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Vacation from affluence
Taking a vacation from the Culture of Affluence
It’s summertime in America, a time when look forward to the warm weather and a much-needed vacation from the everyday.
Summer also gives millions of American Christians the opportunity to venture out on short-term missions trips. Some believe that sending people with little or no training into foreign cultures damages long-term work. But short-term missions trips also can sensitize sheltered people to the needs of the world at large and give the Holy Spirit an opportunity to be heard outside the din of our Culture of Affluence.
In that regard, short-term missions can be a very good thing, because Christ is the stated enemy of the Culture of Affluence. Jesus said in Matthew 6:24 (NIV), “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
We Christians belong to the Culture of Heaven, where people serve God. That automatically means not serving money. But in America we’re surrounded with the Culture of Affluence, whose citizens serve Money. When we’re not careful to tune it out, the Culture of Affluence penetrates us with its ideals: Comfort, Status, Wealth.
We cannot have it both ways. A supporter of Called and Sent tells an interesting story about someone who tried.
Seems that an affluent couple sent their teenage daughter on a short-term mission trip to South America. The finances weren’t a problem, the team had a great time of ministry and the girl loved it. See you next year, right? Well, next year rolled around, and our friends asked the parents if she could join the team again.
Mom and Dad declined. Not because they considered it dangerous, and not because their daughter had a bad experience. No, they insisted that she spend those two weeks working her summer job because she needed money to attend a Christian college in the fall.
What other mitigating circumstances there were, we can’t know. But the stated objection was tragically ironic. If only they could have gone themselves. They would have seen just how richly a well-planned missions trip adds to a young person’s education while it ministers to the needs of the poor. They would have seen that the few hundred dollars given up was well worth the investment. They would have seen the bigger picture.
You want your child to attend a Christian college? Wonderful. There are many that support missions and encourage their students to go. The point here isn’t to bash Christian education or the people who sacrifice to place their kids in it. But if we don’t let our kids see the bigger picture of Christ at work in the world, that sacrifice won’t be worth nearly as much.
Christ said in John 12:25 (NIV), “The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” We can’t serve Money and the Master. We can’t love our Christianized comfort and love other people.
So let’s not try. Let us not pad ourselves from the sharp edges of the world’s hunger and homelessness and poor medical care. Rather let’s start letting God sensitize us to the needs of the world He desperately wants to reach. Take a short-term vacation from the Culture of Affluence. You won’t be sorry you did.
For more information on short-term missions, go to ShortTermMissions.com.
It’s summertime in America, a time when look forward to the warm weather and a much-needed vacation from the everyday.
Summer also gives millions of American Christians the opportunity to venture out on short-term missions trips. Some believe that sending people with little or no training into foreign cultures damages long-term work. But short-term missions trips also can sensitize sheltered people to the needs of the world at large and give the Holy Spirit an opportunity to be heard outside the din of our Culture of Affluence.
In that regard, short-term missions can be a very good thing, because Christ is the stated enemy of the Culture of Affluence. Jesus said in Matthew 6:24 (NIV), “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
We Christians belong to the Culture of Heaven, where people serve God. That automatically means not serving money. But in America we’re surrounded with the Culture of Affluence, whose citizens serve Money. When we’re not careful to tune it out, the Culture of Affluence penetrates us with its ideals: Comfort, Status, Wealth.
We cannot have it both ways. A supporter of Called and Sent tells an interesting story about someone who tried.
Seems that an affluent couple sent their teenage daughter on a short-term mission trip to South America. The finances weren’t a problem, the team had a great time of ministry and the girl loved it. See you next year, right? Well, next year rolled around, and our friends asked the parents if she could join the team again.
Mom and Dad declined. Not because they considered it dangerous, and not because their daughter had a bad experience. No, they insisted that she spend those two weeks working her summer job because she needed money to attend a Christian college in the fall.
What other mitigating circumstances there were, we can’t know. But the stated objection was tragically ironic. If only they could have gone themselves. They would have seen just how richly a well-planned missions trip adds to a young person’s education while it ministers to the needs of the poor. They would have seen that the few hundred dollars given up was well worth the investment. They would have seen the bigger picture.
You want your child to attend a Christian college? Wonderful. There are many that support missions and encourage their students to go. The point here isn’t to bash Christian education or the people who sacrifice to place their kids in it. But if we don’t let our kids see the bigger picture of Christ at work in the world, that sacrifice won’t be worth nearly as much.
Christ said in John 12:25 (NIV), “The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” We can’t serve Money and the Master. We can’t love our Christianized comfort and love other people.
So let’s not try. Let us not pad ourselves from the sharp edges of the world’s hunger and homelessness and poor medical care. Rather let’s start letting God sensitize us to the needs of the world He desperately wants to reach. Take a short-term vacation from the Culture of Affluence. You won’t be sorry you did.
For more information on short-term missions, go to ShortTermMissions.com.