (Heb. 13:17). The elders of the church must know their missionaries. As shepherds of the flock that will mean communication with their missions family. They will pray for their missionaries, provide spiritual nourishment for them, talk to them, listen to them, ask questions, counsel them as necessary, and will not “out-source” missions to the missions committee. It is wise for one of the elders to be a “missions pastor.” In this role he will have special oversight of the way his church does missions. The support level of the various missionaries will need to be monitored. When special needs arise (e.g., an automobile when a missionary comes home on furlough) the missions elder, working with the missions committee, will be a care-giver.

Missionary care requires a church that is engaged in a grace giving approach to finances (2 Cor. 8 & 9). Generosity is a work of God’s Spirit. Every member of the congregation must be committed to biblical giving. If the Holy Spirit is working in lives and the church is maturing in Christ, then good giving habits will characterize an increasing number of giving units (families, singles, children) in the church. The idea of grace giving is that God enables believers to give to support the work of missions. Getting missionaries to the field and keeping them there is a major financial undertaking. If we really believe that we are to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven and not on earth, the church’s missions budget will reflect it.

Missionary care happens as missionaries are viewed as an extension of the church (1 Cor. 12:27). Thinking that portrays the relationship between the church and its missionaries as one of “us and them” betrays the truth of the oneness of believers in Christ. Biblical “one-anothering” that takes place in the congregation will by necessity fold its missionaries into the life of the church. For this to happen, missionaries should be looked upon as global staff members and held to the same biblical standards as are the other leaders in the church (1 Tim. 3; Tit. 1). One way to experience the missionary as an extension of the church is to have some of its own members become missionaries. This will help to create a church-wide engagement with their plans and needs. It will also go a long way in bonding the missionary and the congregation in the work of the gospel.

Missionary care values meaningful and regular communication with the missionaries its church supports (Phil. 1:3-5; Rom. 16:3ff.). There is no end to the communication network potential through modern technology. Phone calls and emails open up a whole new world of connectedness. There is no excuse for not having fresh prayer requests from missionaries and staying on top of the issues that need the attention of the leadership. A missionary’s picture on the refrigerator is a good thing. But it should not replace the more personal lines of communication.

Missionary care takes place most effectively when the care-givers visit the springs of the heart (Prov. 4:23). The issues of life flow from the heart. For this reason missionaries need “full-coverage” care. They fight the same battles we all fight (temptations, anger, worry, fear, etc.). They go to hard places where there is often little or no stimulating body-life. Unbiblical and spiritually toxic teaching can infect their fellow missionaries. Missionaries will often carry the extra baggage of a painful past (divorced parents, sexual abuse, etc.). The pitfalls of immorality and marital conflict can sabotage church planting efforts. Returning home from the mission field presents a special set of challenges to work-weary missionaries. Culture shock, material needs, decisions regarding the education of children, the indifference of people, and loss of financial support reveal what is in the heart. And, for that reason, wise and loving attention to issues of the heart must not be overlooked.

Missionary care gives special attention to intercessory prayer for missionaries (Eph. 6:18). The very nature of missionary activity is invisible warfare (Eph. 6:10-20; 2 Cor. 10:4). The missionary, as well as all of his fellow servants, fights battles on three fronts; the world, the flesh, and the devil. There is much that can be done by those who intercede for their missionaries. Enlistment of other missionaries, financial provision, strategy, conversions, revivals, health and strength, government bureaucracies can all be significantly impacted when God is sought through our prayers. The church must mobilize it forces and devote itself to private prayers, group prayers, and pulpit prayers for the sake of world evangelization.

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church

A Window on Missions - A Room with a View

We stood on the third floor of the Hope Center in Gorazde, Bosnia. The room and balcony are not finished yet, but the view is spectacular. Standing there one can look down on the Drina River gently making its way to the Black Sea. Over beyond the river are the lush green mountains with touches of fall colors looking down on the Drina valley. It was a room with a view. However, the Hope Center, which is near completion, was not built to serve as a Bosnian tourist resort. It functions as a place where a variety of activities are to be conducted to build relationships and create good will in the surrounding predominately Muslim community. Steve Reitz has been pouring all his energy into the construction of a place where the message of hope in Jesus Christ will be made known.

The view from the window at the Hope Center also serves as a useful reminder of how missionary work is done. One window through which we may look frames the presence of a missionary family. That family is Steve and Kim Reitz and their three children, Lauren, Jenna, and Rebecca. They serve with CrossWorld in the war-torn city of Gorazde (see May, 2007 Berachah World Missions Calendar). There is no substitute for the traditional missionary who goes and stays in a place for the long haul. It has been reported that it takes an average of ten years for a missionary to learn a language and gain an elementary grasp of the culture. There are exceptions and variations involved, but the point is that church planting and other effective cross-cultural ministries require spiritually-strong, biblically-wise, culturally-savvy, God-pursuing, and faithful servants of Christ who live among the people and pay the necessary price for establishing an enduring work of God. One of the concerns expressed by mission leaders today is the reluctance of young people to make a long-term commitment to a particular place. Too many would-be missionaries lack a commitment to staying in one location for the time it takes to lay a foundation and maximize effectiveness. It takes time to break up the ground, plant the seed, water the crop, and wait for the harvest. And sometimes the harvest may not even come for a generation or longer.

Another window reveals the value of short-term missionaries. This may at first seem to be a contradiction to what has already been said regarding the need for long-term commitment. The key concept here is team-work. Those who come alongside of the resident missionaries and fit into their plans can be an asset. One immediate benefit is the training that can be received. This is happening in Gorazde. Steve and Kim Reitz have taken about seven young ladies under their wings and they are all serving together in an admirable way. Each has a different kind of giftedness but one thing they have in common is a zeal for God and His gospel. One of these young ladies will be going to another Muslim country within a year. Another team member may be going back to her native country of Brazil for missionary work there. So, actually, “short-term missionary” is probably not the best way to describe those who have a relatively brief stay in a place like Gorazde. They are there for a limited time but are meaningfully involved in gospel work. These young women are making a difference for Christ as they are being equipped for service wherever the Lord directs them.

There has been some debate about the value of mission’s teams that go out from their local church to various fields for short periods of time. These have become quite popular in the last fifteen or twenty years. Some see this as not the best use of time or money. The complaint is that the money it takes to finance such trips could be put to better use in supporting those who have committed themselves to missions as a lifework. This is a legitimate concern and every church should carefully examine its priorities and not let this happen. However, there are benefits involved in short-term teams. Again the work in Bosnia is an example of how this can work. Through well-planned activities a team of disciplined, culturally sensitive, and caring Christians can complement the gospel witness that is already taking place. Friendships have been forged between the visitors from the States and local Muslim families. The walls of suspicion and prejudice are being broken down and are giving way to opportunities to show Christ’s love.

Gorazde has suffered through a horrific war. Thousands of innocent people were killed and wounded. Many of the homes and public buildings have been replaced or repaired but a host of resentments, fears, and mistrust lie just beneath the surface. Sadly, the Muslims in Bosnia have been given a grotesque picture of Christianity. Men, women, and children were slaughtered by the Serbs “in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” To speak of Jesus, the Bible, and church can give a cold chill to a Muslim who lost a family member in the war. Only the love of Christ as seen in the kindnesses of His people can provide a window through which non-Christians can look and see the real meaning of the Cross. Yes, windows work both ways. Through them we can look out on a landscape upon which ambassadors of the message of reconciliation in Christ are offering their lives for the kingdom. And at the same time those who are outside of Christ can look through the same window and want to come inside and discover the God we worship.

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church