People In Need Are A Nuisance
Conrad Lampan
The disciples came to Jesus expressing concern for the welfare of the people that were listening to Jesus teaching. They were concerned because -they say- the people have been away from their homes for three days and have had nothing to eat. Read with me Matthew 14:15-16 15"This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.16 But Jesus said to them, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat."(NKJV).
From any human stand point the disciples were rightly startled! How in the world would they feed that crowd? On the other hand they might have thought "should WE feed them, anyway?"
Bear with me for a moment as we look into the scene: The disciples just came back from a triumphant "tour of miracles" and although they were probably tired their excitement surpassed their tiredness; they were so eager to tell Jesus everything they have done, and how even the demons were subject to them! They truly appreciated when Jesus told them to go to a deserted place and rest; they just wanted to be with Jesus privately and tell him about their trip. Basically they were just ready to boast about their super-successful ministries, and they surely did not want any interruption from a crowd turned nuisance!
BUT THE CROWD WAS THERE
The people were following Jesus, they had needs and nobody was going to stop them from following the one who could truly give them their miracle. A crowd in need can become a nuisance to those who want to just enjoy success. The disciples might have thought -as many seem to think today- that when the people are gone away we are not responsible any more; "out of sight out of mind" some would have their minds tell their hearts. But it is true that the needs don't go away or disappear just because we send them away.
When the disciples came to Jesus they went like: "Master, we are soooo concerned about these people, they have been following you for days and have not eaten anything! Now this is a desert place, and it is late, we are really concerned that they might go yet another day without food; see Mater they really need to go home" (Paraphrasis mine). What the disciples were concerned actually was about their own plans, they just wanted a quiet time with Jesus, and the opportunity to shine in their achievements, but the crowd was preventing them. I think they were not concerned about the people; they wanted to get rid of the people so they could go about their own plans.
YOU FEED THEM!
I could imagine the disciples' response when Jesus said that. I could just see them going like "Oh, me and my big mouth!" Now they were in real trouble. Without going now into how provision was made, and how the Lord was glorified through the miracle, I want to focus on some aspect many times overlooked: what is our responsibility?
Three days ago I received an email with some statistics about the church in these days (I have pasted below a copy of the tables). As I was reading it I started weeping, and I am still weeping in my soul not only because of what I read but also because I have seen those realities in my trips. Some would argue that some of those statistics are exaggerated; but I tell you I have seen it happen. While in Africa entire congregations have to meet under a tree, in the USA we keep building multimillion dollar building. I have seen in my own country Argentina the struggle of my Brother and his wife to help Street Children at the orphanage they founded. I read the other day the report from Rolland and Heidi Baker, all the struggles, the lack of help, and even the persecution from the churches! It has become a sort of pattern that many of those who do not move a finger for anything will dedicate their time to persecute those who do!
When I see and read how the church uses the gifts God has trusted us with, money, human resources, time, talents, I can't help but shudder thinking of the day we will meet with the Lord and have to give account of what we have done with all that. I heard once about someone speak about the magnificent sanctuary they were building, with imported marbles, and the best woods, and so on; this person was boasting about the building and someone else asked: why this much spending? the first guy responded "well we can afford it, so why not?" The sad fact is that many things are done in the church, especially in rich countries simply because they can afford it. However the question remains: is it necessary? The same is true about every other resource God gave us and not just about money. How do we use our time? Do we care spending more time in performing for ourselves, doing all kinds of activities aiming only to our personal enjoyment? One of the items in the statistics below states the fact that more money seem to be spent in going to conferences to speak about missions than the actual money sent to missions! I can believe it because I see it! One example: An appeal to help the orphanage in Buenos Aires (they have had a fire and are in need of rebuilding what was destroyed by the fire) brought in a few hundred dollars; out of a list of more than 15,000 people only 4 people responded!
Some would argue that the church should focus on spiritual issues and bring spiritual help not social help, but the fact remains that the church in these days for the most part is not even giving spiritual solutions to anybody. The truth of the Gospel is that Jesus tended not only to the soul and spirit, or to a future in heaven, but also to the body. Jesus sees us as a whole, with spiritual and physical needs. My heart is sad because of how we miss opportunities to be a blessing to others. We, Christians, the church have so many riches given to us, material and spiritual, what are we doing with it?
And for those who are reading this article and find in what I just said material to condemn the church and support their arguments against the church and suggest that God is done with the church, I have news for you: the Lord has not rejected His church. It is not the church that fails; it is primarily the individuals that form the church who individually fail bringing shame onto the whole body. If the church does not pray as it should it is the individuals that do not pray; if the church does not evangelize it is the individuals in first place who are not about their task; if the church does not fulfill its social function of being a factor of transformation, it is because its individuals don't do it. It has become easy to blame "the church" as if the corporate body had a life of its own separate from the individuals that form that body.
The fact remains that we -those of us who go by the name Christians- for the most part are behaving like those disciples; we care for our blessings, our welfare, our make me feel good stance, and about how we can make the most out of God's promises, while most of the time we tend to be very "forgetful" about our responsibility toward others. The statistics in the table pasted below are self explanatory.
The church has a responsibility primarily toward God, but then also toward the city where it is planted. Many think that their responsibility toward God is such that they do not have to care or do anything about those around them. The paradox is that our relationship with God will actually compel us to reach out to those in need of salvation, and also in need of help. If we are really developing a relationship with God then it would come simply "natural" that God's compassion would manifest through us reaching out to a world in need. Conversely if we cannot care less of what happens around us, that speaks volumes of what kind of relationship we have with God.
In Him
Conrad Lampan
Wales - Argentina - United States
www.revivalstudies.org crs@revivalstudies.org
"The UNARGUABLE FACTS"
Doug Perry.
[- Kansas City businessman]
"Scary Stats"
We fully expect you to stomp away mad, but you might want to consider that our only effort here is to point out facts about how big the problem has gotten This is a compilation of the scariest, most embarrassing, most shocking statistics and information about the Church and it's affairs. Somebody is going to have to stand before Jesus one day and explain their role in this. We don't want it to be us - or you. We don't quote anything haphazardly without having good documentation and sources.
The FACTS:
38 countries are primarily unevangelized. (i.e. 1.6 Billion souls)
Assets of the Church:
US Christians control TRILLIONS in assets while at any given time 200,000,000 Brothers and Sisters starve.
78 countries each have Great Commission Christians whose personal incomes exceed US$1 billion a year.
Financial Fraud in the Church:
Annual church embezzlements by top custodians exceed the entire cost of all foreign missions worldwide. Emboldened by lax procedures, trusted church treasurers are embezzling from the Church $5,500,000 PER DAY. That's $16 Billion per YEAR! {For reference: TOTAL Christian spending on foreign missions is only $15 Billion. God forgive us!}
Criminal penalties against clergy in sexual abuse cases now exceed $1 billion, causing a number of churches, dioceses and denominations to be forced into bankruptcy.
Wasteful Spending by the Church:
95% of all church budgets in the US are spent on our own comforts and programs. Less than 1% is spent on evangelism to the most unreached.
40% of the church's entire global foreign mission resources are being deployed to just 10 oversaturated countries already possessing strong citizen-run home ministries.
More than 90% of all Christian materials are in English, but only 8% of the world speaks English.
All costs of ministry divided by number of baptisms per year. Cost per baptism in India - $9803 per person. Cost per baptism in the United States - $1,550,000 per person.
Every year the churches hold a mega census costing $1.1 billion, sending out 10 million questionnaires in 3,000 languages, which covers 180 major religious subjects.
91% of all Christian outreach/evangelism does not target non- Christians but targets other Christians in already-evangelized countries or people-groups.
Each year,180 million Bibles and New Testaments are wasted - lost, destroyed, or disintegrated - due to incompetence, hostility, bad planning, or inadequate manufacture.
Missions and the Church:
Some 250 of the 300 largest international Christian organizations regularly mislead the Christian public by publishing demonstrably incorrect or falsified progress statistics.
Christian triumphalism - not as pride in huge numbers, but as publicized self-congratulation - is rampant in most churches, agencies, and ministries.
It costs Christians 700 times more money to baptize converts in rich countries (eg. Switzerland) than in poor countries (eg. Nepal).
Percent of Christian resources in countries that are already more than 60% Christian - 99.9%. Percent spent in countries where less than half the people have EVER heard of Jesus - 0.01%.
It is estimated that Christians worldwide spend around $8 BILLION dollars PER YEAR going to the more than 500 conferences to TALK about missions. That's more than TWICE the total spent DOING missions.
Everywhere on Earth can now easily be targeted with at least 3 of the 45 varieties of effective evangelism.
818 unevangelized ethno linguistic peoples have never been targeted by any Christian agencies ever.
Out of 648 million Great Commission Christians, 70% have never been told about the world's 1.6 billion unevangelized individuals.
The 3 least cost-effective countries over 1 million in population for Christian outreach are: Japan, Switzerland, Denmark.
The 3 most cost-effective countries over 1 million in population for Christian outreach are: Mozambique, Ethiopia, Tanzania.
Denominations of the Church:
Currently there are over 33,000 Christian denominations in the United States.
A huge new Christian nonconfessional megabloc, the Independents or Postdenominationalists, is growing rapidly and numbers 19% of all Christians. These 386 million Independents in 220 countries have no interest in and no use for historic denominationalist Christianity.
>From less than one million in AD 1900, Pentecostals/ Charismatics/ Neocharismatics have mushroomed to 524 million affiliated (-with unaffiliated believers, 602 million).
Growth of the Church:
The country with the fastest Christian expansion ever is China, now at 10,000 new converts every day.
Persecution of the Church:
More than 70% of all Christians now live in countries where they are experiencing persecution. In some cases EXTREME persecution.
Global Population Issues:
124 million new souls begin life on Earth each year, but Christianity's 4,000 foreign mission agencies baptize only 4 million new persons a year.
Unreached Peoples
Out of 648 million Great Commission Christians, 70% have never been told about world's 1.6 billion unevangelized individuals.
Despite Christ's command to evangelize the world, 67% of all humans from AD 30 to the present have never even heard of his name.
Martyrdom:
Over the last 20 centuries, and in all 238 countries, more than 70 million Christians have been martyred - killed, executed, murdered - for Christ.
More Christians have been martyred in the last 100 years than all other years since AD 30 combined.
Had Enough Yet? It gets worse. We're stuffing the Fattest and starving the Hungriest!
This is meant to be just a plain, direct reporting of how miserably, horribly, devastatingly badly we - the Christians in the West - have mismanaged the massive gifts which God has entrusted to us.
-Doug Perry. [Visit his website- http://whathavewedone.org ] ___________________________________
[Sources: 1) An AD 2001 reality check: 50 new facts and figures about trends and issues concerning empirical global Christianity today. (from Table 1-1 in World Christian Trends, William Carey Library, David Barrett & Todd Johnson.)
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