I think a discussion about “How much is enough?” is absolutely crucial for Christians to have. I’m convinced that no one in America today has to choose to get caught up in an unhealthy, consumerist mindset. I think we all will get caught up in addictive, consumerist behavior unless we have serious discussions about what constitutes “enough” for us, as followers of Jesus.
The Old Testament Law contains a huge amount of details about how God wanted his people to relate economically to one another—including the care God demanded for the poor and the marginalized.
The issue is income inequality. And here’s how the battle lines are drawn. One camp points to the growing income disparity in our country and contends that something, somewhere has gone terribly wrong. And then there’s the alternative camp, who points out that wealth is something that can be created.
Churches often “utilize” entrepreneurs, marketers, human resource experts, and others with business expertise by occasionally asking them to arrange spreadsheets for the church finance committee. This seems to me akin to “utilizing” a computer programming genius by asking her to arrange the pastor’s power point slides for Sunday sermons.
I’ve long had the feeling that we as a society lost something valuable when we moved away from the model of apprenticeship at work. But it was in a recent conversation with some United Methodist pastors that it struck me how Church revitalization will never—and has never—occurred without incorporating elements of the apprenticeship model.
In order for management to be done well, exploration needs to happen first. By that I’m saying: there’s a recognition that we’re kind of here, we want to go there, we’re not quite sure what it looks like or how to do it. And that’s a very different methodology and thought process.
For Methodist pastors today serving local congregations—and this of course would go for any pastor—what are some ways they can honor the work, the ministries, of people in their congregations? Dwight Gibson discusses in this interview with Kevin KInghorn.
Dwight Gibson is Chief Explorer at The Exploration Group, as well as Director of Program Outreach at the Acton Institute. He is featured in Acton’s video series: For the Life of the World: Letters to the Exiles. In part one of this three-part interview, Dwight and Kevin Kinghorn discuss craftsmanship.
They say politics often makes strange bedfellows. I’ve never heard it said that economics makes strange bedfellows. But I don’t know how else to explain some of the strikingly similar language one finds in the writings of Pope John Paul II and Karl Marx.
