“You Cannot Romanticize Poverty”
So here I sit. In what I would assume to be the most expensive church building in the greater Atlanta area.
I am sitting in my office having finished catching up with half of my employees after my trip.
I just took a walk around the auditorium and felt so small in it. I mean it seats 3000 people.
We project our senior pastor on a life size video screen with a projector that costs more than most small mortgages.
I sat in the balcony and waited.
Waited.
Waited to be repulsed after the poverty that I saw last week in Uganda.
Where was it?
Where was the nausea?
Where was the anger?
It was not there. I must be calloused. I must be a freaking stone wall.
No.
Then I remembered a statement that Spence told me last week.
He said this.
When we go home, we must remember this. You CANNOT romanticize poverty.
And so here I sit. Alone in my office knowing that God has given this place to the people of Buckhead in order to reach more for Christ so that they IN TURN can feed the homeless and care for the widows.
Then I began to imagine the revival in peoples hearts that I have an opportunity to assist the Holy Spirit in ushering here at Buckhead Church.
We literally have an opportunity to change the face of this city and God has His hand on it.
So in my search for bitterness I found hope.
Do not be discouraged by your blessings.
But thank God for them and use them for His name’s sake.
Carlos
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Dude, this post so nails down what I have been struggling with on and off since my trip to El Salvador last summer.
“you can not romanticize poverty”
“don’t be discouraged by your own blessings”
Nails!!
I think you hit the nail on the head with this one Carlos. We’re all called to be different parts of the body to a world disconnected from God -a world that is right down the street or the world half a million miles away.
Good post!
gosh, that is so right, los.
– receive His blessings
– PRAISE HIM for it
– steward it ridiculously well
– remember the teaching of Matthew 25; God is a perfect steward of His gifts
later!
my husband says this to me constantly. i have a huge heart for the poor and I do romanticizie it. And that is not helping anyone. Thanks for the reminder.
So. True.
Thanks for your words, Carlos!
Amen! Thanks for sharing. The whole trip, all your emotions, and experiences…they have truly helped to change the way I view STUFF. God Bless you and Heather!
Amen brother! This is the hardest thing to wrap your brain and your heart around when returning from the deepest realms of poverty. So many are crippled by the experience, taking time to recover, but with your simple post, you summarize the heart of God and exactly how our posture of brokenness in the midst of hope should be. Jesus is the remedy…”thanks DCB”
I don’t know – I have to wonder how having “a projector that costs more than most small mortgages” is good stewardship. How does the principle of having the best show in town benefit the Kingdom? Isn’t it just a way of bringing consumerism into the Church?
Well said…..It’s hard to understand why we are so blessed while so much of the rest of the world is so needy. What God moves us to do with those blessings is the issue – Love Justice, Serve with abandon and let the Holy Spirit do the rest!!!
You don’t know how much I needed to hear this today.
Feeling guilty and sad is not serving anyone.
Thank You for being so encouraging!
Hey Phillip. I guess I would liken it to your $1400 ($1100 for the MB + $100 for 4MB RAM + $200 for the HD) computer.
Although you seemed to have saved some money you could have gotten a PC that does that for about 700. Same idea. Stewardship is all relative.
I spent the last week living it.
Thanks for that. It was just what I needed to hear.
Hey man, don’t get me wrong here. I’m not saying that I’m not guilty of falling for consumerism. I’m in as deep as anyone. I’m just trying to play devil’s advocate here.
Seriously, though – a $700 PC over a MacBook? I don’t think so…
I think about how God’s heart breaks for the poor and so mine should follow his, but when that happens with me it tends to come with feelings of guilt for what I have. I can’t imagine God has that guilt. A tender, guilt-free heart. How does that work?
Exactly.
perfect word. that is exactly the idea you should come home with.
This is a tough one…I think these are great words, Los. At the same time, I think we all will have different reactions to what we experience when we take trips like this.
I, too, am a big proponent for using what we are given to lead others to Jesus so that they will one day turn around and do the same…and ideally reach their world (which hopefully means the downtrodden, the poor, the outcast).
My struggle comes when I know that I am supposed to go beyond that. To actually speak out for the poor, downtrodden, the outcast…to DO something. It’s hard. So, in that, I see the wealth around me and I struggle with it. But, it’s a GOOD struggle! God is teaching me great things through it and challenging me on very deep levels.
So, thank you for your posts this past week…they have been encouraging, challenging, butt-kicking, and so very hopeful. :O)
Can’t wait to catch you around and get the Africa vibe!!!
GOOD REMINDER. I got hit with the bitter reverse culture shock when I came back from an mission trip last year, and it’s hard to justify all the STUFFS we have. I just have to remember – stuff isn’t bad, it’s what I do with the stuff and if I use it to further God’s kingdom, right? Maybe?
“Do not be discouraged by your blessings.
But thank God for them and use them for His name’s sake.”
one of the most insightful quotes i’ve read in a while. thanks.
thanks man…
Carlos,
I have wondered on over to your blog from Shannon’s.
Thank you so much for what you wrote. I remember after years of living tightly, my husbands business took off and I felt very weird about it. Almost guilty, especially around my friends – most notably a good friend whos hubby was the assoc. pastor of out church.
My wonderful husband told me not to feel guilty. We are such givers, both he and I. He said something like – how can we give if we have nothing to give. Now we can give more than we ever imagined!
It’s true! We have given so much more as God has blessed us. We can’t wait to get involved with Compassion to continue to give.
Alicia
amen. that’s a great perspective! thanks.
When I was overseas courtesy of the US Navy, I was struck by the utter poverty in Thailand, Brazil and the Philippines. It didn’t seem to phase the locals, however.
The impoverished residents of Hong Kong, however, recognized their own plight.
Why?
Those in Hong Kong have seen affluence and wish they were there. The others have no idea what else the world has to offer. Yes, they’re poor – by America’s standards – and may have to walk miles for fresh water, but they were used to it.
Does that mean we are not to help them? No. But it does mean that we can’t bring it back with us.
Our country is affluent to a fault. Anyone who dares to walk miles for fresh water will be jumped on by a thousand bureaucrats and well-meaning bleeding hearts who want to save them from that plight. If we choose to live like them, we are tossing all this great nation has to offer.
Help them. Make the world aware of their plight. Then come home and celebrate what God has given to you. Our riches are meant to share – not hoard.
great post. i love how it’s a call to action…
inactivity and guilt aren’t productive.
What a great thought. I, too, have been feeling quite guilty of my blessings after reading along about the Compassion trip, but you’ve definitely given me a new way to think about things.
Amen. Thanks so much for being authentic and vulnerable. We are adopting from Haiti and the first time down there rocked me good. I appreciate the reminder that God has a master plan and I just need to obey. Blessings!
Amen.
Exactly! Don’t feel guilty over what God has blessed you with – turn it around and use it for his glory.
Good stuff.
Saying this in a spirit of respect and love, I’m not with you on the theology here. I am convinced that it grieves God’s heart that we spend money on things we don’t need – from extra clothes to church projectors – while our brothers and sisters in Christ are starving to death. At the end of the day, you don’t need all the stuff that’s in Buckhead Church – and I don’t need all the crap that’s in my house and office – to reach people for Jesus. If the Spirit’s gonna move, the Spirit’s gonna move.
I have been living in between these two worlds for a long time now, and I am an exile in both. But the paradox is that when I decided to give up my need to justify my lifestyle and to repent of my excess, I got set free from the guilt. Guilt is tied to fear, and fear, not hate, is the opposite of love. But I don’t think being free from guilt releases us from the call to serve the poor, not with simple acts of charity every now and then, but in a re-envisioning of the world that calls us to Biblical justice.
That has nothing to do with romanticizing poverty and everything to do with rethinking it all. Put another way, is your life going to change as a result of what you now know to be true?
You nailed it. GOOD post.
Amazing outlook. Thank you for sharing it.
Thank you for your weblog. I am not a big reader of blogs. In fact, until a couple days ago, I only read J-Walking. But now I am so addicted to yours–I think it is wonderful. The best part–it is so REAL. Thank you.
I agree with Doug, the first commenter: you nailed it. I’ve seen so many come home from mission trips and romanticize the poverty they experienced overseas and become bitter toward the wealth of America; toward their own wealth, and that just does no one any good. But I had the same experience my first time overseas.
I love how Clayman refers to the fact that some of those he saw were not phased by their own poverty. I saw that in China, my first trip overseas. This very poor workman, completely barefoot with raggedy clothes, carrying buckets of water back and forth all day long on a stick across his back through the mud and mess of construction work was singing joyfully as he worked. All day. Singing joyfully (I laid there sick one day and heard him literally all day). Blew me away. I came home so changed by my 9 days amongst that (joyful, or at least contented) poverty I didn’t know what to do with myself. And I felt that same guilt over my own “riches” as you mentioned.
But I guess I finally realized the truth of your words. Because when I came home from living in India for six months, 5 years after my China experience, I no longer romanticized the poverty I saw. Now it just breaks my heart and reminds me that no matter how materially wealthy a person is, without Jesus they are as spiritually poor as those I saw in material poverty. Does that make sense?
Anyway, way to nail this lesson on the head.
For His Name.
Great conversation everyone.
Texas, thanks for your healthy view. I feel it our of love so thanks.
But I don’t agree.
“If the Spirit’s gonna move, the Spirit’s gonna move.”
If that is the case we might as well remove ourselves from the equation all together.
I agree with you on not spending money on what we do not need. But what I don’t agree with is “us” being the judge of that. You are basically saying that if men and women are on their knees and feel the Lord prompting them to spend a certain amount of money on something then if it costs “insert amount here” then they are being disobedient. I know this is a thin line and appreciate the dialog.
Carlos
The poverty of the soul tends to look the same no matter what part of the globe you’re looking at, doesn’t it?
It is amazing how truth rings when you hear it!
Carlos, thanks for your reply. I don’t think I was saying that there’s a legalistic limit where we say, “Ooh, if she’s spent more than $50 on a pair of jeans, she’s a sinner.” Obviously that leads to a judgmentalism that is sinful in and of itself.
But at the same time, when I look at Jesus’ life, I don’t see how we can justify so much of what we do as truly necessary. Jesus wasn’t hanging out with the rich people, or with the people whose doctrine was picture-perfect, or even with the ones who were trying to make existing religious institutions relevant. He completely stepped outside of all that and lived a life that was radically committed to restoring those whose lives had been broken.
I am not a Calvinist and didn’t mean to imply that we’re not part of the equation in God’s plan – of course we need to be there, actively living and sharing our faith. But I also think that we pile a lot of unnecessary layers on top of the essential message. I don’t believe that God needs fancy equipment to draw people to Him. (And, again, I don’t mean to be mean or judgmental, because I know that type of thing has a lot to do with what God has called you to do.)
Anyway, I don’t have all the answers, but I’m convinced that the Bible’s radical call for justice demands that we change. It’s not a “how-close-to-the-line-can-I-get,” legalistic kind of attitude that we’re supposed to have. It’s one that asks how we can live out the call to God’s kind of justice in every single aspect of our lives, including with our finances and church budgets.
Thanks for the dialogue, too!
Texas in Africa -
I’m not following your “God’s kind of Justice” point of view. Could you explain it?
Email me @
kangaruhs@comcast.net
los – thank you so much for sharing your heart. this resonates with me deeply.
Hey, Doug, it’s basically what Jesus points to in Luke 4:18-19 – a restored world where the things that are not right (poverty, slavery, illness, and oppression) are made right.
Dear Carlos,
This was a good post.
So glad you put up this good word – it is so easy to buy into the mea culpa for having running water and a flush toilet – but even if we gave them up -people all over the world still wouldn’t have enough! We begin by sharing generously what we have – the Lord provides plenty – and our churches don’t have to be ugly to prove a point – when God designed His OWN church in the old testament – it was beautiful.
Ya know – I came here from BooMama and Shannon originally but I’ve got you and Heather on my faves now -you got sumpthin don’t you? Bless you friends – and hope you are catching up on the zzzzzzz’s
Whew. Good stuff. I have been struggling with this since I got back from Africa last March. And my wife and I are heading there in June (we hope) to bring home our daughter and I know it’s gonna rear it’s head again.
Glad to know I am not the only one struggling with such things!
Tymm
SO cool to see get to watch you and heather on your journey! it was great to see you both today, even if it was just in passing. and there was an absolute reenergized look in your eye and i praise God for that. there is work to be done… let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up!!!
PRAISE GOD for the ongoing work HE is doing both in Kampala AND Buckhead!! and PRAISE GOD that we are blessed enough to be a part of both!!!!!
i would like to recommend the book ‘rich Christians in an age of hunger’ by ronald sider. i’m almost done with it, and it’s wrecked my world. it deals with the topics being talked about here. you can find it marked down to $4.99 in the discount bin at most christian bookstores.
Amen brother!
you’re a good man, los…
Great perspective and post, Carlos. Good conversation from the readers, too.
You don’t have to even make the contrast with Buckhead—even the poor and rural communities in this country have FAR more wealth & power than the rest of the world. A church with an $800 projector could be accused of wasting that money when they could have used flannelgraph and sent the rest overseas. Our call isn’t to feel bad about our resources—it’s to leverage them for those less powerful.
What Buckhead & NPM has done through the BE RICH campaign is a good example of this. Thanks to you and your team for showing the way!
Carlos – Bro, I stumbled upon your blog this week and I am now woven in. This post did it. Thank you so much for letting us in out here in the blogosphere. And this list of comments! Awesome! I believe we are all supposed to wrestle with these issues, keep loving each other even when we come up with our own conclusions, and then live them out passionately. And i see that here. I see the Spirit of Jesus in all of it and it encourages me deeply. I am going to India later this year. I’m sure this post will come back to my mind and heart.
This is a great post and discussion.
What I love about Buckhead church is the striving for excellence in everything that is done. We serve a God of excellence. A perfect God. All that we bring to Him can never compare to him but in the OT days, people were to bring their best to sacrifice. Not the sick and rotten… the best. Buckhead brings the best.
We also need to understand the people we are trying to reach in our zip code. Buckhead is not an area of dirt roads and outhouses. It is an affluent and wealthy area. You could have built a church of plywood, tarps, and an overhead projector while everyone sits on a dirt floor and pees in a hole in the ground…. and all 3 people who would attend would be ok with it.
While our churches are not “the temple of God” I do think back to the days when God had His people build a temple. Again, it wasn’t made of sun dried Ox poop and palm leaves. It was a magnificent and richly appointed place.
I hear a lot of people talk trash about things like churches spending too much money on “stuff”. I used to be one of them until God smacked me about the head. I love the quote “You can not romanticize poverty.” If we logistically look at this, like the price of the projector at Buckhead, how would that money be spent otherwise? Let’s say the thing cost $200,000 for the sake of argument. I have no idea how much it actually cost. I look at it every week thinking the bulb alone is probably equal to my annual income.
A lot of the poverty we see in the “third world” comes from massive corruption from the top down to a lack of natural resources to sustain a population to a cultural attitude lacking a “western attitude of what is poverty.” As mentioned here, some people we see as poor would not think of themselves in such a way.
“I have 50 goats! I’m the richest man in the town!”
“But you don’t have a toilet or cable TV!”
“No one has a toilet here!”
You know, in some cultures, 50 goats is as good as a Tahoe with a PS3 in the backseat! Anyway….
So we have this $200,000 to “send to the poor” instead of buying a projector? What do we do with it? Realistically?
“We could give meals to 50,000 hungry people for 2 weeks!!!”
Ok, after 2 weeks then what?
“We could build 4 schools in rural wherever!”
Ok, that has some longevity. How many lives are going to be changed through that school over the life of the building? And are we talking about a country that changes the government like we change underwear? Do we know that school is going to be there for 50 or 60 or 70 years to come? The schools are built. Who is going pay the teachers and provide the stuff schools need?
“We could give shoes/clothes/toothpaste/laptops/alarm clocks to 10,000 people!”
Ok. And then in 6 weeks or months or a year down the road we need another $200,000 to give more shoes/clothes/toothpaste/laptops/alarm clocks to the same people.
Logistically, where would the $200,000 go to poor people that is going to have lasting impact? Where would you send it? What would it be used for? How would you get it there and what is the long term sustainability of it? How many will have their life changed by that $200,000 to the point that they go on to change the lives around them?
It is SOOOOO easy for some to say “we spend too much when there are poor people to take care of” and not enough discussion on how that actually would happen. I mean, Sally Struthers tells me that I can feed a kid for the price of a cup of coffee so maybe we send the money to her. It also makes me want to move to a place where I can feed my kids for the same price.
What if we took that $200,000 and bought a top of the line projector. Something that we know is going to last a long time. And what if we know, for a fact, that if we plug that thing in and project sermons on it we will reach 5,000+ people each and every week in an environment that speaks to their lifestyle?
What if that $200,000 will communicate the message of God to thousands and their reaction to that message is in turn followed by opening their wallets and sending MILLIONS out into the world from the guy next door who lost his job to the village in wherever that needs a new school house built? We’ve taken that $200,000, reached people in our community, helped the guy next door, AND got a school house built. Trifecta!
Now that $200,000 doesn’t seem like such a lavish expenditure if you realize the work that thing is doing. And about being a steward of that $200,000 for a projector. What if Buckhead could have bought a $50,000 projector used on eBay that “sort of” did the job? And what if it was going down all the time? And what if it took $200,000 to maintain the clunker over a two year period? Now we’ve spent more to do the job that the initial projector could have done. Is that really being a good steward?
We could just say that Buckhead Church cost millions and millions of dollars. That money could have gone to the poor and those thousands of folks who go to Buckhead could have just gone somewhere else to church. That doesn’t work either because it is the generosity of the people in the church that built the church.
To reach the people of Buckhead, logistically, it REQUIRES the spending of millions. Someone find me free land in Buckhead. Someone find me a way to build without worrying about codes and restrictions and community expectations. Want to join in the Buckhead community? You better come correct with the money because it’s going to cost you…. and what is the real cost of the souls being won by Buckhead? Isn’t it worth the money?
I think about Exodus 31…
“Then the LORD said to Moses, 2 “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts- 4 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, 5 to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship. 6 Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given skill to all the craftsmen to make everything I have commanded you:” (NIV)
What we have at Buckhead is a blessing. Everyone who works there is able to not only do their job but follow the talents God has placed in them with the tools that have been afforded to them to do with the blessing of God and the generosity of the people being “fed” by the church. Carlos, I’m sure your job is made that much better and able to be done efficiently thanks to the current technology you have instead of trying to run a church on a Windoze 3.1 computer with a bed sheet for a projection screen.
How many poor people could have been fed with all the pure gold in God’s temple?
I love all of you who work so hard at Buckhead. Don’t be ashamed of the wealth and blessing…. great and amazing work is being done through it!
Cheers,
Zack
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Whoa, that was longer than I expected.
Hi Carlos!
Thanks for sharing your stories from Uganda (my husband and I sponsored a child from Uganda as a result!) We attended North Point church (love it!) until I got a job working for a ministry called Metro Kidz (www.atlmetrokidz.com) in the inner-city and we take kids from the projects to children’s church on sunday mornings – Anyways, a lot of the kids we work with live in poverty (not as extreme as Uganda) but nevertheless they often go without meals or clean clothes, particularly because many of their parents struggle with drug addictions, live on food stamps, and most of the kids dont have fathers at home. Anyways, my point is that this poverty exists literally less than 30 minutes away from Buckhead church – and if you think Buckhead church (or you in particular) would ever be interested in helping out or being involved with a cool ministry downtown – I’d love to tell you more about what we do (I feel like I know you and your wife already just through your blog) — thanks Carlos!
Becca –
That dude who was building bigger barns never romanticized poverty either!