Poverty is everything we lack to experience abundant life: poverty of relationships, poverty of justice, material poverty, etc. It is a result of the fall that is pervasive throughout every culture. As ambassadors of Christ, then, we direct people to Him as the only Savior and King, but we also seek His kingdom here on earth. This is where we often run into trouble because it is so easy to confuse the kingdom we come from (our own culture) for His kingdom. This error is devastating for two reasons. One, it fails to acknowledge the falleness of our own cultural perspective, and two, it fails to recognize the work of the Spirit in the culture we are seeking to serve.
Proverbs 17:5 says, “He who mocks the poor shows contempt for their Maker.” This suggests that poverty is not always the result of poor decisions (nor is wealth always a sign of God’s blessing), but that God has made the poor and has a design even for our poverty. The principle by which Jesus addresses a different consequence of the fall applies here, “His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind.’ ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.’” Corbett and Fikkert point out that Colossians 1:16-17, “indicates that the goodness of God’s creation includes ‘all things,’ extending beyond the natural world into culture as a whole. Our basic predisposition should be to see poor communities—including their natural resources, people, families, neighborhood associations, schools, businesses, governments, culture, etc.—as being created by Jesus Christ and reflective of His goodness.” The basic point here is that God is at work in Congo and we need to submit to his work rather than bring our own. Mindy and I want to come humbly with a learning spirit. One way we hope to do this is by working under Congolese leadership, embedding ourselves in Congolese systems and solutions as much as possible. Look at the spirit of reciprocity with which the missionary Paul approached the Galatian church, I plead with you, brothers, become like me, for I became like you. You have done me no wrong. As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you. Even though my illness was a trail to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn.” When appropriate we hope to repent of our own culture and say with Paul, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” |
No matter how hard you throw a dead fish in the water, it still won't swim.
-Congolese saying For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.. -Jesus Wesley & Mindy McKnightThis blog will address critical questions regarding our vision of ministry in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is meant to last only until we depart the U.S., with each post being 500 words or less. Archives
July 2016
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