Stewardship Course, Part 2

As much as I have been trying to teach the students something in this stewardship class, I have been challenged even more personally, as a teacher.  It has been incredibly humbling to teach a course on stewardship as a relatively wealthy foreigner in a developing country. One assignment given to the students was to write out a current monthly budget. The students are paying approximately $60 a month in school fees which covers tuition, room and board. I asked them to detail the other money they spent in a month. Income amounts for each student was typically about $2-4 a month, paid to them for the service they do interning at various churches. The students explained how some money went to soap or to flowers (those with girlfriends) or snacks. Just today one student mentioned how he is praying for $25 to pay rent for his wife who lives an hour away. The land lord is threatening to evict them and he is not sure how to get the money.

I stand in front of the class teaching them about how God wants those with money to help those without – the give generously. I say this with my ability to fly back to the US at any time – something they can only dream of.  I read off the notes which I wrote on my personal laptop and printed on our home printer – things the students may hope someday to have.  Maybe we are giving up a lot financially to be here – but no matter how you cut it, in this place we are the wealthy.

So I tell the students to pay tithes and to steward what resources they have. I tell them that Christians sometimes have to suffer from poverty while some wicked people prosper. I tell them that they need to be willing to give up what material resources they have. And I wonder at the level of my own hypocrisy. In truth, I do not even know what that level is. I know that God has taught me much about trusting him. When I was in seminary, resources were incredibly tight and I got to the point my last semester when I knew my tuition check would almost zero out my savings. And God did provide for that through an unexpected scholarship. But even the relative poverty I experienced at that point was wealth compared to my students now – things like living in an apartment with running water and electricity set me apart. I cannot truly understand what it feels like to live in their financial shoes.

But I was called to teach and do so while desperately praying that God would help me to teach what is truly in His Word. The irony of a wealthy white person telling a bunch of poor Africans that God does not necessarily want them to be rich is clear. I started reading Jonathan Bonk’s Missions and Money during the class to help me understand that financial gap, but the first chapter left me disturbed enough to put off reading the rest until I have more time to think and pray about the implications of being a wealthy missionary. “Wealthy” in the sense that even the poorest of missionaries is comparatively wealthy in a context where the annual GPD per capita was about $600 last year.

So I continue to pray for truth and humility. I pray that God would enlighten me to understand my own responsibility regarding money and I thank Him for the opportunity to dig more deeply into the Scriptures regarding this issue by teaching on it.

Stewardship Course, Part 1

Most of you know that I began teaching at the Tenwek chaplaincy school during the summer term. I taught a counseling course, which made sense since that is what my master’s degree is in. I learned many lessons that term about teaching in general and about my students. This term, I decided not to hope for a particular class to teach but rather just to pray about it. When Rev. Kilel asked me to teach stewardship, I was a bit surprised but also excited. I have had Neither Poverty Nor Riches by Craig Blomberg on my reading list for years and now I finally had a reason to  read it through carefully.

Learning from last term, I decided to give a “pre-test” so I would know where the students were beginning the class from.

On an academic note, my students are not the brightest students in the country. Most did not do well enough in secondary to continue to bachelor’s level college classes. English has been a struggle for them, especially understanding my American English. In Kenya, there are two national languages: English and Swahili. Secondary school is almost exclusively taught in English, but in this area the English skills are sometimes low because everyone speaks at least 3 languages. So English as a second language explains some of the results, but not all of them. In terms of academic understanding, I wanted to know how much the students knew about keeping a budget and other adult financial decisions they will be facing soon.

On a more spiritual side, I know the prosperity gospel is rampant in this part of the world and in many local churches. I wanted to get an idea of how much my students have bought into the hope of prosperity when you follow Jesus.

Nine students were present for the pre-test. You may be interested in some of the results:

7/9 students said that God wants all Christians to be rich.

6/9 students said that wealth is always a sign of God’s favor.

Students were split roughly in half on the following  statements:

“God is happy for me to spend the money I earn on whatever I want, as long as it is not something illegal or forbidden by the church.”

“God shows special concern for the poor.”

“The Old Testament and New Testament have the same view of poverty/wealth.”

Most answered the question about defining insurance and naming three types with an answer for what is assurance and three kinds of assurance God gives. Only 3 had a satisfactory definition of a steward. The most interesting answer for that one was “Laying something aside, storing up as he or she may prosper.”

Even in the US, answers to these questions might be wide-spread, but there are some very clear biblical answers that I wanted my students to understand. I want I set goals for the students, primarily to help them recognize the “prosperity gospel” as a dangerous lie. And then to have them at least understand the concept of a budget and the importance of having one.

So with this information, I began an in-depth discussion of how the Bible views material possessions, depending heavily on Blomberg’s book as a resource.  Blomberg makes the point (and I agree) that the only theme regarding material possessions not carried over from the Old Testament and into the New is the view of material wealth as a reward for faithfulness. The Old Testament promises of material blessing are connected to the Promised Land, which was a picture of the coming promise of God’s Kingdom. Those Old Testament material promises were a shadow of the greater blessing which comes to us in Jesus (Heb. 11).

Some may argue that the story of the rich young fool indicates material blessing at the end when Jesus promises hundred-fold blessing of land, family and houses to those who give up all to follow him. But given the context of that passage, this cannot be primarily material blessing. This was stated while Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem – preparing to be murdered and told to the disciples who had given up all to follow Jesus and most went on to live in poverty and to experience persecution and martyrdom for their faith. In addition, Jesus said it just after telling someone to go sell all his possessions then come follow him (to his death as we learn later). It was stated that these blessings would also come with persecutions. The reward must be somehow spiritual, even while it is promised in this life.

My students are struggling to understand this concept, and I am not sure they will understand it. But I think they have at least heard it clearly. They were all shocked when I pointed out that Jesus essentially told the rich young ruler to follow him to his death.  At least they will leave the class knowing what the Bible says about material possessions and hopefully a little less likely to preach a prosperity sermon.