From Mike Adams on Townhall - the Audacity of Hope

I think this is the kind of stuff you guys are talking about when "doing church". While we don't know what God would do if we stepped out in faith -- we really aren't that concerned about numbers other than the fact that more folks means being able to do more but read the following:




The Audacity of Hope 127
By Mike S. Adams
Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Just a few years ago, Pastor Jackson got on a plane from Africa to come to the United States of America. He felt led to reach out and form a partnership with a small but growing church in Wilmington, NC. He sold his car in order to purchase the plane ticket. He put his trust completely in the Lord.
When he arrived unannounced at the airport in Baltimore, MD, he called the office of the church asking for someone to come and pick him up. They had to give him the bad news that the Baltimore airport was close to Wilmington, Delaware but not anywhere near Wilmington, North Carolina. But they managed to get him on a bus to North Carolina so they could listen in person to why Pastor Jackson thought he had been led to contact them in the first place.
Not knowing where to put their surprise visitor from Africa, the church staff got him a hotel room. After listening to him address the staff, one of the young pastors named Mark drove him back to Baltimore and put him on a plane back to Africa.
When Mark returned from his seven-hour ride with Pastor Jackson he was convinced that his ministry was one that was worth supporting. The young North Carolina church was struggling financially and trying desperately to save money for its first building. Nonetheless, they were asked to consider giving 10% of their budget to Pastor Jackson’s ministry.
One of the young pastors remarked that it would be insane to give 10% to this man’s ministry at a time when their own church was struggling financially and without a building of its own. Another replied with a pointed question: “Do you think God will punish us for giving too much money to African children?”
The staff prayed as a group. At the end of the prayer and without further discussion they all looked up and said “Let’s do it.”
If you look at a chart of the growth of Port City Community Church in Wilmington, NC, you can see that the biggest jump in attendance followed that leap of faith resulting in giving 10% of the church’s budget to Pastor Jackson. Just eight years after holding its first service, Port City Community Church recently had to turn people away from its doors as it packed over 3700 people into five Sunday services. Plans for a new building have had to be modified to accommodate unexpected growth.
I believe that stories like this show that God has a plan for every person and for every church. And God rewards those who respond boldly and decisively to His plans.
When I mentioned in a recent column that I was signing over 100% of any future royalties from my latest book to Pastor Jackson’s Hope 127 Project I received an unexpected torrent of hate mail. Many of those emails asked how I could possibly donate proceeds to a foreign charity instead of one here in the United States. What I have already said in this column explains the specific calling but it does not address the larger issue of choosing foreign over domestic charity.
Those who are adamantly opposed to giving to foreign charity, especially if they are Christians, need to take some consolation in the fact that atheism is on the decline in the world today. And they can also take some consolation in the fact that Christianity is the world’s fastest growing religion.
But the good news about the Good News is not all coming from the United States of America. In fact, the real reason Christianity is winning is because of what is happening on continents like South America, Asia, and Africa. And that success has led many like me to view foreign Christian charity as a good investment.
I want those who hastily fired those critical emails to consider the location of Jesus’ birth and ministry. Is it a coincidence that God chose a place where Asia, Europe, and Africa intersect? We are all free to believe this to be a coincidence. But Christianity is not for those believing in a random universe.
When we ask ourselves “Where Would Jesus Donate, WWJD?” we should remember that God donated His Son to save an entire world. And the distinction between foreign and domestic charity has long been washed away with the blood of Jesus.
Mike Adams is a criminology professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and author of Feminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts "Womyn" On Campus.

Comments

Terry said…
guess I'll post a comment to this even tho I was the one that originated the post. Here's a couple of things: Sometimes we're called to go; sometimes we're called to support it. Maybe we in the United States have been blessed beyond any reasonable measure so that we can provide the funding for others to take up the mantle. Americans are those others love to hate - our prosperity and our happy-go-lucky nature based on our freedom makes people envious. So the days of missions by American missionaries may be on the wane and we need to support other nations as senders. For example Brasil and South Korea - or simply apply our material wealth to native churches who are fired up to reach their country? I do believe, tho, a group such as Cru reaching the campuses is still something the US can do -- student to student as peers.
Greg said…
Thanks for this post. In my personal giving, I'm always sensitive to my ratio of domestic to foreign giving (one of the reasons why I had to seek God so hard when it came to Shine the Light). It think it's easier to give domestically, because we can see the need and the benefit. I think it's much harder to have a "world vision", but this may be a more effective use resources. And I do believe in sending native missionaries. Kevin Sorem turned me on to Gospel for Asia native missionaries years ago, and I've been blessed by the reports of how much is being done w/ meager gifts. As w/ anything, I'm sure there's a balance here. We need to send, but we also need to go. We need to reach our community, but we also need to reach the world. I've not met many balanced people in my life, and I know I'm not one.

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