Claver Lessons - Resourcefulness and Influence

This is the first of what I hope will be a series of follow up thoughts from my previous post "The Incredible Life of Pedro Claver." If you read that post about the life of Claver, then you will understand this post better.

Shortly into Claver's ministry to slaves, we learn that he was resourceful, stubborn about dealing with societal injustices, and he was willing to sacrfice personal gain and even his very life in order to use his influence for what was right both within secular society and within the mainstream church. These are all important things for us to understand as modern Christians. But what does it look like for us?

First, there is the topic of resourcefulness. We live in an evil age, and we are up against a foe that will stop at nothing to kill and destroy anything and everything and everyone. As humans, God wants to work through each of us to address these issues of evil. One particularly evil thing in our world includes injustice, which still manifests itself in oppression, human slavery, unfair laws and regulations, the rich taking advantage of the poor, and so on and so on. You may think that I am being dramatic, but you must also understand that I live in a neighborhood where I actually see and experience the rich taking advantage of the poor EVERY SINGLE DAY. I could provide many examples of injustices that I see all the time, and my heart breaks because of it. How can Christians combat such evil and injustice? We must be resourceful. Sending text messages from the comfort of our living rooms to donate $10 is not going to cut it. Compassion alone is not going to cut it. Being resourceful for us means that we need to educate ourselves to the depth and layers of the problems, and then prayerfully consider multifaceted approaches to dealing with those complex issues. I've said this before, but we must all be life long learners. We must understand that we each have cultural biases, and that by nature we each would choose comfort over suffering if given the choice. But, the life of a Christ follower is countercultural. Leadership comes with a cost. Following Christ comes with a cost. This is why we must be resourceful.

Second is the issue of influence. As a Christian, you are a steward of EVERYTHING. You owe your money, your time, your position, your talent, your influence, and even your very life to Christ. As such, you are called to steward those things on behalf of the powerless and the oppressed. God should be working through you at all times, in all places, and in all situations. You are required to use whatever influence he's given you to speak into issues of injustice, whether you are a business owner, or a parent, or a pastor, or a teacher, or a truck driver, etc. Are you using the influence God has given you to advocate against injustices in our world?

These two issues, resourcefulness and influence, bring some questions to mind. Are you willing to pay the price for Christ? What are you willing to die for? Pedro Claver was gladly willing to pay the ultimate price for the cause that God had called him to. I am willing to give up my life for the kids in Homewood because when I spend time with them, for me it is as if I am spending time with Christ. When a kid from my neighborhood dines at my table, it is as if I am dining with Christ. I have a cause for which I would gladly give up my life. How about you?

Christians as Stewards

A big part of transformational leadership is stewarding resources on behalf of the powerless. It is not a complex process, and to some extent all Christians who have access to resources should be transformational leaders. Resources can be defined in such ways as money, property, people, and power (although not limited to those four by any means).

All money and property belongs to God, not us. We are stewards of money and property. On average in America, Christians give away less money (percentage-wise) to their churches and charities than nonChristians. And, often money that is given by Christians to churches is not stewarded on behalf of the powerless. Instead, it is used to build bigger buildings and grow internal programs. To use another example, a large percentage of federal money that is distributed to poor communities in America never actually makes its way into the intended communities. This should not be so, but people use that money to perpetuate cycles of poverty through programming because they are not interested in the transformation of individuals and communities. Otherwise, they would be out of a job.

I could give other examples about people (such as matching mentors with mentees) or power (such as our call to take on powerful systems that are guilty of injustices). The point is: Do you see yourself as a person who stewards resources on behalf of the powerless (which captures well the subversive nature of the gospel), or are you trying to steward resources on behalf of yourself so that you can live a better life (which captures well the goals of individualism in America)? Often when we talk about stewardship in a church it is assumed that we are talking about money, but stewardship actually applies to every area of our lives.