Uncomfortable Wealth

If you’ve been attending Redeemer over the past few months you will have likely heard Pete and others plugging the book - Uncomfortable: The Awkward Challenge of Christian Community. We’ve even written a review of it on the blog!

After reading the book, Mandy Hudson was inspired to go further, and to think about what it means for us at Redeemer to live uncomfortable lives. This month she has joined with Adele Dabrowski to write about Uncomfortable Wealth. We hope that you are challenged and encouraged by what she has written.

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Uncomfortable Wealth

Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honours God. 
Proverbs 14:31

One subject we really don’t like talking about is money, yet as western Christians we can easily take our wealth for granted.

There is poverty in the UK. By some estimates one in four people or 9 out of every 30 children is living in poverty in the UK. That’s a shocking figure for the world’s sixth largest economy.  Three fifths of the population in the UK hold 80% of its income, However, globally there is much greater disparity. Most of us in the UK will still be in the top 25% of global income even if we rely fully on the UK welfare system. That’s still 3 times better off than most people in the world

Our relative wealth or poverty is an accident of birth, but how can we work to equalize the situation?

Taking wealth for granted

Adele and Richard Dabrowski lived in Mozambique as missionaries for eight years:

Before we lived in Mozambique, we had no idea what extreme poverty was like.    Like most Westerners if I heard that a family of five or six were living in a two bedroomed house, I would agree with them that this was a case of overcrowding and they should be moved into a three bedroomed house.

Until, that is, we visited Noviane, the village next to our base. Here a two roomed house usually served as living dining and sleeping quarters for a family of up to 12 people, with an outside latrine - a hole in the ground surrounded by a bamboo screen. Cooking took place in the tiny patio over an open fire made of twigs. The richest people of the village were those who could afford a three roomed house made of bricks, unlike the others who saw their little mud and bamboo homes being swept away every year when the rains came, along with their few earthly possessions!

Eating one meal a day of rice, beans and possibly some tomatoes or tiny fish which Mama had managed to catch in her ‘capulana’ (something like a thin sheet) at 5 am that morning, was the norm.

I once took two ten year old girls out to a chicken and chips place, I noticed they ate half of the quarter chicken and a few chips. They then carefully wrapped the rest in the paper serviette and informed me that they were ‘going to share it with their family.’  

I felt humbled! How much do we take for granted in our comfortable life-style? how often do we thank God for the food we have on our plates?”

I’ve learnt that we can never out do God in giving. He will provide for our needs as well as those we give to. To really appreciate the generosity of God we need to step out sacrificially just as Jesus was willing to do for us. 

Gospel guided generosity

“Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
1 Corinthians 9:7

We recognise that everything we have, including our lives is a gift from God. He is open handed towards us so we must be the same towards others. Sometimes, there seem to be so many conflicting calls on our cash we feel overwhelmed and don’t know where it is best to invest the resources God has given us.

Here’s some good advice from Adele:

“As children of God, we cannot turn a blind eye to the poor of this world.  But let us be sensible.  First, let it be the Lord who guides us in the amount of our giving and supporting. Secondly, in the case of extreme poverty, it is a good idea to support projects that will change a whole village, or will provide people a chance to better themselves and eventually be in a position to be self-sufficient, plus help their own community.  Projects such as well-drilling, farming or enabling students to undertake further education, thus guaranteeing them jobs, are well worth considering. Even a small amount on a regular basis goes a long way in poorer countries.” 

In Matthew 25 v 31 – 46 Jesus tells us the parable of the sheep and goats. Let’s heed its message that, ‘Whatever you did for the least of my brethren, you did it for me!’

May we rise to the challenge to serve the Lord freely with the wealth He has given us.

Written by Mandy Hudson

Mandy is a member of our Redeemer Family, a teacher, and a contributor to Redeemer’s latest book - Stories of Hope. You can pick up a copy on a Sunday morning!

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An Uncomfortable Challenge

If you’ve been attending Redeemer over the past few months you will have likely heard Pete and others plugging the book - Uncomfortable: The Awkward Challenge of Christian Community. We’ve even written a review of it on the blog!

After reading the book, Mandy Hudson was inspired to go further, and to think about what it means for us at Redeemer to live uncomfortable lives. We hope that you are challenged and encouraged by what she has written.

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An Uncomfortable Challenge

As I read Brett McCracken’s “Uncomfortable” I was struck with a desire to read and learn more about practical ways we as the family of God can live, learn and grow together to truly reflect the glory of Jesus. The result of my searching is below in blog form.

Have you noticed that in creating the perfect bride, the Lord has decided to unify the most disadvantaged, dysfunctional, disparate and desperate group of people you can ever imagine? This includes you and I!

Over 40 years of church life I’ve had plenty of time to observe and participate in the uncomfortable existence which is living out the Christian faith in the community of the church and out in the world. The truth is that we simply don’t fit in.

Some of us will never be “cool” or “strong”. We’ll always feel we sit on the outside of the “in” crowd, even when everyone else thinks we are in it. This is being the family of God inside the church. Outside, well that’s a different story, through Christ we are now strangers to the world. (Hebrews 11v13-15) As Jesus’ people we have a new heart and a new direction towards His kingdom.

If only that kingdom had already come and rescued us from our current uncomfortable situation. Oh, wait a minute – the Lord expects us to continue His work demonstrating that kingdom, right here, right now. That’s uncomfortable. Sometimes I think if we are the hope of the world, God help them.

Let’s not despair, Jesus is Head of the Church and has given us the power of His Holy Spirit. We shouldn’t underestimate the resources He has put in our hands, but they are not for us, they are meant to be a witness to a lost world.

I think there are three things we need to recognise if we are to live up to our calling:

1. We like people like us

2. People see through our insincerity

3. We need to live honestly and with integrity

It seems so natural to gravitate towards like-minded people, but even in church we miss out on the uncomfortable truth that everyone is family and therefore to be equally loved. 1 Peter 2:5 says 

“You also as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

This is who we are – meant for sacrificial service. This goes beyond a smile on a Sunday. We are one household. We need to look beyond ourselves. In remembering our roots in God’s mercy, we can find grace to reach out to the world, creating a space for all to live honestly with integrity. 

Is it easier to live life in the shadow of the world and sin? Rather than living in the full light of Christ we prefer a kind of half-light where we try to co-exist with the world. We gather a few favoured Christian friends around us but don’t venture outside that circle. We can kid ourselves we are holy on a Sunday, but we don’t fool God or our non-Christian neighbours or colleagues  who see us the rest of the week. Evangelising unbelievers is not an optional extra. We are called to preach “in season and out of season” (2 Tim 4:2). Let’s rely on the Lord to supply us with His strength to fulfil the great commission to go into all the world and make disciples – like Him not us.

Inside the church we need to be honest about our failings and gracious towards others. Maybe, rather than avoiding that brother or sister in Christ who really irritates us, we should remember the grace and mercy Jesus showed to us and work harder on our relationships. After all, we are all part of the redeemed Bride of Christ.

Brett McCracken doesn’t seem to have much time for “authentic” Christianity which excuses sin. Quite right. However, we do need to learn how to be authentically Christ-like towards each other and those to whom God calls us to witness. That’s an uncomfortable challenge drawing us deeper towards the heart of Jesus…

“in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:7)

Let’s share that kindness today.

Written by Mandy Hudson

Mandy is a member of our Redeemer Family, a teacher, and a contributor to Redeemer’s latest book - Stories of Hope. You can pick up a copy on a Sunday morning!

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#RedeemerRecommends - Get uncomfortable....

A few weeks ago at our leadership training evening, Pete recommended a book to all of us, and I decided to order it there and then!

I’m so glad I did, although as I’ve been reading it, there have been moments where I wished I didn’t…

Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community is a book which has made me laugh and cringe in equal measure as it reveals truths about what it feels like to be part of a diverse, bible believing church in 2021.

In a season where I don’t have the opportunity to be part of a physical church gathering every Sunday, the book has hammered home just how much I miss it, while also stirring me to think about what I might do differently once we are able to meet together again.

Keeping Cool

Brett McCracken - the author of the book, and a pastor at an Advance church in California - sums up his main challenge for us in the first chapter.

"When the Christian church is comfortable and cultural, she tends to be weak. When she is uncomfortable and countercultural, she tends to be strong.”

This is a constant challenge for us as a Church and as individual Christians in London, the draw towards being accepted and seen as ‘cool’ is real, and strong! But McCracken reminds us here that we are called instead to holiness, particularly when it comes to cultural touchstones such as sexual ethics and diversity.

Uncomfortable Mission

This is where the benefit of this book really hits home for me, McCracken has not simply written a book to encourage us to be better friends with one another - although reading it will certainly make you appreciate the benefit of church community to an even greater extent! 

Instead, he also emphasises that when we as a church look different from the culture around us, that is when we put ourselves in the greatest position to impact those living in that very culture, and reveal the truth of the gospel to them!

In the final chapter, entitled Countercultural Comfort, he writes:

Regardless of its routine, the reality of the church is revolutionary. However unpopular we are, our purpose is profound. As salt and light, we are the hope of the world.

There are many other essential challenges that are brought to light in the book, from our unhealthy obsession with brokenness, to our discomfort with submitting to the authority of Christ, scripture and church leadership. If you ever feel uncomfortable in church, I would recommend that you read it! You will be reassured to learn that you are most certainly not alone, but also reminded that this uncomfortable feeling likely won’t, and arguably shouldn’t ever change.

But that’s not the whole story…

We are, mysteriously, part of a cosmic plan God has eternally known. And we have an eternal inheritance. The discomfort and disdain we endure in this life as a peculiar people will be a blip in the timeline of our infinite history. We will at last be the perfect church we presently long for; the unblemished bride at an unimaginable wedding feast.