The Poverty of Nations and the Body

Last night, I heard Wayne Grudem talk about The Poverty of Nations he co-wrote with Barry Asmus. It is a historical and Biblical look at what works to pull countries out of poverty. Part of the discussion was about how over 250 years ago, every country was impoverished, if one looks at per capita data.

But some countries came out if it.  How? Not really a spoiler, but part of the answer is found in the production of goods and services.  Sending money or food helps for immediate crises, but long term, taking in foreign aid has never in history lifted any country out of poverty.  What it does, in part, is create an insatiable monster in the form of corrupt government leadership that consumes the "aid" before it ever gets to the citizens most at risk.

This morning, I saw an article about Mars Hill Church and its fall.

And it got me thinking...

As the church, we keep growing but what are we producing?  How much "aid" do we take in? How much gets to those who need it?  Is what is true for the health of countries also true for what we now call the church? Do we create programs that soak up the resources in the form of tithes and offerings when we were called to bring the tithe in so that there would be food in His house?

Have we, with the best of intentions, created a den of robbers?

How much more effective would we be in current battles for souls, family, marriage, freedom, poverty, slavery, and racism if so much of our "aid" wasn't necessary to run the church as a business?

Were we really supposed to grow budgets and buildings or the Body?

We need to be very, very careful. And very, very humble.  Because if we are not, we will find that the demands between the building and the Body can become mutually exclusive.