Washington will only cut $4.7B while running $223B deficit in one month! Missional parallel?

[James Nored]

The Washington Post reported yesterday that the US government posted a $223 billion dollar deficit - in one month!! Republicans have been proposing $60 billion dollars in this year's budget, and Democratic lawmakers say that they can only cut $6 billion--which turns out to actually only be $4.7 billion dollars.

 

Unbelievable. Neither side is even close to making the kinds of spending and structural changes needed to bring these deficits under control. 

 

As I read about this, it made me think of where the church is in relation to the culture and our mission. We are being an unchurched and unChristian nation at a dramatic pace. Meanwhile, churches offer half-hearted efforts and changes to reach people for Christ. Every dollar and resource that is allocated towards outreach is resisted. Structural changes to reach more people for Christ? Forget it, in most cases. Meanwhile, what is being proposed falls far, far, short of what is needed in order to reach people for Christ. What we need is a radical change in priorities, spending, resources, leadership, and structure, with a new orientation around mission. Anything less than this is cutting $4.7B out of a $1.5 trillion dollar deficit.

 

Why is there so much resistance to reorienting around mission? What kind of changes should the church make in order to reach people for Christ?

[James Nored]

Bruce, we do indeed need a wakeup call. Thank you so much for your work in reaching the lost!

[Bruce Bates]

James, great analogy here! We are the frog in Satan's ever warming pot. We'll be dead just before we realize what trouble we were in. "God, we humbly ask you take us to lost people, so we can see why this mission is so worth the price. Like Jesus' mission, may they be the joy set before us that helps us endure the suffering required to get to be where you are. Through your Son"