Money and material wealth are a big issue that society and churches, particularly in the Western world, need to grapple with. This is a significant issue for me personally as from a global perspective my wife and I are in the top one to ten percent, as are many of our friends in Australia and the USA. Many of our friends in the Majority World are in the majority, i.e. the lower 80 percent!
It is amazing how much Jesus talked about money. He talked about it as much as heaven and certainly more than about sex! Yet, there is not much open and honest discussion about the issue in churches, except for fundraising for (mostly) local budgets. As an aside, I acknowledge that in churches that promote Prosperity Theology (which I think is very dubious) money is talked about a lot.
I was very happy that the book for next month to be discussed in the theology reading group is Money Matters: Faith, Life, and Wealth by R. Paul Stevens and Clive Lim. I asked my wife to read it with me since I think it is so important for us.
In the first two chapters, each of the authors introduces themselves, describing their Christian journey, particularly as it relates to money. I am not normally a fan of such introductions. Sometimes they are a prelude to a book that largely reflects views that are solely shaped by the author's own experiences. Experience is used to interpret Scripture, rather than Scripture used to interpret experience. But, these stories are not just fascinating, honest, and vulnerable. They illustrate an important point. We need to consider our own stories when we consider a Christian perspective on money and wealth. The two stories are also interesting because they are quite different: one is from the East and one from the West. One grew up in a Christian family and the other did not. Moreover, one grew up in a very poor family and eventually became quite wealthy. The other grew up quite wealthy and through following Jesus ended up with little money (by affluent Western standards). Why does this matter? Before telling his own story, Stevens states
Clive and I are telling our money stories because our attitude toward money is formed through many influences, not least our family education, our experience growing up and the influence of our culture. Sometimes the teaching of the church on money, whenever it happens, usually pales in significance before the overwhelming influence of the media, the culture and the family in which we grew up. There is precious little church teaching on the subject even though the Bible is chock full of it (except of course the teaching to give one tenth to the church). But we also saw in Clive’s story how our experience with money reveals a lot about ourselves. We get to know ourselves partly through our handling of money. What was also evident as Clive told his story is this: our relationship with God is partially shaped by our handling of money. And the reverse is also true: our faith influences our approach to money, especially our view of the kingdom of God.
Perhaps these reflections on the influence of our life experiences is also key to understanding our views on other issues such as sex, family life, church, and politics. Our experiences, and those of others, are influential, perhaps beyond more than we would like to acknowledge, but they should not be taken to be determinative.
Hopefully, this post will be the first of several that engage with separate chapters of the book.
Other books I am keen to read and be in dialogue with include
Missions as Money: Affluence as a Missionary Problem by Jonathon Bonk.
WHEN MONEY GOES ON MISSION: FUNDRAISING AND GIVING IN THE 21ST CENTURY Rob Martin
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