Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cinema series, creative storytelling, discerning culture, engaging culture, entertainment, God at the movies, parables, redeeming culture, theology
Echo Middle School just wrapped up its cinema series, where we explore theological themes in movies from the previous year. Jesus was the master storyteller, using parables with unexpected twists and surprise endings to help his audience imagine and feel the impact of God’s Kingdom. Jesus framed these stories with material common to the lives of his audience: struggling first century peasants from Palestine. His stories had such impact partly because he observed and listened to the world around him, truly understanding where people were coming from before he set out to take them somewhere new. When he awoke their imaginations about the possibilities and realities of God’s Kingdom, it was like pulling back the curtain of another world. He was always careful to describe this higher reality in terms and symbols that were accessible to the people of this world. Jesus told stories that were familiar parts of the fabric of everyday life: fathers and sons, farming, lost sheep, and the plight of the poor.
We value the ways of Jesus above everything at Echo, so one of the skills we try to coach our students in is the ability to look at their culture with critical and redemptive eyes. We want them to discover what their culture is saying, dreaming, and feeling – then we want them to discern how what they discover would be re-framed, redeemed, or rejected by the Kingdom of God. We often show music videos, play popular songs, and examine movie clips or other media to coach our teens how to rightly interact with the voices of their culture.
During this series, we looked at several films as cultural parables of spiritual truth. These would all be great movies to pick up and watch together as a family. Your Echo student should have some good thoughts about discerning God’s truth in these films if they came to our cinema series.
We Bought a Zoo – This movie is heartwarming and innocent, but it also addresses some deep themes about loss, family tension, and courage.
Hugo – This is one of the best movies I have seen in years. It is a story masterfully told about an orphan boy discovering his purpose, and helping others rediscover their own in the process. This one is a “must see.”
Real Steel – This is a popcorn flick, but behind the rock-em-sock-em robots is a powerful story about endurance and getting back up when we are knocked down. We compared this story to the story of Paul’s journey to Rome in the book of Acts.
The Adjustment Bureau - This is a science fiction love story, but it is laced with philosophical questions about destiny and free will. We had a conversation about divine providence, fate, and choice with scenes from this film as the backdrop.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: beautiful faith, compelling faith, Coram Deo, hypocrisy, influence, obnoxious christians, Salt and Light, salt of the earth, sermon on the mount
Echo High School has been having a conversation about what it means to live Coram Deo, or in the sight of God. We are centering our questions around the manifesto of Jesus as laid out in the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew’s Gospel chapters 5 through 7. In it, we find so much about what walking in the ways of Jesus is and is not, much of it corrective criticism to the way the Christian faith has been practiced. This week, our conversation goes to Mathew 5:13-16.
Matthew 5:13-16 – 13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Jesus uses two different metaphors to communicate the purpose or effect of being his disciple. The metaphors for salt and light were more vivid to the ancient audience of this teaching than they are to us, so let’s break them down.
1. SALT of the earth – Salt was much more meaningful and valuable to those in the ancient world. Now, we think of salt in terms of sodium and cholesterol. Salt was connected with several ideas in the ancient world. First, it was the most common preservative. There were no refrigerators in a very hot climate, so this was a very important. Salt was used to keep things from going bad, and to hold putrefaction at bay. When Jesus compares his disciples to salt, this is one of the associations they would have made. If followers of Jesus are to be the salt of the earth, they must have a certain antiseptic influence on life. They should be preservers, holding infection or corruption at bay. I want to be careful and clear here, because no one likes it when someone takes the morality of another on as a personal project. This shouldn’t give you permission to be judgmental, bossy, self-righteous, or superior. It doesn’t mean you should try to be the conscience of others. It does probably mean that you should bring out the best in others, to be someone whose company makes it easier to do the right thing, and not the opposite. It means to influence others to be their best.
Second, and most obviously, salt lends flavor to things. Food without salt is bland and boring. When Jesus said his followers were to be the salt of the earth, he meant that they should flavor life. The sad reality is that so often, people connect Christianity (and religion in general) with precisely the opposite. They assume that religion is what takes the flavor out of life. Interestingly, this was an early criticism of the Jesus way by the Romans – that Christianity took the fun out of life. If life in the way of Jesus is grey, pale, and gloomy; if all it offers is renunciation and suffering, then what flavor could it bring? I think if that is the face of your faith, you have gone wrong and are far from the vision of Jesus. We need to discover and demonstrate the radiance of the way of Jesus. For those in Christ, it should not look like a funeral when we gather, but a feast.
2. LIGHT of the world – The second metaphor, the light of the world, is equally powerful. Matthew’s readers may have remarked that Jesus referred to himself as “the light of the world.” When Jesus commanded his followers to be the lights of the world, he demanded nothing less than that they should be like himself. This means that we shine not with our own glory, but with the reflection of his light. Think about the way a bride on her wedding day glows. It is not that she is inherently radiant, it is the attention of those gathered and love and adoration of her groom that causes her to shine. A light is something that should be seen, something almost impossible to hide. The houses in Palestine were very dark, with only one little circular window. They lit their houses with these little oil lamps that they put on a stand. Light can also be a guide, something that chases away the darkness and reveals the truth of the situation. It can make clear the way.
SO WHAT? Taken together, the idea behind these metaphors is a command to demonstrate a public faith that is potent, influential, and effective. This is a counter cultural command in an age where people are told to keep their religion to themselves. Jesus says: “Let all see it and benefit from it.” However, he does caution that this should be done in an attractive and compelling way, not an ugly or obnoxious way. There is a big difference! Jesus says in v. 16: “Let your light shine before people, that they may see you good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” In Greek, there are multiple words for good. There is the word agathos, which simply means good or high quality; and there is the kalos, which means that thing is not only good but it is also captivating, beautiful, and attractive. The word here is kalos. We hear this and might wrongly assume it means playing righteous, like being the good girl or good guy – somehow projecting an aura of purity or righteousness. This is not quite what he means. What some people think is “goodness” is often repulsive. This is not “theatrical goodness.” If that could ever translate into a showy self-righteousness or superiority, this is NOT what Jesus means. What Jesus means is for you to show your world something beautiful. Show them something compelling. Show them something attractive. “Christians,” those who walk in the way of Jesus – have a little bit of a “perception problem.” At least that is how I heard one person describe it. I think it goes much deeper than our culture’s perception; this is reality. The findings in David Kinnaman’s book unChristian should shake those who claim to follow Jesus to the point of self-reflection. It is not that the church really does resemble Christ and the culture just has it wrong or is seeing us through their jaded glasses, it is that in some ways the church has actually wandered away from the teachings and the heart of Jesus. When people look into the lives of those who claim to follow Jesus, they see so little of Jesus. This is the major problem. Jesus here describes people that do not embody the ways of the Kingdom of God as salt that isn’t salty and light that is invisible; in other words, worthless. If it is not doing what it is supposed to do, if it is not what it claims to be, discard and dismiss it. Of course this is the joke: Jesus’ audience could not imagine tasteless salt or invisible light. They didn’t exist in their minds. This is Jesus’ point: there is no such thing as a disciple who doesn’t act like a disciple. Such a disciple is not a disciple at all! The transformation of your life as a result of walking with Jesus should be evident and obvious; it should be noticeable like the presence of salt and light.
Questions for you and your teenager:
-What is the difference between being influential and being obnoxious about your faith?
-What are some of the things that prevent followers of Jesus from being influencers?
-Why is it so easy to be influenced instead of being the one that influences?
-What do you think Jesus would say about peer pressure based on this passage?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: beatitudes, Coram Deo, ethics, happiness, Jesus, jesus manifesto, sermon on the mount
Echo High School has started a new conversation called Coram Deo. Coram Deo is a Latin phrase meaning something like “before God,” it refers to something that takes place in the presence of or before the face of God. To live Coram Deo is to live one’s entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the glory of God. It means to be aware of his presence and to know there is no higher goal than to offer honor and glory to God. It is the foundation of true religion. The Sermon on the Mount might be summed up with this phrase. Look at how it starts in Matthew 5:1-2. We read that he sat down to teach and we think of something informal, but this is exactly the opposite of what is intended. In the day of Jesus, a rabbi would sit down to teach formally. This means that what we have here is the cornerstone of the creed of Jesus. The Sermon on the Mount is one of the most important parts of the Bible. It is has been of huge historical significance, influencing the lives of people like Dietrich Bonheoffer, Martin Luther King Jr, and others. It lays down the ethical and spiritual foundation of the teaching of Jesus. We are going to explore the Sermon on the Mount over the next several weeks as we work out what it means to live “Coram Deo.”
Matthew 5:3-12 – The Beatitudes
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
This is a very famous passage and it is often taught one statement at a time. That might be helpful, because many of these statements have lost their meaning because of historical distance, but we also need to understand that these were given as one address, and so we need to understand what they mean collectively. The big idea here is the inversion of what we would assume to be “blessed.” The beatitudes describe people with objective happiness, a happiness that is unmovable and unchangeable. They are worded in a shocking way, a way that begs the question: “Why would those with nothing be happy?” Why would the destitute, the heartbroken, the suffering be happy? The answer is that they have found Christ and the Kingdom of God, and that gives them true immovable unconditional happiness. So, the poor in spirit, for instance, have realized that things mean nothing and God means everything. Because of this, they have discovered a different kind of happiness. Jesus flipped the cultural norms on their head, redefining happiness. Where our happiness is something inextricably tied to our circumstances, Jesus talks about a happiness that is higher, one that is above these things. This happiness is a deep reality that is not affected by the circumstances around us. Our happiness is often tied to our emotional state. It is about what happens to us – what forces from “without” conspire to affect us – more than it is about something from “within.” This form of happiness is elusive and evasive, so we spend so much of our time and energy pursuing it; chasing it.
If they were spoken today, it might say something like “happy are the unemployed, for they have to depend on God.” Or “happy are those whose relationships are strained, for they will learn to forgive.” It is not saying that we should seek out those realities, that in our pursuit of happiness we should find a way to mourn, to become poor, or to get persecuted. It is saying that because happiness is deeper than any of these situations, we should be able to walk through them and remain happy. The blessings of the beatitudes are for a people ready for the kingdom’s coming. This passage shows what kingdom-ready people should be like; they are prerequisites for the kingdom as well as kingdom promises. Here a few big themes from the beatitudes:
First, Kingdom people do not try to force God’s whole will on a world unprepared for it. Many first-century Jews had begun to think that revolutionary violence was the only adequate response to the violence of oppression they experienced. Matthew’s first audience no doubt could recall the bankruptcy of this approach, which led to crushing defeat in the war of A.D. 66-73. But Jesus promised the kingdom not to those who try to force God’s hand in their time but to those who patiently and humbly wait for it – the meek, the poor in spirit, the merciful, the peacemakers. But this is not just about challenging the bloodshed of revolution. Today, this means there is NO room in Jesus’ picture of blessedness for proud, forceful, superior religion. What is being described here is something far sweeter than we often see parading around under Jesus’ name.
Second, God favors the humble, who trust in him rather than their own strength. Jesus promises the kingdom of God to the powerless, the oppressed, who embrace the poverty of their condition by trusting in God rather than favors from the powerful for their deliverance. This promise provides us both hope to work for justice and grace to endure the hard path of love. Such humble people yearn for God above all else. Mourners may refer to the repentant, those grieving over their sin and failure.
Finally, as the Beatitudes exalt the values of the Kingdom, they condemn the worldly counter-value. One of the things that must be considered here is that Jesus is challenging the cultural norms of his day. When he says that the poor in Spirit are blessed, he means to imply that the culture that values self-confident, competent, self-reliant people are not in alignment with the ways of God’s Kingdom. When he says that meek are blessed, he means to imply that the proud, powerful, important people that flaunt and take advantage of others are not blessed. When he says the persecuted are blessed, he means to imply that the popular, adaptable, uncontroversial people that play it safe and protect their comfort are not blessed. Understand what I mean here: I am not implying that we should just try to live like the beatitudes describe. You should not try to mourn, or to be poor, or to be persecuted. What I am saying is that Jesus has invited all of us into a life found only through faith in Him that is the source of true happiness. This happiness is the way of the Kingdom of God, and is deeper than any circumstances or emotion. He is saying there is a different way to live, and that way is His Way.
The characteristics Jesus lists as belonging to the people of the Kingdom are also those Jesus himself exemplifies as the leading servant of the kingdom. Jesus is meek and lowly in heart; he mourns over the unrepentant; he shows mercy; he is a peacemaker. This is the exact opposite picture of the wordy paradigms for religious celebrities. Let’s live Coram Deo, and show the world something more like the real Jesus as we try to Echo Him.
Food for thought:
-What do you think it means to live Coram Deo?
-How are the values that Jesus described in the Beatitudes counter-cultural?
-How have we exposed ourselves to misery in the way we allow our happiness to be dependent on our circumstances or emotions?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: contentment, debt, greed, lack, money, rules for life, teen debt, wisdom, wise money
Before we wrap up this series, we need to address a very important truth: Money has a “dark side.” You can see this in the unhealthy way our culture relates to money. It seems like we constantly hear stories about people mistreating one another or exploiting one another for money. We hear stories about corporate greed, political corruption, and dishonest gain. Many of us are guilty of forgetting how rich we are because we are a part of a system that constantly tells us we do not have.
The Bible understands this tendency in our hearts. Paul wrote to his protégé, a young pastor named Timothy, trying to protect his heart from this lie of lack. Some false teachers at the time had fallen into the trap, and they began twisting God’s word to support their lifestyle of greed and exploitation. 1 Timothy 6:6 – “Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.”
Money isn’t evil. It isn’t the root of all evil. The love of money, however, is the root of all kinds of evil. What are some dangers we need to avoid?
Hungering for Money: Greed – Greed is listed in scripture right alongside sins that generally get a more severe treatment from people – like sexual immorality, lust, idolatry, and evil desires. Even if it is such a common trait in our culture, the Bible does not find it acceptable. Greed is a dangerous thing. It has a numbing effect on your heart. What used to satisfy you cannot satisfy you anymore. Ecclesiastes 5:10-15 states this so poetically: when you love money, it will never be enough! As goods increase, so does consumption. This is the story of our culture – more, more, more. Everyone always feels like they don’t quite have enough money, no matter how much they have. We tend to just live right up to (and even beyond) however much money we have. So, there is an insatiable desire for more. It seems like in the eyes of our culture, success is the same as how much you have! Stuff is nice! We live in a world that values its stuff! We are a little bit backwards, in that we work so hard to be able to buy and upkeep all are stuff that we don’t have any time to use any of it…like we water our grass so it will grow just so we can cut it down again. A huge percentage of the gross national product is stuff. Not food, resources, materials, even labor. It is “consumer goods,” which is a fancy name for smart phones, video games, blue jeans, and other stuff. They need to sell you this junk, so they need to convince you that you need it. And we buy the lie all the time. What Paul taught Timothy here is so important: contentment. It is a choice of the heart that declares: what I have is enough. Listen to this: “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said: ‘Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.’” (Hebrews 13:5) FREE is the right word there. FREE as in not ensnared, not trapped, and not controlled by our desire for more.
Slavery to Money: Debt – Debt is very simply something that you owe. It is a tough spot to find yourself in. We have enough money for what we need, but not always for what we want, and this is where they get us. If you want something you cannot afford, you will buy it with “credit.” That is how money works: if we get it, it gets us. If we don’t have it, our lives are spent trying to get it. When we do get it, we don’t own it as much as it owns us. Check out Proverbs 22:7 – “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.” Another word for debt would be obligation. It is especially troublesome when your obligations or debts prevent you from going after what God wants for you. Debt takes away your choices. You might want to give, or to change something about your career or your life, but you can’t because you have someone else calling the shots. Whoever you owe has a claim on you. Even the stuff you have on credit actually has someone else’s name on it. According to Dave Ramsey’s FPU, the average college student has $2,200 in credit card debt and will graduate with $20,000 in student loans. Can you imagine starting your adult life with no job and $22,200 of debt? That’s a terrible way to enter adulthood. That debt will just hang around your neck like a boat anchor, always dragging you down and limiting your options. We are called to excellence, to lead the world and not be in bondage to it. Don’t buy something if you cannot afford it. Remember our vision for money: to be blessed by God to be a blessing to others. Hard to do when you are broke or in debt. People used to talk about “good debt:” debt that will later make you money. This includes school loans and mortgages. I wonder if there is any such thing as “good debt.” Home mortgages are not always good investments and the same is true of college loans. The prevention for debt is simple wisdom. No one really thinks it is a good idea to spend more than we have on stuff we don’t really need, but we do so little thinking, if we really stop to think about it. Thinking didn’t get us into debt – lack of thinking did. We have to think! This involves discipline and vision. It takes courage to do something different.
Questions for discussion:
-Do you feel rich? Why or why not? Why do you think we have a hard time recognizing our own wealth?
-What are some examples of why greed is so dangerous? Can you think of an example of people being mistreated for money?
-Why is debt dangerous and dumb?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: charity, Generousity, giving, God and Money, money, new testament giving, new testament tithing, teens and money
Echo is 3 weeks in to a conversation about the spiritual dimensions of our relationship with money. It might not seem like something spiritual, but Jesus taught that there is a connection between our money and our heart. Money matters to God because money matters to us. So, to address some of the issues we have with money (and they are MANY!) we have to understand that our problems with money have spiritual roots. You can basically do 4 things with money, once you get some:
• Spend it.
• Give it.
• Save it.
• Invest it.
The connection between your heart and your wallet becomes especially clear in the area of giving, something we explored this week in Echo. So, why should we give as a matter of personal and spiritual discipline?
First, We give to support the local church. Paul talks more about the practice of giving in his letters to the church at Corinth than anywhere else. Check out this passage in 1 Corinthians 9:13-14 – Paul roots the concept of church support in the New Testament in the concept of Old Testament “tithing,” a system that supported the function of the temple and provided for the priests. The idea Paul is trying to communicate is that it is right for those who work to preach the gospel to earn their living doing so. In the Old testament, the operation of the temple rested on this system: the ones that facilitate worship in the temple feed their families on the gifts brought to the temple in worship to God. This is the origin of the practice of supporting the leaders of the church with the gifts of the church members.
But giving to the local church is more than just giving to support the pastors and staff that facilitate the programs of the church. It is also giving to the work of God in the world, which comes through the ministry of the church. Sometimes the church gets criticized for being an “inefficient charity,” because a large percentage of its money goes to church services and programs instead of to helping the poor like a food bank or orphanage. Now, our church does those kinds of things, too, but I want to challenge this assumption. I think the local church, especially a good church, is the best charity there is. What the church does with all its programs is make disciples – it teaches people to walk in the ways of Jesus and to live out the mission of Jesus into their culture. Saying the church is a bad charity is like saying a medical school is a bad hospital: we are in the business of helping transform people – people that leave the church and go into their culture on mission. If the church is doing its job, it should be helping selfish people caught up in greed and gain and materialism become missional servants known for compassion and generosity. Who do you think started all the food banks, orphanages, free clinics, and such? MANY of them were started by disciples of Jesus. And that is what the church makes. So, the church is behind MUCH more actual help to the world than it gets direct credit for. Remember, our goal with money is to be a blessing to the world as God blesses us. Maybe the best way to do this is to support the ministry of making disciples in your local church.
The second reason to give we find in the New Testament is to give to support each other. Look at 1 Corinthians 16:1-5. The situation here is not that of regular church giving, like that used to support the teachers and pastors, but one of a mercy offering – a gift to help someone in crisis. This passage might answer some of the questions about “how” giving was done in the early church. “On the 1st day of the week, set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income.” They were expected, 2,000 years ago, to budget and plan with their money to help meet the needs of other people. This is not haphazard or random, but something planned and prioritized. It comes out 1st, and it increases as our income increases. This is about being available to help when people around you run into trouble. This would include giving to charities that help people and causes of social justice, especially good ones. In the Bible, there is a special emphasis on helping widows and orphans – taking care of people with no one else to take care of them.
Lastly, and most importantly, we give as an act of worship and thanksgiving to God. One of the most important texts about giving in the New Testament is 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 This passage is addressing the same situation Paul was talking about in 1 Corinthians 16: a collection is being taken in Greece and Macedonia to help the impoverished believers in Jerusalem. Here, Paul gets to the most important element of giving: what happens or is supposed to happen in the heart of the giver. We have clichés that hint at this: “It’s better to give than receive” and so on. We say this, but if we are honest, we don’t always believe it. Sometimes it hurts to give. This is the root of the problem we have with money, and here Paul gives us good medicine. We have a hard time giving because we love money. Paul teaches here to give generously and cheerfully. This happens only in a heart where the ownership issue is settled. From this kind of heart, giving is an act of mercy to the needy and an act of thanksgiving to God. This is the most important part of our relationship with money – our motivation and allegiance. It is about surrender. I don’t give grudgingly because I have surrendered my resources to God (or better, I recognize they are His to begin with!). The talk in this passage about prosperity should not be viewed as a strategy for gain. This is not “give to God so He will make me rich.” That attitude is exactly the opposite of what this is about. It is about a reality of peace and surrender and generosity that goes DEEP in our hearts; so that we don’t just do the right things with money but we feel the right way about money.
So, a New Testament picture of giving looks something like this:
• It is regular (habitual). Giving is not impulsive. It is not something you make emotional decisions on, based on the manipulative pleas of a fundraiser. It is something you plan and prioritize. Giving is a budget priority. It is not “leftovers.”
• It is joyful. What happens in the heart is an act of surrender and worship to God. It feels good, because there is life in surrender. Your heart rejoices to be a part of God’s kingdom work. It is not something you do reluctantly, but something you do enthusiastically.
• It is generous. What is generous? Well, in the Old Testament, the “tax” system of tithing that went to support the temple and the poor was 10% of your wealth or goods. When we define what “generous” looks like now and in our lives, we should take this into account. The average person that claims the Lordship of Jesus over their lives gives about 2.5% of their income to the church. This doesn’t sound very generous. How much should you give? You and Jesus need to answer that question together.
Discuss with your teen:
-If our local church could not continue doing ministry and vanished tomorrow, what would you miss? Is the value we place on the church reflected in our financial investment in the church?
-What do you think is the difference between a good charity and a bad charity?
-Why do you think the Bible warns to give “what you have decided in advance to give,” and not impulsively?
-Why do you think giving is important to God? Why is giving important to us?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Dave Ramsey, God and Money, investing wisely, Margin, money, savings, stewardship, teen savings, wisdom
The Echo students have been exploring this idea: our relationship with money is closely linked to our relationship with God. The truth is this: we have problems with money that have spiritual roots. This week we talked about two important things you can do with money: Saving and Investing.
This may seem a silly thing to talk to teenagers about, who may believe savng money is something they’ll just take care of later, when they’re older and have a steady income. However, if we can help them learn good principles about saving now, they’ll be prepared to build wealth like crazy once a real income starts rolling in and have the character and skills to do something great with it. Besides, aren’t there some things teens need money for now? What about saving for a car, your own computer, or college, or a mission trip next summer?
The practice of saving gives you peace of mind in emergencies and the ability to make smart purchases. By faithfully learning God’s principles for saving money, you’ll be prepared to handle whatever opportunity or surprise He brings your way. No matter how old you are or how much money you make, being broke severely limits your ability to serve other people and take care of yourself. To avoid this trap, we need to understand Scripture’s wisdom on why and how to save money.
Proverbs 21:20 - While the wise man saves and plans for the future, the foolish man lives for the moment, spending and wasting every dime he gets his hands on. This is what we talked out:
FIRST, Saving is not hoarding. Luke 12:16-21 – tells a parable about a man that was hoarding things for himself, but was not “rich toward God.” Hoarding is about selfishness and excess. It is about the pursuit of more. Hoarding is a closed fist, it is holding on to your money and possessions with inordinate affection. The heart that clings to and trusts in money is not aligned to the Kingdom of God. Sometimes people confuse hoarding with saving, and because they fear this attitude or have been taught wrongly, they act like accumulating any wealth is sinful. They spend or give away everything as soon as they get, sometimes talking as if that is a lifestyle that honors God because you trust in God alone and not your savings. I have a hard time believing that this attitude of irresponsibility is a reflection of deep trust in God, it seems reckless and unwise. The same people are those that end up needing help in a crisis, while the ones who save and invest wisely are the ones able to actually give help. Remember, our goal with money is to be blessed by God to be a blessing to others. It’s hard to do this if you are always broke! Saving is about security and availability to the plan of God. It is a way to protect your goals and give you peace of mind.
Second, We save to prepare for the future we cannot expect. We save because the future is uncertain! When you save and invest, you need to keep your mind not only on this world, but also on God’s Kingdom. You have the ability to avert crisis or to help others through crisis when you have managed God’s resources responsibly. This is the theme of several stories in scripture: the blessing or favor of God spills over on others from God’s people. Joseph averts the crisis of the regional famine through revelation, wisdom, and good planning. Nehemiah loans money at no interest to the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls. And there are others – examples where people who were blessed by God were a channel for the blessing of God to flow to others. Look at how Joseph did this in Genesis 41:34-36. With savings, it is about knowing that emergencies and calamities happen, so we need some security against it. It is about positioning yourself in such a way that you will always be prepared to do what God’s Kingdom requires of you, and that you won’t have the excuse of being under-resourced.
Third, We save to plan for the future we do expect. Saving is about thinking long term. We are not very good at this! We tend to live in the moment and sometimes in doing so, we rob the future. Saving is the opposite of debt. Larry Burkett said once: “Saving is making provision for tomorrow, but debt is presumption upon tomorrow.” We have a “play now, pay later” attitude that our culture encourages steadily, but sometimes we are not prepared to pay the cost we incur. Opportunities come: a mission trip, a special project, a need in a friend’s life, an act of mercy – and sometimes we cannot respond because we have lived with so little margin up to that moment. The American way is not the way of the Kingdom of God in this regard. Our culture encourages us to live right up to the level of our means, and sometimes even beyond it. Margin is a concept that could dramatically change our stories. The Kingdom of God would demand that we live well below our means, with margin, so that we can give and save significantly. It would employ simplicity and humility to keep us from running after stuff or the temptation to “keep up with the Jones’s.” With this concept, thinking about the future, time matters.
• Pay yourself first. This is a principle of smart financial planning. It says basically that we not to be trusted! If we wait until the end of the month and save whatever is left over, we will have spent it on things that really don’t matter to us. If you save right away, that temptation is removed. Every time you get $10, give one of them to God’s work FIRST. Then, immediately put one of them in savings. This makes sure that you prioritize what matters most. ALWAYS SAVE some of every dollar that comes to you! This makes the choice to save responsibly easier, because you make that choice right away. Otherwise, you are standing there looking at the new paintball gun and saving just doesn’t seem very fun!
• Start Early! Many teens think something like: “I am just a teenager, I can’t save now.” I think they control more money than they know, but they spend it and so quickly they don’t recognize the amount. One survey showed that American teen spending exceeded $169 billion in one year. While their income may be limited, they do have a greater amount of one resource now than you will ever have: time! Even small amounts of money can grow SUBSTANTIALLY over time. Because of something called “compounding,” investments generate more earnings as they increase in value. Albert Einstein was so impressed by compounding; he called it “the most powerful force in the universe.” Compounding depends on two things: time and the rate of return. This is where the difference between saving and investing really becomes important. Saving is normally for short term goals (I am setting aside money to buy a computer) and you use a savings account for that. Investing is about LONG term goals (like college or to buy a house or retire) and this is where you take a bit more risk to get a better interest rate. Buying shares of a stock is an example of an investment. You have time now, and you need to take advantage of it! Even if you start with just a small amount, get into the habit of saving now because you are giving yourself the gift of a better future. The amount doesn’t matter nearly as much as the habit, and the amount matters less and less the earlier you start! The earlier you start, the more powerful savings becomes. Look at the difference between Ben and Arthur in this chart made famous by Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. When you are dealing with investment interest rate of 12% (some would say that is unrealistically high), time matters BIG. Ben started early, and Arthur never could catch him even though he invested far more. 
Many people criticize the example of Ben and Arthur because of the unrealistic rate of return. Even with more modest numbers, like 7% instead of 12%, starting early is astonishingly effective. Imagine you start investing $2000 every year when you are 18. You put it into a mutual fund making 7%, and you do this for 10 years. Ten years later, you have a baby and you stop feeding the investment because you have to buy diapers or something. Your sister, who sees that you always seem to have money and she is always broke, decides to do the same, but she doesn’t start until she is 31. She puts $2000 a year into the same mutual fund that you used, and does it for the next 35 years. So, you have invested a total of $20,000, and your sister will have invested $70,000. Who will have more money at age 65? Believe it or not, you will. She will never be able to catch you because of the compound interest over time! You will have $361,418, and she will have $276,474. That is a difference of $84,944! That is the power of time! If you kept investing and didn’t stop, you would have $706,000 by age 65!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: advertising, autonomy, budget, Dave Ramsey, money, rules for life, spending, spirituality, teen spending, Teens
Money is powerful stuff! It might not seem like a topic that should come up in church, but money matters to us so it matters to God. Our country has a problem when it comes to money. We do not know how to deal with it. We are part of a VERY small percentage of the richest people on earth, and maybe even in history, yet we forget how rich we are because we are a part of a system that constantly tells us we do not have. Sometimes money works like this: if we get it, it gets us. If we don’t have it, our lives are spent trying to get it. When we do get it, we don’t own it as much as it owns us.
For these reasons and more, your relationship with money is closely linked to your relationship with God. Jesus spent a lot of time talking about money and how we relate to it, and he taught there is a line of connection from our wallet to our heart. The truth is this: we have problems with money that have spiritual roots. We will never truly find financial peace if we ignore the inner condition of our hearts that make us susceptible to money pitfalls like greed and debt. God talks about money all over the Bible, and if you were to follow his instructions, you would have more money, give more money, and make your money work harder for you. Money isn’t evil. It isn’t the root of all evil. The love of money, however, is the root of all kinds of evil. Money can be something powerfully evil, but it can also be something powerfully good! I think at a very basic level, our relationship with money should look like what God told Abraham in Genesis 12:2-3. God wants to bless us, and it is our job to channel that blessing to others! With this in mind, Echo is having a conversation over the next several weeks about how to relate to money righteously.
After we get some of it, we can basically do 4 things with it:
• Spend it.
• Give it.
• Save it.
• Invest it.
This Sunday, we talked about spending.
First, Good spending starts with settling the “ownership” issue. Jesus explained this once using a coin in Matthew 22:15-22. The way Jesus phrases his question would have reminded his audience of Genesis 1-2, where human beings are created in the image of God. In whose image was the coin created? Caesar’s. In whose image were we created? God’s! When Jesus says “give to God what is God’s,” he is not saying God is not concerned with money. Jesus is implying that God is asking for all of us. The message of the Kingdom of God is one of total surrender. Why should we be concerned about our cash? Because our feelings toward it and how we use it are a huge part of who we are. Remember, there is a line of connection from our heart to our wallet. The starting point to righteous attitude toward money is settling the ownership issue: everything belongs to God, so I have to use whatever He entrusts me with responsibly.
Second – Spending easily becomes out of control, and our culture has even invented ways of spending more money than you have. You combat this with a budget, which is a spending plan. A budget is a tool to help us plan and to help us make our money work toward our goals. It helps us do something we all have a hard time with: telling ourselves “no.” A budget means you have a plan, you have counted the cost, and you are working toward a goal. Budgets can be complicated or simple as long as they balance income and expenses. The simplest lesson anyone ever taught me about money: every time you get 10 dollars, give one of them to God’s work, put one of them in savings, and spend 8 of them wisely.
Third – Your spending habits reflect your values. If you spent $50 a month on Mountain Dew, we could confidently say you really like Mountain Dew. The problem with that comes in when you consider “opportunity cost.” It means that if you use your $50 to buy the Mountain Dew, you won’t have that $50 to buy your friend’s x-box game when he sells it. We might have all the money we need, but we can’t have everything we want. What a budget does is help us make choices about how to spend money in advance, so our choices will better reflect our values instead of just buying things on impulse. Marketing is so effective, people often buy things unplanned in the moment and regret it later. Living on a budget, no matter how much money you make, will protect you against this. Another thing to consider is what you actually spend money on. This is about recognizing that you vote with your wallet. When you choose to guy a product from an organization or person that you don’t agree with, you are actually supporting them and their issue. You can do this the other way too: actively support products and companies you think are doing something right. This is just another way money is powerful.
Questions for discussion with your teen:
*Talk about the family’s budgeting process. If you can, invite your teen to join you paying the bills or planning the budget for the month. If you don’t have a budget, why not?
*Do you think you are more of a spender or a saver? What do you think about your spending habits?
*What does it mean to “vote with your wallet?” Is there anything we support as a family with our money that doesn’t reflect our values?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: advent, Advent Conspiracy, christmas, Generousity, Give More, John 3:16, simple christmas, Teens Giving
This year, Echo has been talking about “simplifying” Christmas – not to take the fun away, but to make sure what matters most gets the most attention.
Simple = clear. Simple ≠ excess. Simple ≠ stress. Simple ≠ clutter.
This is about being intentional, doing Christmas on purpose. This Christmas, what we want to do at DCC and in Echo is enter the true Christmas story.
Last Sunday, we finished the series talking about the essence of the Christmas story. John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” I know this is not a Christmas passage: there is no nativity; there are no Christmas carols about this verse. But this verse is about the incarnation. The spirit of Advent is really wrapped up in this short verse. God Loved, so God Gave.
1. God Loved the world. Even the messed up fallen world that is full of selfish people and brokenness. He loved us. He loved us in our mess of imperfection and faults. Even with the selfishness we display this time of year, driven to accumulate MORE, he loves us. He loved little girls obsessed with pillow pets. He loved teenage boys with pornography problems. He loved middle school girls that gossip and create drama. Sometimes talking about God’s love makes people imagine that God is indulgent and just gushes on us, like he is happy no matter what. We think something like: “Because God loves me, it means he is okay with me no matter what dysfunction is in my life.” This isn’t quite right. The reality of God’s love means that he feels compelled to rescue us from our brokenness. God’s love motivates him to heal and bring life like a doctor’s compassion motivates him to move toward sick people to make them well. You wouldn’t think that a doctor that did nothing to heal a sick person was compassionate, no matter how nice and indulgent they were. The same is true for God – he loves us, so he cannot allow us to stay as we are. So he acts on his love, and he sends Jesus.
2. God Gave His Son. God’s response to love he felt for the world was to give His Son. He didn’t send a card, or a necktie, or a video game. He didn’t give a fruitcake or some cookies. He gave something precious. God gave the most precious and valuable gift ever conceived. For so long, people have thought about ways to give to God, to satisfy or appease the higher power. Thinking about the Biblical story, what is God looking for? People have thought that the answer is ritual or material or financial. People have tried to give sacrifices and religious activities. What would it mean to respond in love like God responded in love? When God loved us, he gave His son to a broken world.
What if the gift God wants this Christmas is for us to keep doing likewise? What if we are supposed to give ourselves to a broken world? When God gave His Son He gave himself. This is the mystery and beauty of the Trinity. The Father is the Son and is the Spirit. This is the incarnation – where God gave himself. The best gifts then are going to be those that follow in this pattern. The best gift you can give this Christmas is yourself. This sounds right, and it is the Spirit of Advent. God Loved, and so God Gave. We love God, so we Give. This is the response of everyone when their eyes are opened to just how much God gave us. God gave us his Son, God gave us the Kingdom – and so we GIVE. We give something precious and valuable to us to a world that needs help.
This is what it ultimately means to enter the story of Christmas – to follow God’s example in self-giving. Because God gave Jesus, we have everything we need. When you learn to see the world and your situation through the eyes of God’s economy, you discover what already have. The system of our culture always amplifies what we don’t have, but God’s Kingdom gives us eyes to see the enormous amount we do have. Here is the truth: you don’t need anything you don’t already have. You do not need more perfume, another electronic gadget, another video game, or a better cell phone. Our culture tells us these lies and we believe it. The truth is, none of that stuff will make us happy – AND it is entirely possible to shift your perspective and be happy with what you already have! With the eyes of the Kingdom, you see your abundance, and it makes you content and generous.
The only adequate response to blessing and abundance is to figure out how to give it away. The right response to the gift of God is to GIVE MORE. Look at this passage: Luke 12:32-34- “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
This warning follows the story of the rich fool and teaching from Jesus about being content and trusting in God and not worrying about material things. Jesus is reminding people that are focused on material things and the false security they offer that such worry is senseless. “Your father has been please to give you the Kingdom,” what more could you ever need? The response that Jesus sees as natural might surprise us. Jesus teaches that when you realize how much God has blessed you and you recognize what you have been given, you will respond by “selling your possessions and giving to the poor.” You will overflow with generosity! This is one of the most basic teachings of the Bible and one of the deepest laws of God’s Kingdom: you have been blessed to be a blessing to others!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: advent, christmas, excess, family traditions, Materialism, meaningful christmas, simple christmas
This commercial says SO much about where our culture is during Christmas. Take 30 seconds to watch it and be amazed. The irony in the tagline is comical: “In a time where it is easy to go overboard, Acura invites you to be smarter and over-save.” Yes, that’s right, over-save by buying a vehicle with an MSRP of $42,930 – $54,455.
There seems to be two different Christmas stories fighting for our attention. One is the story of Jesus birth, where God became human and entered our mess to redeem and restore what was broken by sin. This story is called “the Gospel” because it is such good news. The other story often distracts from the true story – the one where people are rushing around from shopping mall to shopping mall, full of tension and anxiety about material things. Do I have the right gifts? Can I buy enough gifts? What can we get Grandpa? Maybe Christmas is more about chaos and mass consumerism and less about Jesus entering our world? Think about the chaos of “black Friday.” Each year, the day after Thanksgiving, people wake up at 3am to wait in line outside of stores and shopping malls to get the best deals on stuff so they can give it to people to communicate love. This is a love story, but it is a love story about a different god, one of stuff. The truth is: black Friday is a worship event…but is it the right worship event? “Advent” is the word the church uses to refer to the season of Christmas, which comes from a Latin word (adventus [Greek: parousia]) which means “coming.” It is a celebration of the coming of Christ. The event of Jesus coming to earth changed the world, and it can change it still. What Echo is talking about this season is “simplifying” Christmas – not to take the fun away, but to make sure what matters most gets the most attention.
Simple = clear.
Simple ≠ excess.
Simple ≠ stress.
Simple ≠ clutter.
This is about being intentional, doing Christmas on purpose. This Christmas, what we want to do at DCC and in Echo is enter the true Christmas story.
The birth of Jesus is an event of cataclysmic scale that should be celebrated with worship and awe, yet we have found billions of ways to make Christmas about us. Why does no one ask” “what are you giving this year?” instead of “What are you asking for?” or “What are you getting?” Why do we make lists of what we want long before the holiday while we wait to the last minute to find gifts for others? The answer is that Christmas is all about ME. This is a dangerous reality for teens, because they naturally occupy the center of the universe already. The danger is that they miss a truth of vital importance: Jesus has come into the world, and His coming demands a worshipful response!
What story does your family’s celebration tell about Christmas? I don’t mean something tacky, like t-shirt slogans or street corner preaching. I do think that our worship should tell the story of the coming of Christ. By that I mean that our heart and our attitude should be focused on Jesus and not on the nonsense of our culture. I am not talking about the “Christmas Spirit” (or whatever that phrase means). I am talking about returning our eyes, our hearts, and our attention to the coming of Jesus.
How do we do this? I know what you are thinking: I saw that Christmas movie. We all have. We all know what the next 30 days will be about. We will see about a dozen movies and hear the same 25 songs over and over again. There is nothing unexpected about the message either. It is the same every year: “Don’t be a Scrooge or a Grinch. Believe in Santa, or all the reindeer will die. The best way to spread Christmas cheer is for singing loud for all to hear. If you get a BB gun for Christmas, you will shoot your eye out. Don’t be bad or ninjas will storm the North Pole and destroy all the toys…” What I think God is looking for is the sense of wonder and gratitude.
So this season, celebrate. Have fun. Give gifts. But celebrate for the right reasons and give gifts that mean something, not just some thing. Here are some ideas:
*Serve Together as a family. We just did this with our 3 year old, so it is possible for you too!
*Get an Advent Calendar or search online for a list of readings from scripture that follow an advent calendar. Commit to doing this for 8 minutes every night. Even better – make one with your family that you can use for years to come.
*Give your time instead of more stuff. Do something fun together instead of adding another video game to the cabinet.
*Sit down and read the story of the first Christmas from Matthew or Luke’s Gospel as a family. Even if it seems cheesy and your teens act resistant, they might secretly love it. Maybe sneak it in before dinner.
*Give a gift that will bring your family closer, like a game you can all play together. (My personal suggestion is Settlers of Catan!)
*Choose which parties to attend and which activities to do on purpose. Limit the amount of clutter on the calendar for the next month.
