Money in the Light of Eternity, a book by Art Rainer

 Art Rainer certainly covers a lot of dimensions to generosity: stewardship, gratitude, trust, worship. He even talks about the messiness of being generous. However, I kept wondering why the book was written. Who’s the audience that’s going to pick up the book? Believers who already understand they are but stewards who are to manage resources according to the Master’s desires don’t need to read this. Those who accept with humility God’s good gifts—living a modern version of Deut. 6.10-12 (you didn’t build this, don’t forget the Lord)—don’t need to read this. Those who look at everyday life and apply Micah 6.8 don’t need to read this—“But what does the Lord require? To do right, to love mercy and walk humbly with God.” Or James 1.27–pure religion is taking care of widows and orphans and not letting the world corrupt you i.e. don’t let the world’s standards or perspectives persuade you to keep up with the Joneses. Potential readers would be new to generosity and they would want a “how to” book. Those who are not interested in generosity, have not been persuaded by sermons or even tax regulations encouraging generosity probably wouldn’t pick up the book. So I’m left with the audience of those who are only dipping their toes in the waters of generosity. Church-goers are no more generous than the rest of society, donating roughly 2% of their income. Those people will benefit from Rainer’s exhortation to dive into the deep end and go all out.

I do wonder at the title of the book. It implies that we can earn our way into heaven by being generous. Rather being generous is a response of gratitude as Rainer says. It’s obedience to His commands to help others, including loving our enemies. It’s recognizing that we don’t own these things but have been generously endowed with physical, financial, intellectual, relational, spiritual and historical (heritage, legacy) resources. No one is a self-made success: they didn’t build the roads, schools, hospitals, armed forces, police, courts, etc. on which our society rests. They didn’t come fresh into a faith that’s entirely new but has a legacy of thought and application in everyday life.

For those who are wondering if it makes sense to be more generous, Rainer’s book is a good resource. If you need encouragement, this book is good.

Testimony, a Compelling Read

 Note: I’m not a relative of the author.] Jon Ward and his family has participated in or been at the heart of many of the major Christian movements since the Jesus Revolution of the 1960’s and 1970’s. As a young believer, he participated in many of the religious movements. As a journalist, he watched the rise of the Religious Right. Though he was in it or of it, he still felt like a “border-stalker”—not really part of those tribes. He struggled with the inconsistencies and the power-grabs that he walked away from the faith and politics for a while. Ward encourages us to ask questions, without fear, and wrestle with our doubts and the hypocrisies we might observe. His book encourages anyone who wonders if doubt, questions, annoyance and more at what’s happening in organized political and religious movements has love, joy, peace, patience….at its core.

Ward’s testimony here is an archetype for spiritual formation: we start out believing what our parents believe, then what the “cool kids” believe (i.e. those to whom we want to attach ourselves) and it’s not until we have a crisis of faith—doubt, disappointment—that we can truly own our own faith. This is not just a story of Jon Ward’s faith journey but he seamlessly weaves in cultural and political and religious events happening around his story.

I was intrigued at how he analyzed the rise of “nones” or “nonverts”—those who claim no religious affiliation though they once had it—since the early 1990’s. Another author’s recent book claims the rise of the “nones” happened with the fall of the Soviet Union: that Christianity and patriotism were so woven together, the fall of a great enemy meant we had no need for a religion. I believe that in the early 1990’s with the rise of marriage of conservatism and Christianity, many people were turned off of religion. George H. W. Bush’s Compassionate Conservatism fell out of favor. Anger politics and anger religion took over with the rise of Rush Limbaugh and others. Ward agrees that a new enemy was needed to replace the Soviet Union and so the zealotry turned inward to the US culture. Anger is not attractive; no one likes hanging out all the time with a friend who’s always angry. They don’t make us feel better. But it is entertainment and slowly the anger politics and anger religion seeps into our brain until that’s how we think. What’s the old adage? Show me your five closest friends and I’ll tell you what you think and how you behave. 

I listen to Jon Ward’s podcast, The Long Game, and find his in-depth interviews illuminating of the world of Washington, D.C. and beyond. His book, Testimony, is a welcome addition to the telling of his story and how we all should take politics with a grain of salt—or a whole shaker of salt in some cases—and he exhorts us to dig deeper than the Sunday School answers of how we should live in accordance with Christ’s words.

A Church That Reflects the Multitudes in Heaven

 Amen and amen. Not in the sense of “it is finished” but in the real sense of “I have faith” and “let it be so.” Williams and Jones in their upcoming book, In Church as it is in Heaven, build a guide on the shoulders of giants from Augustine, Martin Luther, Howard Thurman and more well-known and obscure Christian writers and thinkers of all backgrounds. For newbies to the racial barriers found in the US church and others who have hoped and worked to make a difference, the authors provide an excellent toolkit and role model for changing our heads, our hearts and our dirty hands—both in the sense of past sins but also in the sense of “getting down to business” by doing something rather than just talking. Let’s walk the walk. If you have done more reading and practice in this area, you’ll find some additional ideas beyond what you might find in Jamar Tisby’s “Color of Compromise” or Chalmer Center’s “Are You a Good Neighbor?”—and other comparable works and curricula.

Full of scripture and perhaps some new takes on familiar passages—e.g. how many of us catch onto the ideal of the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 11 beyond our measly Eucharistic celebrations?—Williams and Jones take us on their own journey of understanding how the vision of many tribes and tongues worshiping the Lord can be seen here on earth. Each chapter ends with practical steps we can all implement. For some they’ll be baby steps; for others, they’ll feel like landing-on-the-moon journeys. In every way though, we need to be curious. But with grace and mercy, as our Lord too provides such, the authors understand us who hesitate to step forth. 

If there’s a drawback in the book, it’s that the authors struggle with coaching us how to identify subcultures within ethnicities. One might understand this just from the title of Bryan Loritts’ “Right Color, Wrong Culture: The Type of Leader Your Church Needs to Become Multiethnic.” As a person who has made mistakes, like asking a Nicaraguan what part of Mexico they’re from or assuming West Africans think and behave like East Africans or thinking one person’s story leading to poverty is indicative of others I meet downtown, I’ve had to remind myself to be more curious than assured in my knowledge. In any regard, this will be a reference I pull out and to which I’ll refer many others interested in starting this journey.