The following is an email from Bob Lupton of FCS Ministries (article published with permission). While not specific to house churches, it is a convicting word about taking an honest look at the current western approach to missions in poor countries.

After reading this, leave a comment with your thoughts. How can house church partner with locally-led economic development?

“They’re turning my people into beggars!”  It was a painful accusation for Juan Ulloa to make.  He was a churchman, after all.  An elder.  With loyalty to the household of faith.   But when asked the question directly, he could not lie.  I had pressed him on the relationship of his micro-lending organization to the churches of Nicaragua.  Juan was the executive director of a Christian micro-finance ministry that made many thousands of small loans to Nicaraguan peasants.  It seemed to me a reasonable inquiry to understand how they worked together with local churches.  Hesitantly at first, Juan explained that there were entire sections of the country where his loan officers could not make any loans at all.  These were the regions where a concentration of churches from the U.S. conducted their mission trips.  “People say ‘Why should we borrow money when the churches give it to us?’”   
The people were right, of course.  What peasant scratching out a bare existence could refuse suitcases bulging with new clothing for his family?  What struggling pastor could resist the temptation to accept a steady salary and generous church income in exchange for hosting visitors, organizing volunteer work, and staffing funded programs?  What village would borrow money to dig a well or buy books for their school library or save money to build a church if these things were provided for them free of charge?  If all they had to do was make their wish lists, show up for the schedule arranged by the donors, and smile graciously until their benefactors head back home, who would blame them for accepting this easy charity?

No, Juan was not blaming his people for becoming beggars.  He was faulting the affluent, well-meaning U.S. church for its unexamined generosity.  His accusations, now pouring forth with considerable force, were directed at naïve “vacationaries” who spend millions of dollars traveling to his country, perform work that locals could better do for themselves, and create a welfare economy that deprives a people of the pride of their own accomplishments – all in the name of Christian service.  The unintended consequences of such mission work was undoing the very vision Juan had given his life to – helping his people emerge from poverty through training, entrepreneurship, saving and hard work.

For some reason U.S. churches, filled with results-oriented members, seem oblivious to the abysmal outcomes of many if not most mission trips.  Perhaps because it feels so good to be giving to those so much worse off, or because unconditional serving seems so Christ-like, the Western church embraces with great pride an unexamined form of charity that our nation as a whole rejected with the passage of the Welfare Reform Act of 1996.  We know that welfare creates unhealthy dependency, that it erodes a work ethic, that it does not elevate people out of poverty.  Yet, in the name of Christ, we perpetuate this very welfare principle in the way we do missions.  And the trend is growing!

A Princeton University study found that in one year (2005) 1.6 million church members took mission trips – an average of eight days – at a cost of $2.4 billion.  And the number has grown every year since.  “Religious tourism” as some call it has become a growth industry.  The web is full of agencies (denominational and para-church) ready to connect churches to a “meaningful mission experience” in an exotic location rife with human need.  The Bahamas, for example, receives one short-term missionary for every fifteen residents.

More scornful critics point to the make-work nature of many missions trips.  Like the wall built on an orphanage soccer field in Brazil that had to be torn down after the visitors left.  And the church in Mexico that was painted six times during one summer by six different missions groups.  And the church in Ecuador built by volunteers that was never used because the community said it was not needed.

But in fairness to our U.S. churches, many of our motives are noble.  We want to excite our members about missions.  We want to expose youth and adults to the needs of a hurting world.  We want to engage our people in life-changing experiences.  We desire deeply to obey the teachings of Christ to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, show compassion to the oppressed and spread the Good News.  But because we view missions through the lens of our church – that is, what will benefit our people the most, what will be most rewarding for us, what will appeal the most to our members – we neglect to consider what is in the best interests of those we would serve.

How we serve is equally important to who we serve.  Take the well that my church dug for a rural Honduran village.  The remote peasant community needed water.  The obvious solution: dig them a well.  There was great celebration when the first water was pumped to the surface and villagers filled their jugs with cold, pure water.  But when our missioners returned the following year the pump was idle and locals were again carry water from a distant supply.  We repaired the pump.  But by the time we returned the following year it had broken down again.  This happened repeatedly year after year.  The village simply waited until their benefactors returned.

Compare this experience to the remote mountain village in Nicaragua where a different strategy was employed.  A community developer, recruited from the U.S. and supported by Juan’s micro-lending organization, assisted the residents in creating a plan for a much needed well.  She arranged financing conditional upon villagers investing their own money from their meager savings.  She then connected them with a reliable Nicaraguan engineer, and helped them organize a water commission to set fees, collect water bills, manage finances and maintain their new utility.  Village men provided all the labor, digging trenches, laying water lines and setting 250 meters.  When the pump was switched on and water surged to the homes, the village erupted with pride.  Their water supply, they soon learned, was abundant – sufficient to allow them to sell water to the adjacent village.  They now owned and managed a wealth-producing asset.  The lesson: never deprive people of the satisfaction of doing for themselves.
“Above all, do no harm.”  It’s the bottom line of the Hippocratic Oath that has guided the conduct of physicians for centuries.  It is time for the Western church to apply the same principle.

PS:  Some believe that short-term missions trips whet the appetite for long-term mission involvement.  Research does not support this claim however. In spite of all the moving testimonies of “life-changing experiences” by returning short-termers and the occasional example of full-time missionaries who point to a mission trip as the catalyst for their calling, there is no evidence that missions as a whole has benefitted.  As a matter of fact, while short-term mission trips have increased dramatically over the past two decades, support of long-term missionaries has declined.  Strangely, the correlation seems to be inverse.  Perhaps because we have spent so lavishly on “religious tourism” we feel that our financial responsibility to missions has been discharged. Or is it that long-term missionaries do not serve the immediate self-interest of our church?

People of every age, race, and class. Leaders from Virginia, Denver, Chicago, Oregon, Boston, Colorado Springs, Ottowa, L.A., Maryland, San Francisco, and… Southeast India.

“I don’t want to plant churches. Jesus said ‘I will build my church’ and he’s a lot better at it. I would rather build families, because we know the church is not somewhere we go, something we do…it is who we are.”
That is my quote/paraphrase of the opening remarks of the facilitator.

I have long desired one family under our Father, yet have seen divisions along racial, theological, denominational, and class lines.

Father, thank you for work in simple churches, small communities of faith…families which are laying aside the old divisions under the headship of Jesus Christ.

Brian

I have been having some great discussions around this topic since posting “Church & Finances = Oil & Water?” As a follow up, I wanted to post a comment left by Steve. This is the kind of work I am asking God to to in me, in our church network, and in the simple church greater body as a whole. Thanks Steve!

God has absolutely transformed our world in the area of tithing over the last year as we have transitioned into house church. Sometime last June, a good friend of ours from our house church was sharing how, one day, he felt so clearly that God was telling him that he needed to give his tithe to his mom in eastern Europe, as she is a widow who is struggling financially. He shared how it was initially somewhat difficult for him to receive this word, as all of his Christian life, he had only known and practiced the norm of giving his tithe to the institution of the church or denomination he was involved in. But then the Lord led him through the places in the Gospel where He so clearly states how important it is to give towards the widows and the poor. And that pretty much cleared up his confusion.

This opened up a huge new door for my wife and me, as we had never even considered NOT giving toward a specific church institution or denomination, though we at the same time were in the process of transitioning out of traditional church and into house church. After this discussion with our friend, we both prayed about it and felt so clearly that our tithe was now to go wherever God directed us each pay period. I remember so clearly–I prayed one morning right before payday and said, “Lord, we have no clue where we are supposed to give this money, but we know You will show us. So please do!” And it turns out that before I had even uttered that prayer, I had received a email in my inbox at work from www.livinggenerously.com, a British ministry that gives people opportunities to provide for all kinds of needs all over the world. (you can even make a “wishlist” for areas of need that are special places in your heart, and people can give towards those areas) Right away when I saw that email (which was the day after I prayed this prayer), I knew this was where we were supposed to give whenever we didn’t have an immediate need in our community or circle of friends/connections. So I think that day we bought a couple of goats for some families in Ethiopia, and it was such an amazing feeling. Suddenly we KNEW where our tithe was going–that it was going to help someone in a very practical way and not go towards buying a new HD flatscreen monitor for the church foyer (something that, in light of large areas of need in the world and in our community, seems so unnecessary and trivial).

The next time payday came around, we told God again, “Lord, please show us where our tithe is to go”. And sure enough, it turned out someone from our house church had been praying about an opportunity to go do an internship at the International House of Prayer and needed some funds to be able to help prepare for this. So without question, we gave directly to her, as did several other people in the church who felt led to do this at the same time–and her trip was paid for! (incidentally, she has finished the internship and has decided to stay in Kansas City because God has shown her this is where she is to stay–something we felt so blessed to be a part of). In the past, we have NEVER felt this sense of being able to directly impact the body of Christ around us in a real and practical and true way. We always knew in the past that God was using our tithe regardless, and when we did give to Him, wherever it ended up, we knew we were only responsible for giving it in the fi!
rst place–not what the recipient actually did with it. But what an amazing blessing to see it in action! And this in turn brought our community even closer together in a sense of truly being the body of Christ that He has called us to be.

So my friend who I mentioned earlier–the one who got us thinking about the whole tithing transition in the first place–is now a missionary in Europe. Our house church sent him and his family, and we have the blessing of helping to financially support them as a community, of course in addition to praying for them and sending them words of encouragement, etc (and eventually going to see them!)

Other things come up (ie for Christmas our house church adopted an immigrant family in the community) and give us opportunities to use our tithes and offerings to directly impact the community around us. I have come to realize that this is exactly how God desires us to use our tithes, and we are so blessed and thankful to be a part of this!

View all comments on this original “Church & Finances” post here:

A Miracle is something only God could do, and I can confidently say I have been blessed to be a part of a very unique one.

    Over a year ago, my family left our traditional church, feeling the call of God to start gathering from house to house in Aurora and east Denver – just as the believers did in the New Testament. When we first started, we did not know that there were so many others doing the same thing all over the place! A few months later, through a series of God-ordained events, we made our first contact with another “Simple church” in the five points area near downtown Denver. I remember emailing Desi Starr (I had found him by chance through house2house.org) and going over to their home a couple nights later to meet and share what God had been doing with us. This began a close friendship between us and our house churches, which shortly thereafter included a meeting with John White, local DAWN associate and house church friend.

    Well 4 or 5 months ago Desi, myself, and another brother started talking about the need for holding a larger gathering of simple churches every few months for support, fellowship, and a larger vision. We proceeded in presenting the idea to a few other simple churches we knew around here, and it seemed that nearly everyone was feeling the same desire to be connected to other simple churches around the front range. So back in October, on a Saturday evening we gathered for the first time in Golden, CO for an evening of sharing food, testimonies, and fellowship. We weren’t sure how many would show (at least 50 would’ve been nice!) but when the event arrived there were an estimated 150 or more people (not counting the kids) packed into this fellowship hall from house/simple churches all over the front range (from down in Pueblo all the way up to up in Fort Collins!). People from different denominations, different backgrounds, different beliefs – but all gathering with one purpose - to love Jesus and love and build up one another.

    What’s the miracle? The Christian church here in America has been segregated by denominations for so long, it is hard to see how it will ever regain its original unity (remember the wonderful diversity and unity of the “love feast” gatherings of the early church?)… Personally, in all my life I’ve never been a part of a church gathering with such incredible diversity and such incredible unity at the same time - but God is doing it, right here and now!  In our planning sessions alone between gatherings (of 8-12 people), we have at least 8 different denominational backgrounds represented (Lutheran, evangelical free, southern baptist, foursquare, presbyterian, campus crusade, grace brethren and united pentecostal). Imagine how many denominational backgrounds are represented when we come together in our larger gathering of 150+ people! What could people from such different backgrounds and belief systems possibly have in common? Well, at least 2 things: A sincere love for Jesus Christ, and a burden to see simple churches of all kinds in every neighborhood along the front range.

    You can experience this miracle as well.

Our next Colorado house church gathering is Saturday, January 12th at 5pm! (see below)

Much love to all the brethren :) 

-Sean Hyatt, Aurora CO, 303.523.2315

________________________________________________________        As always, we seek to keep the Head of the Church (Jesus) at the head of our gatherings, but here are the general details: