It’s far too easy, as human beings, to forget that the universe does not revolve around only our particular tribe and its concerns. Ditto for us as Americans. The current economic crisis is a worldwide crisis.
Iceland’s government collapsed last fall. The International Monetary Fund predicted early this year that the crisis would hit Britain harder than any other developed country.1 And as Newsweek reported in late 2008: “Any international economic crisis afflicts different countries in different ways, but an unfortunate few experience every painful dimension of it. In the current crisis, Russia is confronting virtually all the negatives at once.”2 Christians worldwide are not exempt from the repercussions. “We are counseling members of the church who have lost their jobs, or small business owners who have declared bankruptcy,” reports Daniel Fajfr.
Daniel is head of the denomination board of Cirkev Bratrska in Czech Republic, and he serves as the contact person for EFCA ReachGlobal missionaries in his country.
Daniel’s good news? “So far, there has been no decrease in sacrificial giving.”
Still, church leaders in Czech Republic — and around the globe — are asking the same riveting stewardship questions of themselves, of their churches, of their congregants.
“Our level of debt has shown that we lack the ability to live modestly,” Daniel admits. “We have become used to ‘having’ things that we don’t really own.
“I think that John Wesley was right when he said something to the effect that if your [monthly] income is 1000£, then you give 100£ as a tithe and 900£ is for your living. When God blesses you and your income is higher — for example 2000£ — and you can still live with 900£, then you can give 1100£ for God’s work.
“Surely it is only a theoretical example, but it can inspire us well.”
As you lead your congregations in considering God’s view on this economy and its challenges, remember that believers the world over are doing the same. And many need our prayers more than we could ever imagine.
1“Britain’s Winter of Discontent,” The Nation, February 11, 2009.
2Russia’s Comeuppance, November 26, 2008, Newsweek.com.
