Upward Mobility and American Christianity

American Christians live in a culture that values upward mobility and advancement throughout the course of a lifetime toward the American Dream. The values of upward mobility, as far as I can tell, do not seem to align with the values of downward mobility that were modeled by Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago. The authors of the New Testament went to great lengths to describe how followers of Jesus might live in a world that held strongly to values that ran counter to the values that Jesus modeled. I am sure that early Christians struggled to hash out their faith in the midst of a Roman Empire that celebrated many of the same ideals that our modern American culture holds up as important. In other words, modern Christians living in America must be willing to learn how to live out their faith in Jesus in ways that look different than the values of the upwardly mobile American Dream narrative that provides the framework for our existence.

This concept may be difficult for Christians living in America, and downward mobility is not necessarily something that we can accomplish on our own will. We need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit in order to live passionately for Jesus in a culture that celebrates evil and idolatry in many different forms. So many things can become idols to us if we don't pay attention... money, sex, power, media, sports teams, smart phones, etc. Americans can make idols out of bigger homes, nicer cars, bigger retirement plans, and so forth. In our obsession with becoming rich, we can sell out the pursuit of an authentic relationship with Jesus. We remove the parts of Christianity that make us feel uncomfortable, anything having to do with suffering or the downward mobility of the cross, and we embrace the heresy of prosperity doctrine or trying to manipulate God to get the material things that we want in this life.

The solution is to recognize the temptations within the culture around us, and to ask God to empower us to discern which things in our society might ultimately harm us or draw us closer to Jesus. It is hard to have a close connection with God when there are so many idols in the way. We need to reject a comfortable Christianity, and embrace the actual gospel of Jesus Christ as Jesus modeled it for us. It is also crucial for followers of Jesus in America to pray, read our Bibles, and surround ourselves in Christian community with people who will hold us accountable. We need to make tough choices that may alienate us from our friends and family members. Still, I think that we should be concerned as Christians if our lifestyles mirror the upwardly mobile values of the culture surrounding us. We must thrive in the culture, but not be of the culture. This is a profound mystery that can only be revealed to us by God. And, as God promises, we will find joy in the midst of challenging circumstances.

Downward Mobility and Advancing the Kingdom of God

The past few weeks have been tough. I won't go into details, but I have noticed that the enemy is really going after me to try to take me off track from participating in God's mission. I know that God is victorious in all things, that God wins, and that good triumphs over evil. Still, that does not mean that this life is supposed to be easy or comfortable. That is especially true knowing God has called me to the front lines as a pastor in a complex urban environment.

Advancing the kingdom of God is messy business. Jesus modeled this as the ultra religious leaders and the political leaders of his day decided to crucify him for living and speaking such a subversive yet hope filled gospel message. Jesus rolled up his sleeves and entered into the human condition so that we might all find eternal life through his life, death, and resurrection. Most of Jesus' closest friends, his disciples, suffered tremendously while they lived before dying violently at the hands of human beings who rejected them. In the first 300 years of the Christian church, the time when it grew the fastest throughout the past 2,000 years, the followers of Jesus experienced tremendous persecution and suffering. Many followers of Jesus were martyred under Roman rule. Only when the Roman emperor Constantine endorsed Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire did the early Christians experience relief from the persecution. Unfortunately, Christianity began to decline when it was married to the powerful systems of the Roman Empire (political, economic, etc.).

In looking back over 2,000 years of Christian history, we see that Christianity often declines when it becomes too closely associated with popularity, comfort, and power. On the flip side, we see that Christianity thrives among marginalized people groups, when it is a subversive gospel message. This is true today. 100 years ago, 80% of the world's Christians lived in the west (Europe and North America). Today, only 20% of the world's Christians reside in the west. 80% of today's Christians live in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Christianity is growing the fastest among marginalized people groups who often experience tremendous persecution because of their faith in Jesus. Most of Europe is already considered post-Christian, and America is well on its way to being a post-Christian nation. Could this be because western Christians have tried to marry a life of comfort, prosperity, power, and upward mobility with a gospel of Jesus Christ that was intended to be subversive and counterculture?

These concepts remind me that if I'm experiencing suffering or discomfort related to radically following Jesus Christ, then I must be doing what God is asking of me in terms of advancing his mission to redeem the world.  God has set me apart to reach cities, to reach people who are often marginalized by mainstream society, and to live in authentic Christian community while radically loving my neighbors. This is why I am so wary of top-down, success oriented leadership styles being infused into Christian churches in America. The prosperity, or wealth and health, doctrine that has infiltrated many churches is heresy, plain and simple. The kingdom of God is an upside-down kingdom. It's not about producing programs or results. The kingdom of God is about following Jesus into the arms of hurting people in a broken world. We experience God's grace as it pools in low places. Mysteriously, God's love shines most powerfully through us when we take the focus off our own personal or corporate success, and God works through us to fulfill his mission to the lost through our downward mobility. There is great victory in Christ when we die to our selves. I get to experience the joy of victory in Christ when I enter fully into the difficult things that God requires of me on a daily basis.

Everyday Church

It is so important for Christian leaders to mobilize followers of Jesus to build authentic relationships with people who are not following Jesus. In a post-Christian culture, people want to know if you are the real deal or not. Hypocritical Christianity, as always, will not cut it when it comes to advancing the kingdom of God. This is especially true in a society that is increasingly hostile toward Christianity.

I read a good book recently. In Everyday Church: Gospel Communities on Missions, authors Tim Chester and Steve Timmis point out that, "We need to do church and mission in the context of everyday life. We can no longer think of church as a meeting on a Sunday morning. We must think of church as a community of people who share life, ordinary life. And we cannot think of mission as an event that takes place in an ecclesiastical building. Of course, there will always be a role for special events, but the bedrock of mission will be ordinary life. Mission must be done primarily in the context of everyday life."

My goal as a pastor is to mobilize the church I lead to build meaningful relationships with all kinds of different people. We can't afford to live in a comfortable Christian bubble, spending most of our time with people who believe as we do. We must engage culture and intentionally build relationships across cultural boundaries and belief systems.

Reflecting on Three Years of Living in Homewood

About three years ago my family made a big move from an affluent neighborhood in the suburbs to a neighborhood in the inner city where the average family income is $18,000 per year. At the time of the move, my wife and I had never lived in a city before let alone a place where the average daily experience of my neighbors seemed to be defined by the struggles of poverty. My family walked away from the traditional comforts of the upwardly mobile American Dream in order to pursue to calling that God gave our family to become downwardly mobile. We have experienced more joy in life and closeness to God over the past few years than ever before. As I reflect on the past three years, I have learned that it is important to share about my family's journey because many people are curious about our lifestyle. The American Dream seems promising with all of its promises of comfort, safety, and security, but, as with all narratives that the world offers up, the American Dream ends up leading to struggles and emptiness. That is because I believe that most aspects of the American Dream are unbiblical and far removed from what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Don't get me wrong... I love America and I love being an American. I am thankful to be living in a country where I am free, and I know that freedom has come with a great cost. As as pastor, however, I spend a lot of time helping people unpack what goes wrong when the full embrace of the American Dream narrative leads to destruction. Americans are more depressed than any other people group in the world. We have, by far, the highest incarceration rate of any country. More importantly, the pillars of the American Dream actually keep us from possibly living out the lifestyle that Jesus set forth for us. The following are some examples of the staples of the American Dream that I believe keep many American Christians from experiencing the full joys of following Jesus:

Bigger homes: Three years ago I bought a home in Homewood where the average home value is $22,000. My wife and I joyfully invested our life savings into a neighborhood that may never experience any property value growth during our lifetime. It was a scandalous investment. It made no sense by any upwardly mobile standards. Yet, it was the best investment we've ever made because it was a kingdom of God investment. It was an eternal investment with our life savings. We are blessed to be living in Homewood. We have neighbors who stop by our house all the time. Our home has become a refuge for some of the most vulnerable people in our city. We've welcomed homeless people into our home to feed them and offer them shelter. The goal of the American Dream is to start out by buying a starter home, and then over the course of our lifetimes continue to buy bigger and bigger houses in more affluent neighborhoods so that we can be sitting on a bunch of home equity when we're older. One major flaw with that philosophy is that living in big homes in affluent neighborhoods separates us from the poor. When we intentionally distance ourselves from the poor, we miss out on the joys of being in relationships with people in need as a natural part of our lives. Also, us humans are always trying to get back to the garden of Eden. We try to build paradise for ourselves during our short lifetimes, but I don't think that God wants us to build paradise with our homes. A huge home in an affluent neighborhood may seem like a good goal, but in the end that goal may actually distance us from the mission that God has for all of us Christians to advance the kingdom of God and eternal purposes.

Financial Security:  The goal of the American Dream seems to be to save up as much money for ourselves as we can, but only after we've bought as much as we possibly can to make ourselves look better, feel better, and be safer. Americans seem to be obsessed with safety, security, and comfort. The gospel of Jesus Christ runs counter to the concepts of spending a bunch of money on ourselves or saving up a bunch of money for ourselves. The gospel of Jesus Christ is scandalous. Jesus was crucified. Ten of his closest followers, his disciples, lived in poverty and died violently simply for following the downwardly mobile ways of Jesus. Followers of Jesus during the first few centuries after Jesus' life experienced extreme persecution and many were martyred, yet Christianity grew faster than at any other time since then. When we put our focus on ourselves and our comforts, then we lose sight of what life is all about... God's mission to redeem the world. God wants to work through us, and that means that we sacrifice all. We should give time and money away to other Christians and to our neighbors freely, whenever God prompts us to do so. The gospel of Jesus runs counter to the world. I am constantly wrestling through this concept with Julie. Our goal is to give away more money to God's mission. Even the concept of retirement, or saving up a bunch of money to live on later in life, is unbiblical. The goal of life is not to live a comfortable lifestyle. The goal is to be obedient to Christ, and Christ may call us to give everything away... even our lives if we are called to do so. My goal in life is not to leave a bunch of money for my children to spend after I die and after I have lived comfortably in my golden years. For the rest of my life, no matter how old I am, I hope to be right out on the front lines advancing the gospel of Jesus Christ in dangerous places. I experience profound community and meaning in life when I live and minister in places of poverty. Modeling for my children about how to really live out the gospel in a world that desperately needs Christians to be authentic and credible is much, much more important to me than leaving money to my children when I die. This is all about making an eternal investment, not an earthly investment. I think God is big enough to figure out how to take care of my family members after I die, so there's no sense in me losing any sleep over something like that.

Prosperity Christianity:  Prosperity doctrine is heresy. The self help gospel is heresy. These movements have no place in the church. American Christians are desperately trying to integrate the gospel message of Jesus Christ with affluence and power, and that is simply not possible. God often calls me to enter into other people's pain and suffering in order to bring about his purposes. Sometimes God calls me to go pray with people after a shooting happens in my neighborhood. That is holy ground. Sometimes God calls me to sit with homeless people or struggling, single moms in order to share the good news of Christ. Just like everyone else I could lose my life at any time, so I don't want to waste any time trying to get rich or trying to make myself feel better about myself. I am confident enough in who I am through Christ. I don't need marketers of the American Dream to tell me who I am. I don't need a self help guru to tell me who I am. I am a son of the Most High God, a co-heir of the kingdom of God because of what Jesus did for me. As a result, I've given up trying to be prosperous in this short life in exchange for being obedient to God's ways. I have experienced profound joy through being made uncomfortable in my calling from God.

The great mystery here is that tremendous joy is found in the downward mobility of the cross of Jesus Christ. Around the world, Christianity is experiencing explosive growth amongst people groups living in poverty. Christianity is rapidly declining in areas of the world like Europe and America where well-intentioned people are trying to integrate Christianity with health, wealth, and success. 100 years ago 80 percent of the world's Christians lived in the West. Today, we represent only 20 percent of the world's Christians even though the percentage of overall Christians in the world has stayed about the same (around 34 percent). I believe that God can bring about revival in America, and that we can once again experience a profound movement of God throughout the country. For that to happen, I really believe that we will need to let go of the comforts of this world being offered up by the American Dream in order to embrace the radical, countercultural, and downwardly mobile lifestyle of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Christians Living in America

As Christians living in America, every day when we wake up we are faced with the decision to either die to our selves and actively enter into God's mission to redeem all of humanity or choose to embrace the idolatry that is all around us serving as a constant temptation.  We can so easily deviate from God's path for our lives, which leads to life.  Instead we often choose death, and we destroy ourselves by trying to be upwardly mobile and achieve the American Dream.  The American Dream is all about us, as individuals, advancing ourselves.  God's plan for our lives is all about him, and we give up control of our lives.  The idols in America are right there, all the time, waiting to numb us, or help us escape and distance ourselves from the hard realities of life.  God's path, the narrow path, can be difficult to find and it involves unbridled release of control and giving ourselves away to others on a daily basis.  The great irony of all of this is, the very things that we think will actually bring is life in the American Dream actually lead us down a path to self destruction.  The very things that look like they could bring us struggle and pain through following Christ at all costs are actually the things that will bring us life.  This is why life can be so difficult living in an American society with seemingly unlimited individual opportunities, resources, and idols masked as the latest and greatest thing that might help to improve our lives.

The path to finding life is through downward mobility, by dying to our selves because Christ died for us.  The great joy is found in entering God's mission, through giving ourselves away to others... especially including the people in this world who are struggling like orphans, widows, and the poor.  Alan Doswald writes, "James 1:27 is interesting. If you asked most people what true religion is, they would not give this answer. 'Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself from being polluted by the world.'  If we're not caring for widows and orphans, we're already polluted by the world, because the world doesn't care either.  The church's very nature, though, is to care.  The church has demonstrated this many times over.  The vital role of the church is to love our neighbors the way Jesus loved them."

We cannot look after orphans or widows in their distress if we have intentionally distanced ourselves from them while desperately trying to pursue the American Dream.  Caring for the poor and marginalized people in this world is all about relationships, and we cannot be in relationships with people when we are afraid to go where they are and spend time with them.  That is the great harm of upward mobility that is encouraged by the world: the more upwardly mobile we are, the farther we get from living out Christ's call to be downwardly mobile.  The more we elevate ourselves, the more we distance ourselves from people in need.  The more we spend hours watching television obsessing over Charlie Sheen's celebrity meltdown or worshipping Ameican Idol contestants, the more the work of the Church to reach hurting people in this world goes undone.  The more our hobbies and habits become consuming addictions, the farther we go from being able to give ourselves away to others.  The more we choose to comfort ourselves and arrange for a better life for ourselves, that's just all the more that we distance ourselves from the life that is found in giving control over to Christ.

Rich or Poor?

My friend Kent Chevalier recently posted an interview between Francis Chan, Mark Driscoll, and Joshua Harris on his blog. Please go to Kent's site (a link is on the right side of this page) and watch the interview. Francis Chan, who is a famous author of the books "Crazy Love" and "Forgotten God," has made the decision to walk away from his role as the lead pastor of a megachurch in an affluent part of southern California in order live and minister incarnationally among the poor in inner city Los Angeles. Chan seemed to have it all, in terms of success, from an American cultural Christianity perspective... a popular preacher and leader of a big church in the suburbs and great wealth that could potentially be generated as a famous author and sought after speaker within mainstream evangelical Christianity. So what would make him walk away from that path? He is on a journey to follow Jesus. But, what does it mean for Christians to follow Jesus?

Obviously I admire Chan for what he is doing, but I was very interested in the tough questions that Mark Driscoll asked him. What does it mean to follow Christ in America, a culture that is defined by extreme brokenness found in both affluence and poverty? Is a calling to minister to the rich just as meaningful as a calling to minister to the poor? These questions have "haunted" Christianity for the past 1700 years since the Roman Emporer Constantine endorsed Chistianity as the main religion of the Roman Empire. During the first 300 years of Christianity, the religion grew exponentially among the poor and Christians were persecuted by the rich and powerful people in the world. When Christianity was embraced by the rich and powerful, it caused a great deal of tension. Christianity has not really grown since the 4th century. About 34% of the world's population were Christians when Constantine endorsed Christianity, and today about 34% of the world's population classifies themselves as Christian. Most growth in Christianity over the centuries has been defined by growth in some geographic regions and decline in others, as is happening now with the massive decline of Christianity in America and Europe and the growth of Christianity in the global South (Asia, Africa, and Latin America). These trends show us that Christianity often declines when it is tied too closely to affluence and power, and it grows exponentially among the poor.

What does all of this mean for us as followers of Christ? Should American Christians immerse themselves in the culture of prosperity, materialism, and individualism in order to enact change from within? Or, should American Christians go to the poor in order to minister where Christianity is experiencing exponential growth in places that desperately need the resources and influence of rich and powerful Christians who have been hoarding wealth and power for many years? I loved Chan's answer to these questions... it is not a matter of choosing between rich and poor. It is a matter of love. If God is love, then all Christians should be ministering to one another whether we are rich or poor in this short life on earth. We are all the body of Christ. Affluent and powerful Christians should be engaged in deep, meaningful, authentic, loving relationships with the poor and powerless. And vice versa. We have much to learn from one another. This is not an either/or decision. We are not defined by our economic class. Christians are defined by the body of Christ. We are all one in Christ. The problem is, many Christians do not live like that. Societies in this world are often structured for us to assimilate with people who look and act like us, and reject people who are different than us. Just look at all the divisions in this world between races, classes, and religions. The way the world looks models what the world values. But Christians are called to be set apart from the values of the world. We are the one body of Christ. We are reconcilers and peacemakers. We should be defined by love and grace, not hatred. To be a Christian means that we follow Christ, and we all have different callings within that context. It's refreshing to know that even the heavyweights of American Christianity, people like Francis Chan and Mark Driscoll, wrestle with the implications of their unique callings within the body of Christ.

Fear of Following Jesus

Fear is often what keeps Christians from living a life that actually follows Jesus. Sometimes in American Christianity, it is extremely difficult to tell the difference between a Christian and a nonbeliever. That is because many American Christians have stopped embracing risk, and they have focused on embracing a religion that worships safety and moralism. People have stopped following Jesus, and started following a religion. Think about it. You can call yourself a Christian in America, and that religion will encourage you to live in a place that is devoid of poor people, send your kids to school with only other Christian kids who look and act the same as them, save up a bunch of money for "emergencies" and to retire comfortably on, becoming rich and buying bigger houses, and the list goes on and on just as long as a good, nice Christian doesn't drink or swear or show any signs of sin to anyone else. It is the gospel of sin management and keeping up a nice, clean front for others to see.

People sometimes ask me if I am afraid to live in the inner city because of the high rate of violence and perceived lack of safety. Actually, at this point I am more afraid to live in the suburbs because of the dangers of affluence, comfort, individuality, and complacency. I am terribly afraid of losing sight of following Jesus and focusing instead on the religion of American Christianity. It is fear that keeps Christians from actually following Jesus. Think about it. Jesus was countercultural, radical, a revolutionary. He lived a lifestyle that was exactly opposite of the kingdom of men (at the time it was Caesar) and of the religion of morality and piety (represented so well by the Pharisees in the Bible). Today we have established quite a powerful kingdom of men in America, and we also have a powerful group of religous people in America who represent the religion of morality and piety. Most American Christians align themselves with the kingdom of men and the mainstream religous majority instead of aligning themselves with Jesus Christ. Now that is a scary thought! Soren Kierkegaard writes, "To want to admire, instead of follow, Christ is not an invention of bad people; no it is more an invention of those who spinelessly want to keep themselves detached at a safe distance from Jesus." - From Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard

What are you afraid of? Are you afraid of broken people and places, or are you willing to give up everything, including your life, to dive head first into those places as Jesus did in order to be a radical follower of Jesus Christ? Are you a follower of Jesus, or a follower of a moralist religion of comfort, control, and safety? Do people think you are dangerous and radical because you are a Christian, or do they think that you are a really nice, moral, conforming, safe person? Being a follower of Jesus means that you should be living a life that rocks the boat, upsets the comfortable, and cuts right into the heart of anything that is representative of the worship of the kingdom of men or religous piety. It may get your persecuted, or even killed. That's OK... then you'll be getting closer to the point of what it means to actually follow Jesus.

On Being a Radical

Would you describe yourself as a radical? If your answer is a confident "yes," then I believe that you are on the right track of following Jesus. If your answer is "no," then I wonder why not? What is keeping you from being a radical, as Jesus was?

Does your life look different than the values of this world? Ask yourself that question. No, I mean stop everything you are doing and ask yourself that question. Do a nice, honest assessment of your lifestyle and values. That question should haunt all of us. Where do you live? How do you spend your time? How do you spend money? Where is your treasure stored, because there your heart will be?

Henri Nouwen wrote, "We will never come to know our true vocation in life unless we are willing to grapple with the radical claim the gospel places on us. During the past twenty centuries many Christians have heard this radical call and have responded in true obedience..." Sadly, though, many Christians, especially in modern America, have not responded in obedience to that radical call. We've settled for comfort. We've settled for accumulating as much wealth as we can. We've settled for bigger houses, and nicer cars, and more stuff. We've settled for the latest technological gadgets. We've settled for moving more money into our retirement accounts. We've placed America's economy over God's economy. Seriously, crack open a Bible and see what I'm talking about. Our lifestyles should be different than the world's. Radically different, because Jesus calls us all to be radicals. So... are you a radical?

Claver Lessons - Engaging Culture and Embracing Brokenness

Christianity is shrinking and losing influence in America and in Western culture in general. Eighty percent of the world's Christians are now non-Western, non-white, and the majority are poor (over fifty percent of the world lives on less than two dollars a day). This global shift in the make up of Christianity is disorienting, sometimes even shocking, for many American Christians who sometimes believe that the Christian world still orbits around us, and our churches, and our growth models, and our preaching, and our trendy books, and our seminaries, and our movements. On our way to religous "success" I believe that we may have blown right past the message of the gospel, so much so that we are rapidly declining. Why is Christianity declining in America and growing explosively elsewhere? And, what can we learn from Pedro Claver in this area?

American Christians are comfortable. Americans make up less than 5% of the world's population, but we use up over 25% of the world's resources. The Christian culture in America largely reflects the values of the nonChristian culture in this country (just check the divorce and charitable giving rates... Christians are the same or actually a little bit worse in both areas). American Christians love to do programs where we all hang out with one another once or twice a week in order to grow spiritually. We like to talk about going to heaven. We read fiction books about escaping this evil world. Our churches compete with one another over who has the best worship, the best teaching, and the best kids ministry. Christians church shop in order to find the best fit for themselves, and they can just leave if things get too uncomfortable. Big, beautiful church buildings are built in growing suburban areas while churches in down and out neighborhoods are abandoned. We just throw away entire churches, or neighborhoods, or people groups, because they weren't meeting our own all important needs. Many Christians in America are actively insulating themselves from as many nonChristians as possible and as much brokenness in society as possible. How so? We develop relationships with only Christians. We send our children to Christian school (or home school them). We build big homes in the suburbs, and if we're lucky enough we might even make our way up into a gated community one day where no messy people can ever disturb us. We go shopping at the Christian book store so that we can read Christian books and listen to Christian music and buy Christian breath mints to follow up our Christian coffee so that we have good Christian breath. Our faith becomes private... it's all about us and how we can improve ourselves. The goal of a good Christian in America seems to be who can make the most perfect Christian bubble.

The problem is... as comfort grows, Christianity declines. Christianity actually declines for all of the reasons listed above. We become marginalized in the world. We give up the most powerful, transformational, subversive, countercultural message of all time for the sake of building our own selves up in order to be more comfortable. The American Dream has no glass ceiling, and we'll do whatever it takes to get there. American Christianity falls nicely in line with those wordly goals, and we don't realize that we've lost the point.

Pedro Claver showed us how to live as a sold out follower of Jesus Christ. He understood the power of the gospel message when others around him did not, including the mainstream Christians who were busy doing church in the area. In the 1600s in Latin American, the powerful Christians of that society would have been busy forcing the Indian population to choose between becoming a Christian or being tortured, put into slavery, or killed. They would have been busy forcing slaves to build bigger church buildings for the glory of God. The mainstream church back then was all about better programs and bigger buildings. Enter our friend Pedro Claver, who arrives on the scene and starts doing some strange things. When slave ships arrive, he actually runs out to meet them so that he can start caring for them. He gives the dead a proper burial. He seeks out the sickest of the sick in order to treat them in the makeshift hospital he has set up. He brought fresh fruit, clean clothes, and water into the slave barracks where no other good Christians were willing to go. He hugged people with leprosy. He personally cleaned the sores of slaves who had smallpox. His heart broke. He entered the most excruciating pain that human beings could possibly endure when most Christians in his day were ignoring it or actually helping to perpetuate that suffering. He ran right into the brokenness and the ultimate expressions of evil being played out in the world right before everyone's eyes. He built authentic community with the slaves, and the gospel message of Christ grew among the slave population as a result. Almost all of the other Christians there thought he was crazy and stupid. They made fun of him and kept on doing what they were doing, which was building bigger buildings and better programs for themselves.

Claver is not alone in his willingness to live out the true gospel message. When the plague hit Europe in the middle ages, wiping out one third of the population, Christians would have been found actually going into cities to care for the sick and dying in order to care for them and share the message of Jesus. Many Christians actually got sick and died. What happened? Christianity took hold and grew like crazy in Europe as a result. Another example is the early Christian church, specifically the first three centuries following Jesus' life. Christians did what nobody else in mainstream Roman society was willing to do. They sought out the sick and the poor in order to care for them. When an outbreak of disease broke out, they would have some nursing moms sit at the city fountain, and then others would walk around the city to pick up abandoned babies. They would bring the babies to those nursing moms at the fountain in order to keep them alive. Then they would adopt the outcast babies into their own families. As a result of the Christian work among the poor and broken, Christianity grew exponentially all over the Roman Empire.

Fast forward to today. Where is Christianity growing exponentially? Among the poor, in places other than America, where Christians are willing to go where others won't go. Like Claver, they are willing to sacrifice comfort in order to reach others with the transformational love of Jesus Christ. They build authentic community with one another by caring for one another and meeting each other's needs, just like the early church in the book of Acts in the Bible. At this point, most of the Christians in the world would have no comprehension of the American Dream. Most Christians in the world do not understand the need to arrange for a more comfortable lifestyle, or insulate ourselves from nonChristians, or work towards retirement, or build bigger buildings, or have better programs. The church is growing fastest in the places where there are no actual church buildings, and there are no programs. There are just Christians willing to live with one another and sacrifice their own lives, if needed, for the sake of others... especially including nonChristians.

While many American Christians desperately search for authentic community and real religion, the Christians in the rest of the world are modeling for us what those things should look like. We should learn from them. We should learn from Pedro Claver. Are we, as American Christians, willing to humble ourselves for the sake of the gospel message of Jesus Christ? Are we willing to give up our comforts? Are we willing to serve others? In our own country? In our own cities? The hurting and lost are right there in from of us. Right under our noses. Right here, right now, in America, in our cities, in our neighborhoods. What will we do?