QUIZ TIME! Naw, that’s just too mean. Literally nobody wants a flashback to junior high. And since I’m convinced nobody really knows what a Golgi apparatus actually is, there’s no point in asking you, right? So why would I subject you to such trauma? Well, we do literally owe our lives to these little blobby cells. And in a very real and eternal sense, each of us – Christians at least – IS a cell!
Please, not again!
Christians are described as a body in Scripture, each of us equally important parts. Jesus is the Head, directing all of us to perform our functions for the health of his body and therefore for his sake. There are billions of cells in our physical body, there just as many in the body of Christ, and we each exist as a cell in this body forever. From the Head’s perspective, we have an ongoing global identity and function, but we rarely live out who we really are, do we?
We most often – almost always – practice our faith locally with some cells around us, but that’s ultimately bad for a body and for us. It’s understandable to naturally connect to what’s around us, but it’s inexcusable and devastating to do so at detriment to cells farther off, especially who need what we can offer most.
When I began learning how very high the cost was for us cell groups to prioritize ourselves more than the parts receiving the least attention and nourishment, I felt no choice but to change and live like the cell in a worldwide body that I was. Below are more reasons for this and ways to accomplish it. I have come to dearly love THE Church, the ONLY Church, the GLOBAL body of Christ. Therefore, to protect and empower her – and to honor Him – I must be willing to ACT against the following…
1. 90% of the average US church’s budget goes straight back to itself (Source: Christianity Today).
Even lousy charities aren’t nearly as bad as that. Wasn’t this money given to Jesus, the head of his global body? Seems he’d share the wealth quite differently…or just cut out the middlemen.
Many church leaders (good friends included) are wonderful people with good intentions, but they are stuck in a horribly wasteful and broken-down model. Most of us already know our giving can easily do far more more good directly for those in greatest need than our churches will with it. And with Healing Hereafter’s partnership with Worldwide House Church, it’s never been simpler to make such a beautiful difference! And they never take a penny for themselves.
2. I was selfish in what I wanted church to be.
For decades, I excused myself from primarily giving globally and impactfully because I preferred that my church finance my “need” for emotionally-charged music, entertaining speakers, free babysitting, and church social circles (almost all of which which you can still have without the expense of your church institution!). Not surprising, our leaders/elders often encourage and model this preference.
Church was “good” if we sang the warm fuzzy songs, if the message was agreeable, and if I saw the people I was hoping to. Not if the pastor taught me to bless the body more than him/his institution, to focus on the world’s neediest more than our overserved in-group, or to worship in the most honest – not exciting – way. Actually, in 40+ years of churchgoing, I can’t recall a pastor ever teaching me any of that.
I’m not alone in this selfishness, am I? If your friend/child were one of the hundreds of our worldwide neighbors who will needlessly die during your next church service, you’d follow Jesus better – out there healing instead of in there singing, right (Click to tweet)? Selflessly admit it, because your church institution leaders won’t: These “needs” are not worth the massive suffering and death that they cost. The fulfillment, purpose, and pure joy of contributing to massive life-giving impact all over the world is WAY better than a short-lived weekly spiritual hit anyway, trust me! 🙂 There’s an alternative that offers both…for free.
3. There’s a tragically strong bias toward local/circumstantial giving.
According to Giving USA, 95% of US donations stay in the US. I understand why we want to support what we feel connected to; that’s OK. What’s not OK is that in a rich country, the needs near to ALL of our eyes and hearts are the same complex, chronic, and expensive causes that our time has always been far more impactful addressing than our money. Certainly love your local neighbors, but with the hours and advocacy they can’t already get from the USA’s many financial safety nets.
This isn’t what Jesus intended.
If anything, giving cash locally/circumstantially has an inversely proportional relationship to impact – the rich countries keep giving to the rich, and the poor can’t locally give to themselves. And they don’t have stimulus checks, numerous government programs, and armies of non-profits to aid them either. Feeling something about or knowing someone in a charity doesn’t make it impactful, and often people only feel and know because the charity has spent so much of its time/money soliciting them.
Connect yourself to something better. Money does thousands of times more good via the best charities abroad, where solutions are simpler and dollars go farther. That we don’t feel for or know those who are dying doesn’t mean they’re worth any less than you, or that their loved ones don’t agonize as you would (Click to tweet).
If you’re a Christian, despite what you’ve been taught by the ones who benefit from it the most, your tithing/giving should NOT primarily go to your local church! THE Church is global, and biblical tithing/giving is distributed in a regional/global fashion to ALL God’s paid workers (Levites) AND those in greatest need (Deut. 14:28-29, Acts 4:32-35, Rom. 15:25-27).
So use your time to support local needs; I promise, the 95% will keep covering them with money, as they always have. Instead, free yourself to be one of the few to bless Christ and the most neglected parts of his body bigger than you ever thought possible! You can do so via Worldwide House Church, or if the house church thing is foreign to you, try something simpler here!
Embrace your inner cell; it’s who every follower of Christ really is. It truly hurts the body and its Head when we think of ourselves as a Christian, churchgoer, school member, or city/nation citizen apart from our global function. And it helps hundreds of times as many other cells when we do have equal concern for every part (1 Cor. 12:25), to the glory and joy of our Savior! And for more about how each of us can bless the bod, check out Booklet 5 of Healing Hereafter, free in two clicks right here. 🙂
