Barney Wiget's Blog

This is the introductory chapter of the book. You can listen to the 7-minute audio (above) and/or read the text (below). I hope you’ll get the rest of the “Pay What You Can” book here. All the proceeds go to a very worthy cause.

Fans of the game of baseball fawn over the “five-tool player.” He’s the guy who can run like the wind, throw like a rocket launcher, hit for average like a machine, hit for power like Superman, and catch fly balls like flypaper traps flies. To be a great ballplayer one needs to develop more than one skill. Those who can catch the ball, but are unable to do the other things the sport requires, aren’t likely to quit their office job any time soon.

I have friends who are multidimensional followers of Jesus. They can do it all. Well, I only consider them friends when they’re not making me jealous. To top it off, they’re humble. Don’t you just hate people like that?

A blogger I follow calls himself anAnabaptist, lower-case evangelical, fairly charismatic, slightly liturgical, and sometimes contemplative follower of Jesus. Talk about covering all the bases! On the other hand, I know people who seem content to be one-tool Christians. It’s not just a matter of their gifting. They seem to value only their preferred aspect of the faith. They’re scholars who know more than Paul––about his own epistles. They may pray more than the Pope, preach better than Martin Luther King Jr., or fast more than Gandhi. But that’s all they can or care to do for God. It’s all they talk about and all they admire in others. And if you don’t excel in the use of their same “tool,” they probably won’t admit you into their circle.

The Christ-shaped life and the Spirit-saturated church values and practices all aspects of God’s mission. For example, it’s never been God’s intention that evangelism would occur exclusively in one church while acts of mercy for the downtrodden would happen in another.

The tenth chapter of Luke’s Gospel features three scenes. Each scene is unique to the good doctor’s biography of Jesus’ life and teaching: the mission trip of the seventy, the parable of the Good Samaritan, and the account of Mary of Bethany worshipfully sitting at Jesus’ feet. These narratives demonstrate three important aspects of Christian spirituality and church life: mission, mercy, and worship. Like a three-point sermon or a three-legged stool, each leg depends on the other two for balance and stability.

Reaching out to lost people, serving the hurting, and pursuing a deepening intimacy with God each are essential for infectious Christians and healthy churches. As you might expect, most people and churches lean toward one or another of these. Some major on sharing Christ everywhere they go, healing the sick, and confronting demons. Others aren’t as proficient at or compelled to good news sharing, yet they’re passionate about good news showing by serving poor and marginalized people. They’re drawn to social justice in the same way that others are attracted to evangelism. And then others possess a singular passion to cultivate a deeper intimacy with God through contemplative prayer, meditation, and worship, while mission and mercy are less of a focus in their spiritual tribe.

Each person, church, or spiritual movement has a particular stream in which they’re most comfortable swimming. Often, they overlook or devalue other streams. This approach to practicing our faith is flawed. When we swim exclusively in our own preferred stream, we tend to lose respect and lack appreciation for our brothers and sisters who swim elsewhere.It’s unwise to think other Christians get it all wrong because they don’t do it as we do.

One-tool Christians need to honor one another above themselves[i], appreciate the giftings of others, support their calling, and glean from their passion. If others don’t prioritize the same things you do, they’re not necessarily wrong, and you’re not necessarily right. They might have a revelation of a different facet of Christ than you do. So, thank God for them, learn from them, and skim off even just a little bit of their passion for yourself.

If making disciples is your thing, don’t judge those who love serving the poor or worshipping as their top priority.If you major in mercy, resist the temptation to criticize your friends who would rather preach or pray than do the work of justice.If you are one that would rather sit at Jesus’ feet than eat, try not to disparage others for their passion to serve the downtrodden or evangelize the outsider.

Let’s celebrate the contributions of others and emulate those who excel in spiritual practices in which we fall behind. Others may be more gifted and compelled by the Spirit toward one or the other of these emphases, but let’s not shirk our responsibility to improve in every dimension of kingdom life. Like the ballplayer not naturally endowed with allfive-tools, let’s work on the weaker aspects of our game.  

To change the metaphor, in order to lose weight, most doctors will prescribe a good diet and adequate exercise. One without the other will neither adequately nor sustainably reduce girth or lower poundage. In order to get in shape and maintain a healthy weight, we have to practice both. In the same way, to be spiritually fit and to have sound, balanced churches, we must work on being missional, and merciful, and worshipful.

Not that many years ago a guy driven by a demonic compulsion to discredit me stood in the middle of a group of friends of mine, accused me of things of which I was not guilty, and goaded me to fight him on the spot! Yes, fight, as in punch it out!

His motive wasn’t vengeance or even anger. I had done nothing to warrant his ire. He knew it, as did everyone in the room. He didn’t hate me per se. What he hated was what I stood for. He just hated pastors, and in a way, you could say, for good reason. After his own pastor had run off with his wife, he was on a mission to hurt someone, just anyone that carried the title and I was the one nearest who fit the bill.

So, he ranted a while, called me a few choice names, and when that didn’t bring his desired result, he stood up and gave me the “bring it on” sign with the beck of a hand. Now I’m no fighter. Never have been, at least not with my fists. I can use words pretty well, but never found much joy in slugging it out with someone to prove my manhood. But I do have a smidgeon of pride, and when a man stands up and, as they say, “calls you out,” it’s near impossible for a guy to just sit there and take it. I guess one could, and maybe I should’ve, but at the moment it seemed unavoidable. So, I stood. It all happened so fast I didn’t have a chance to plan my next move, but I stood. That’s when all you-know-what broke out!

As soon as I stood, before any blows were thrown––nary a push––another guy just outside the room saw what was unfolding, threw open the door and barged in with a vengeance. He leapt between us and made a beeline at my antagonizer’s throat. Within a split second, the other men in the room pulled him back from my would-be assailant and when the mayhem subsided they forced both of them outside and sent them on their very separate ways. Afterward, we all sat there in stunned silence at what had just happened. Did I mention that all this occurred in a Sunday School room in our church building after a worship service?

Why tell this story now, which was one of a few harrowing incidents in the life of this pastor? (Yeah, anyone listening who is considering a career in ministry might want to take a little more time to rethink your plan before heading off to seminary.)

I tell it now because I think we’re watching in real time what our country’s chief executive and those who block for him do pretty much every day, goading people who disagree with them into a fight. By a never-ending flood of insults and threats, he antagonizes anyone who crosses him into standing up to duke it out. Just recently he bloviated at Charlie Kirk’s memorial that in contrast to Charlie and his wife, “I hate my opponents, and I don’t want the best for them!”

There you have it from the horse’s mouth! He hates them and does everything he can to prove he’s the toughest and meanest hombre in the room. He reduces others (within our borders and without) to increase himself. He routinely pushes them down in order to raise himself up. And it works nearly every time. He gets a rise out of them and then discredits them when they try to match swagger for swagger.

Like a wounded animal, leading a pack of so-called patriots parasitically attached to him biting and clawing anyone in his way. Reminds me of the insecure schoolyard bully compensating for his self-doubt and picks fights to prove he’s bigger, badder, and better than anyone on the playground. Who is the responsible party for his being so broken and wounded is anyone’s guess. Or was he born a bully? Quién sabe!

Problem is, his opponents unwisely take the bait. The further he goes to the distant “right” it smells of fascism, they rush to the extreme version in the opposite way to the left and sound like socialists. His hate and vengeance seduce those on the “other side” to match the insanity in the other direction. That’s the crazy to which our country has arrived. It’s where the murderer of Charlie Kirk and would be assassin of Trump himself came from. It’s also how we get some of our outrageous “progressive” morals and policies meant to counteract the absurdity of what used to be the party of family values and small government. They’ve been baited into standing with clenched fists, handing him and his cronies a moral, not to mention a morale, victory.

If you would continue running interference for him even if he shot someone on 5th Avenue, none of what I say here will convince you to jump off the train of Trump. You’re not my intended audience. I learned a decade ago that I might as well be speaking the “wah-wah-wah” language of the adults in a Charlie Brown TV special. Rather, I appeal to those of you who’ve either jumped off the train or never were on it to begin with.

Please, don’t take the bait. There’s a hook in it! My friends helped me that day and I’m trying to do the same for you. Yes, definitely take a stand if and when you must, but don’t stand up to fight using the tactics made available by the world, the flesh, and the devil. Don’t let them choose the weapons like the “second” party in advance of a “gentleman’s” duel. Avoid the impulse to match their hate and calls for violence. Refuse to be pushed so far to the left that you fall off the edge of the earth! Think critically, not combatively. Fight on your knees instead of your fists.

Especially if you’re a follower of Jesus, reject the inclination to wallow in the mud with them. “You can fight a porcupine and win, but if other folks get a look at you they may think it’s a bad idea to mess with porcupines.” Remember, it’s not “an eye for an eye” anymore­­––not since Jesus came and flipped the script and showed us the kingdom way to resist evil. Even Gandhi knew that “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Threats and/or acts of violence are simply not an option. Make it your goal to win people, not win arguments. Pray with passion, protest in peace, and promote the truth without losing your mind and your integrity, not to mention annihilating our collective testimony for Christ.

 “Though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-4)

One’s worldview is the lens through which they view the world around them. What lens do you use with people who are ethnically, economically, politically, or spiritually different from you? What determines the value you place on other people? Is it your political party, your ethnic identity, the region in which you live, or your family of origin? Or do you see others through your best understanding of the Bible and your love for God?

Peter Wehner said, “For many Christians, their politics has become more of an identity marker than their faith. They might insist that they are interpreting their politics through the prism of Scripture, with the former subordinate to the latter, but in fact Scripture and biblical ethics are often distorted to fit their politics.”

Though we need politics and government to work toward justice for all, we should look to the Bible and our faith as our primary filter. Politics is an unreliable lens through which to discern and how to respond to our moral, social, and cultural realities. As Christians, instead of our political persuasion, our key lens should always be our biblical foundation and Spirit-guided mission.

This is an excerpt from my book: Missional, Merciful, Worshipful Christians and Their Churches: A Study of Luke Chapter Ten. Since all the proceeds go to YWAM San Francisco to pay down their mortgage in the Tenderloin you’ll be able to help them and get a pretty good eBook at the same time! It’s a “Pay What You Can” thing, so if your book budget for the month is already maxed, just download it for free. If not, give what you can to help support an essential ministry in SF!

You old enough to have seen The Blues Brothers movie and remember the repeated claim. “We’re on a mission from God!”? Well, if you know Jesus, you ARE on a mission from God, called the Great Commission to “Go and make disciples.”

Here is a brief talk on what it means to be a missional Christian. Hope it helps!

The Northern California summers are hot, to the tune of 100+ most days. When I was a kid playing out in the sweltering heat, the quickest place to get hydrated was the hose that had been laying out in the sun for hours. (Just so you young folks know, nobody had water bottles in those days.) You can imagine that what came out tasted as much like hose as it did like water. No matter how long you let it run before drinking, the half-melted plastic of the hose dominated the H2O taste. It quenched the thirst, but left an unpleasant aftertaste on the palate.

My take on Charlie Kirk’s public presentation reminds me of just such an experience. In some ways it could be thirst quenching and in others it was a lot of hose. Like me, Kirk was a Christian. He was bold in his testimony, and at times, especially one-on-one, he could be compassionate and measured (sort of) in his interactions. Water! At other times, more often than not while addressing a crowd or in the media, he was downright condescendingly abusive and cruel. Hose!

What concerns me are those who either loved the cruelty or hated the testimony. The ones who loved the contemptuous things he said are, in my opinion, in denial of the bad taste. They’re like the person of modest means who goes to an uber-posh restaurant with wealthy friends, and in order to impress them with how familiar he is with the cuisine (which he’s not), he orders the most expensive thing on the menu, something in French no doubt, and pretends to love it. He may go home and throw up, but his friends will never know. He needed to fit in.

I guess you could call Charlie Kirk an acquired taste. Problem is, some people began consuming his rhetoric and often dehumanizing opinions by trying to fit in with their party and then got so used to the taste that they actually liked it and emulate it in their own interactions.

Then there are others who hate the taste of the hose so much they refuse to drink the water that comes through it. Because of some of the debasing things he said and the spirit in which he said them, they reject the essence of the message itself. I’m not talking about the political messaging, because that’s up for grabs in terms of one’s personal point of reference. You can be a Republican, Democrat, or Independent and be a good person and even a good Christian person––I’m told. I’m talking about his Jesus message, which as far as I have seen is pretty much the way I tell it and try to live it. That’s the thirst-quenching water. And if you’re one that’s terribly offended with the bad taste of Kirk’s ministry, I hope that you’ll find another outlet with less hose taste and more pure water. I say “less hose taste,” because there’s no such person whose life is hoseless.

“Whoever drinks the water I (Jesus) give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)

“Living on mission isn’t just one of our many activities. It’s our very identity. We’re a sent people, dispatched into the world bearing his message. It’s less about busying ourselves with church work and more about shadowing him in his mission.

“God could well have chosen to advance his kingdom without our partnership. He doesn’t need us. He doesn’t hang a “Help Wanted” sign in the window. The Pharaohs conscripted thousands of slaves to build their pyramids. God, on the other hand, blesses his beloved sons and daughters with the privilege of partnering with him as his “fellow workers.” We’re on a co-mission with our Maker…

“His love for me and through me “compels” me to love others with his heart, including some of the most unlovable.”

——————–

I chose this particular excerpt from my book: Missional, Merciful, Worshipful Christians and Their Churches: A Study of Luke Chapter Ten for its bearing on our current moment as a nation and for us as a Christian community. It’s God’s “love,” God’s “mission,” God’s “kingdom,” and yet he asks us to partner with him to scatter his seeds, not throw grenades or use the cross as a sword. How can we follow Jesus today? What would he have us do to deescalate the unproductive tension in our nation and accelerate the will, way, and word of our Father?

I’m told the book helps us go in that direction. Oh, and since the proceeds all go to YWAM San Francisco, you’ll be helping them do what most of us can’t. Here’s how you get the book and help them at the same time.  

Oh, and tell your friends!

Too long have I lived among those who hate peace. I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war. (Psalm 120:6-7)

No doubt you’re aware that the president has issued his 202nd executive order (in eight months) to demote defense and promote war in its place.* Is it a simple photo op, a commercial or a makeover, or does it mean something to rename the Department of Defense and replace it with the “Department of War”? And BTW, the Pentagon’s website has transformed from “defense.gov” to “war.gov.”

In recent post, I posed the question whether or not the change was a good idea or not. Some thought it’s a good thing because it sends a message to bad actors around the world that we are poised to do what it takes to preserve our American way of life. Others were neutral about it. What does it matter, they said? Still others thought that designating a department of the federal government this way, indicating its mission is that of “war” instead of defense speaks of a much more aggressive posture in the world. The direction we’re going seems to be a stance of picking fights rather than doing our best to avoid them.

You might’ve guessed I am of the opinion of the latter.

Trump said the switch was intended to signal to the world that the United States was a force to be reckoned with, and complained that the former name was “woke.” I’d remind us that it was changed to “defense” in 1947. Is he saying the country was “woke” in 1947? I thought that was the America he wants us to return to so we can be “great” again!

For those who are neutral, I’d remind us that words matter, especially when describing matters as important as war. It’s like the difference between a sign on your door that says “No Solicitors“ and “Anyone uninvited will be eaten by our pack of pit bulls.“ “The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” (Proverbs 12:18) “Defense” says something altogether different than “war.” Right? Is it our desire to be a nation of warriors?

Vernacular and rhetoric have the power to fuel good or bad actions (Proverbs 18:21). Let’s say you’re having a disagreement with someone, which would you rather hear, “I disagree with your position, but I am willing to listen for clarification”? Or, “You are f***ing out of your mind and you’d better watch your back!“ It’s not just in the words, but the spirit of what they convey and how they affect the hearers. Right?

Department of war sounds like we expect, maybe even hope to go to war. After all, if we’re going to have a department dedicated to war, let’s not waste it! To me it’s not an innocuous matter of semantics but gives yet more evidence that the spirit of our nation is being undermined and replaced by the spirit of this world (Romans 12:2). As an example, in reference to the bombing of what we’re told was a Venezuelan drug boat, killing eleven people on board without due process, Vice-President Vance wrote: “Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military.”

As a Christian I do my best to take my worldview and ethical values from Jesus, who taught a particularly nonviolent way of life. “All who draw the sword will die by the sword,” he said. Not to mention, blessed are the meek, turn the other cheek, and so on. Gandhi once said that Jesus was the greatest practitioner of nonviolence in history and that the only people who do not know that are Christians. I heard a believer say recently that Christians are “too nice,” and that we should be willing to “fight fire with fire.” (Did she mean “firepower”? I don’t know for sure.)

Before anyone asks, yes, I’m aware of “Just War Theory,” not to mention the “obligation” for a person or nation to defend their families or countries against actual threats of violence. Though I’ve thought and studied quite a bit about such things, I’m still a little on the fence about a Christian’s duty to kill others in war. (Please don’t judge me for my agnosticism on this. I’m thinking through it.) But when it comes to the growing number in our tribe’s strange devotion to their firearms, hawkishness in foreign policies, and advocacy of violent insurrectionism, I draw the line at the place I believe Jesus drew it.

It’s been pointed out that before the end of WWII it was the DOW (Department of War). Before 1947 1,142,000 Americans died in our wars. Since we changed the name to DOD our wartime death toll has been less than 90,000. Shouldn’t we hope to evolve as a race and as a country rather than slide backward into an emphasis, and by implication, almost an encouragement toward “war”?

“Better a patient person than a warrior,” wrote Solomon, “one with self-control than one who takes a city.” (Proverbs 16:32) War should always be nothing but the last resort. Downgrading its name sounds like a devotion more to war than to defense, and appears to me neither “patient” nor “self-controlled.”

Donald Trump is not the first, but the most recent high priest of the national cult of militant masculinity. Seems some people believe in a Jesus and his band of spiritual bad asses that more closely resemble William Wallace than either Mother Teresa or Mister Rogers.

Don’t forget the mean spirit of what megachurch Pastor Robert Jeffress said of Donald Trump in the months before the 2016 election, “I want the meanest, toughest, son-of-a-you-know-what I can find in that role, and I think that’s where many evangelicals are.” In that same year, Army Chaplain John McDougall published a book called Jesus Was an Airborne Ranger: Find Your Purpose Following the Warrior Christ.

It’s disturbing to me that more than any other religious demographic in America, white evangelical Protestants support preemptive war. Which book are we reading, the Quran or the New Testament? Is there a verse in the latter that I don’t know about that commands Christian holy war? Is somebody planning a comeback tour of the crusades?

Trump also said during the signing ceremony that “we’re going to go on offense, not just on defense,” and that changing the name “sends a message of victory.” Victory implies winning over someone or something.  Victory over whom? The now Secretary of Defense likes his new title “Secretary of War” as it expresses “maximum lethality.” If it’s maximum lethality we’re about now, count me out. Seems to me the moral center of the country that many call a “Christian nation” has been Trumped­­––Vanced if you prefer.

“He (God) makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.” (Psalm 46:9)

*This is one of those things that’s not official apart from an act of Congress. So, I’m hoping that body of ineffectual men and women will decide to put the signs and URL back where they belong.

Mary, who already loved Jesus and was now even more grateful to him for raising her brother, brought with her an alabaster jar of sweet-smelling ointment worth a year’s wages. She dumped it on his head and his feet, and then wiped his feet with her hair.

How much do you make in a year? $25,000? $150,000? $1,000,000? In any case, would you be willing to part with that much just to show Jesus how much you love him? One wealthy young man’s answer to that question would have been a solid, “No.” (Mark 10:21-22)

The priests and kings of old were inaugurated into their positions by being anointed with oil. By means of revelation, Mary knew that Jesus was both the Highest Priest and King of kings. Her anointing was an acknowledgement of both his identity (“Christ” means “the Anointed One”) as well as his destiny (to die on a cross). Jesus is King, and the means by which we enter his kingship is his sacrifice. “The path into his kingdom passes through the cross.”

In order to empty its contents, the neck of a jar of this type had to be broken. It didn’t have a twist top, so one couldn’t preserve any leftover ointment once it was opened. Mary’s was no slow-drip worship. She emptied the entire container on him! To her, it was all or not at all.

[Excerpted from: Missional, Merciful, Worshipful Christians and Their Churches, which you can get at the same time as supporting an essential ministry in San Francisco’s Tenderloin called Youth With a Mission. Just click on the “Latest Book” tab and you’re off to the races to get the book and help YWAM pay off their property!]

On being neighborly (Who do I have to love and how much?)

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men. Herman Melville

Neighborly: Characteristic of a good neighbor, especially helpful, friendly, kind, obliging, helpful, hospitable, civil, generous…

Right up there with “The Lord is my shepherd” is “Love your neighbor as yourself” as Top Ten Bible quotes. My musing about this one sent me to look up virtually all the passages about loving “neighbors” – some of them commonly known and others more obscure.

I’m going to give away my thesis now, to provoke you either to click over to something easier on the conscience or to proceed with caution. Warning! I might offend your American Christian individualism ideology by poking it with a sharp Scripture stick.

It’s clear to me that we’re all “neighbors.” We may not be “Facebook friends” and everyone might not live on our continent, but we’re all neighbors. We may not all speak the same language, have the same socioeconomic status, or have the same political priorities but we’re neighbors. Your neighbor is just as much the person without a house as the person in the house next door. H/she might have lice on their head or a $1000 fedora, but — Okay, you get it.

To love your neighbor is to love yourself, because your wellbeing and your neighbor’s are wrapped up together as one. As absurd as it might sound to the individualistic American ear, the Bible teaches that we are one. It’s no longer us and them; it’s just us – just us “neighbors.”

Just as most of us live in houses or apartments fortressed with fences in order to designate what’s “ours” versus theirs, we’ve defined very particular parameters for the extent of our love.

He wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Luke 10

Like the rich young ruler we want to know who our neighbor is so that we won’t have to waste our love on those who don’t deserve it! We’re willing to love, but we either insist on reserving the right to choose the neighbors who most merit our love or we want to choose the amount of love we’re willing to dole out incrementally based on proximity. In other words, we’ll say, “Well, I don’t have to love someone that doesn’t live near me or live like I live.” Or we’ll posit, “I love the people from other places, but of course not in the same way I love those who live on my block.”

It’s easy to love our Christian brothers and sisters, though not so much when they don’t agree with us on the sacraments, the spiritual gifts, or style of worship. Everyone may not be your brother or sister in Christ, but everyone is your neighbor, and you must love your neighbor. We’d all agree that everyone in the world is beloved of God (Psalm 145: 9, 17) – “Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight” – so doesn’t it stand to reason then that everyone, if not a brother or sister in the strictest sense of the word, is at the very minimum our neighbor?

Some of our neighbors live farther away than others, have varying socioeconomic privileges, don different skin colors, and speak languages other than our own, nevertheless, they’re all our neighbors. They may live on another continent on top of a garbage dump or in a castle, but they’re we’re still neighbors. They might believe in Jesus, in Muhammad, or in nothing at all, but we’re all still quite connected by our humanity. I won’t meet them all or ever hope to see them all but they’re – you guessed it – my neighbors.

If that’s true, then it follows that what I do in my house, on my block, in my city, in my country has to be tempered by how my life affects my neighbor’s lives. It’s not okay for me to fell the oak tree in my yard onto the roof of my next-door neighbor’s or jack hammer my driveway in the middle of the night. It’s just not neighborly.

Now that we realize that neighborhood extends beyond the few houses within ear shot of our stereo or the addresses with the same street name as ours, and that what we do or refuse to do in our city, state, or country affects people as far away as another continent, we’re responsible for more than just us four and no more.

The guy who asked Jesus who his neighbor was – on the surface – a valid question. But he was really asking: “Who do I have to love? Which persons am I responsible to treat in a neighborly way?” Jesus’ answer was terribly provocative, but we’ll get to that later.

One of the things I noticed when I was flipping through the Bible looking for “neighbor” references was that it’s used several times in the Ten Commandments. For instance, we’re commanded not to lie to our neighbor, or covet our neighbor’s wife, our neighbor’s house, or any of his stuff. If we’re serious about knowing which people we have to love, and more than just in the abstract, we have to admit that there’s no way that God’s commands about lying or coveting just relate to the people who go to our church or live on our street. In other words, it’s not okay to covet the wife of someone who comes from another neighborhood or lie to a person from another state or country! The anti-lying and no coveting laws are as universal as the “neighborhood” of humanity in which we live. From the very start God made it clear that our neighbors are everyone with whom we share the planet. Speaking of sharing, as your mother probably told you more than once, “You have to learn to share!”

My guess is that I’ve already lost a percentage of readers and by this paragraph’s end a number of others will have their sensibilities – so-called – offended and will drop off. But if it’s true that the parameters of our neighborhood includes everyone alive on the planet, then how can we in good biblically informed conscience…

…spend so much on our own creature comforts and neglect the basic needs of our neighbors who die by the millions of hunger relate causes or easily treatable diseases?

…consume more than our share of the worlds resources?

…blithely walk past the same homeless person everyday without even learning their name? Poor people have names too you know.[image error]

…stand at our southern border holding signs and shouting at our neighbors to go back “home” to bone-crushing poverty and drug cartel brutality?

Hmm. Not very neighborly. If you can stand it, Part 2 is on the way. 

I welcome any friendly pushback.

“Living on mission isn’t just one of our many activities. It’s our very identity. We’re a sent people, dispatched into the world bearing his message. It’s less about busying ourselves with church work and more about shadowing him in his mission.

“What could be better than doing our part to bring others along to see what we see and hear what we hear, so their names can be written beside ours in heaven? This makes serving God and people less of a burden and more of a blessing. Missionality is a privilege, not a project.

“God could well have chosen to advance his kingdom without our partnership. He doesn’t need us. He doesn’t hang a “Help Wanted” sign in the window. The Pharaohs conscripted thousands of slaves to build their pyramids. God, on the other hand, blesses his beloved sons and daughters with the privilege of partnering with him as his ‘fellow workers.’ We’re on a co-mission with our Maker, ‘ambassadors’ through whom he makes his appeal to the world.

“At times, as I’m sharing Christ with someone, I can feel the Spirit standing right next to me, whispering his good-news words in my ear and cheering me on. His love for me and through me ‘compels’ me to love others with his heart, including some of the most unlovable.

[This is an excerpt from my now published book: Missional, Merciful, Worshipful Christians and Their Churches: A Study of Luke Chapter Ten.]

I’m giving all the proceeds to YWAM (Youth with a Mission) in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. It’s a ministry with whom I’ve been associated for many years and have a number of friends there. They do great work and need the money more than I do to pay down their mortgage by next year or lose their building.

I’m offering it as a “Pay What You Can” eBook. If you can’t pay anything, it’s yours for free. If you can afford $10, $50, $500, or more, go for it. You’ll be helping people help others in a place that needs it bad (or is that “good”?)!

Oh, and tell your friends!