A week or two ago I was with some seminary students facilitating a discussion on finances in both their work within the church and also their personal finances. Towards the end of our time, we got to talking about missional churches and the work they are doing to serve their communities. The class knew some of Hillcrest's story and so it was fun to share some of how we got to where we are today, but it was also encouraging to see these seminarians and their current churches also wrestling with what serving their community looked like. One student expressed what almost every leader thinks (and says) as they make a move to serving their community: how do we help without enabling? This has rattled around in my brain for the better part of two weeks as I continue to think through this and other seemingly paradoxical questions, such as the following:
- How does one reconcile debt-free living (advocated by the guru Dave Ramsey) with the revolutionary teachings of Muhammad Yunus, the infamous banker to the poor who believes community redevelopment comes through micro-lending (in essence, debt)?
- How does one employ the work of Jeffrey Sachs, who argues that economies develop according to established patterns (and thus argues that some less than ideal working conditions may exist say in a textile company in a developing country such as Bangladesh while their economy develops) against the writings of those who argue that trade must be kept fair and thus insist on fair labor, good working conditions, etc?
These are just two of the difficult questions that inevitably lead churches away from simply serving to educating and advocating.
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