If Jesus Was Coming Tomorrow
Last night my youngest son asked me a very probing and important question: If you didn’t have a church building or money, how would it change your ministry? Would you do it differently?
An honest answer would be Yes. When you have buildings and budgets, they have to be managed as a matter of good stewardship. But on a deeper level one has to seriously ask the question, How much different?
It reminds me of a question that was asked of the 6th century monk, Benedict of Nursia (St. Benedict and founder of the Benedictine Order). In the midst of a game of handball, he was asked by one of his disciples, If you knew that Jesus was going to return today, what would you do differently? His response surprised the questioner: Nothing, he said, and then added, If it is wrong to play handball now, it would also be wrong then. But if it is not wrong, then serve the ball.
Still, the facts are hard to deny: circumstances often affect how we do and see things. Prosperity, even from the hand of God, has a way of altering our priorities. It tends to create new appetites, and feed less than spiritual ambitions. And if we are not careful, the pleasures and powers of this world, can supplant the voice of God in such a way, that He becomes altogether silent; atrophied through neglect.
This was well illustrated to me this week as I listened to an old message by Ravi Zacharias titled, When God Bids Farewell. As I read it, it sounded very prophetic in light of our current financial and social crisis:
“In our time, I am not so worried about what political leaders are doing to betray their trust. Maybe the greatest tragedy of the last 20 years is what spiritual leaders have done to betray their trust. That’s where the problem began….What went wrong? Why was it while we were building glorious church edifices; why was it while budgets were beginning to boom; …tens of millions coming into so-called evangelical coffers; voices over the airwaves 24 hours a day;… people asking for more money and more money and more money; and the glitter and the grandeur became bigger and bigger; until a book was written, Can Evangelicalism Survive It’s Own Popularity; until in the 1980s Time magazine had a cover title, The Year of the Evangelical; millions of dollars going into building programs; millions of dollars to build personal empires; and the question I come to now, after we see some of these edifices fallen is, “Like Solomon, did we begin to have a grander outward expression, but no voice from God where it really mattered?”
This is the danger of prosperity: Our focus shifts from the inner man to the outer man. As wealth, possessions and programs expand, the voice of God begins to contract. And if we don’t face up to the fact, He may become totally silent. Yet we don’t mind the silence because we have forgotten to listen for His voice. We don’t need to. We have enough resources to meet whatever challenge may arise. Or so we think, until a crisis comes that overwhelms or wipes out our resources; and once again he is the only one to whom we can turn. In those moments our hearing improves dramatically.
So how did I answer my son’s question? If we had no building and no money, I would focus my energy on doing three things:
1. I would peruse (read thoroughly, carefully and at length) the Scriptures daily.
2. I would pray the Truth’s that I found in Scriptures.
3. I would proclaim those Truth’s to whomever would listen to me.
As I think about it, isn’t that what we should be doing every day anyway?