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Letter from America

Expansive not expensive?

The American economy has had a lower than expected increase in employment.

Other indicators from around the world seem to contribute to an expectation that if this economy is improving, it is doing so slowly.

This raises all sorts of questions for our businesses, our families, and our prosperity. But what does it mean for the American church? How does an ongoing economic doldrums influence church attendance, church growth, church outreach, and all the rest? To put it another way, can you continue to be expansive in vision — which the US church certainly has been — without having the cash to be expensive?

As a historian, I am encouraged by historical precedent in this regard. It was the ministry of D.L. Moody which gathered significant momentum partly on the back of a famous series of prayer meetings organised by a businessman in New York. Those prayer meetings arose in response to a significant economic downturn. Many historians of revival would point to those events, economic downturn plus New York prayer meetings, as a combination that continued to stoke the flames of that era of massive evangelistic expansion. Meanwhile, the Great Depression of the early 20th century seemed to impact the budgets of many churches, inevitably, while at the same time being the season that saw the launch of some the national ministries that laid the groundwork for the later ministries that took place after WWII — Billy Graham, and Campus Crusade, etc.

Historically, then, it does not seem inevitable that a limit in our ability to be expensive necessarily means a limit to our ability to be expansive. The economic doldrums instead provide the church with a choice: either reduce commitments, or find more creative ways to continue to expand — a creativity that may well need to include a greater commitment on the part of all involved. Biblically speaking, there are the obvious examples — Joseph: ‘You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives’ (Genesis 50.20). With a fulsome trust in the pure sovereignty of God, we can face adverse economic situations with a childlike simplicity. God is in charge of the storm, as much as the boom, and in each he has his man for the hour, ultimately Jesus Christ.

God will listen

So, while I understand the use of texts such as ‘do not despise the day of small things’ to encourage us to not give up, and to be content with what other ages might have thought to have been small beer in terms of evangelistic success, it seems at the same time we should arm ourselves with a Joseph-like ‘dream’: that God in his sovereignty, and in his plan for the evangelisation of the nations, will listen more to the cry of his people for his blessing, than to the forecasters of economic disaster.

At least that will be my prayer. And my prayer that it will be yours too.