When there is a need with millions of people involved, there are only two choices.

First, an organization can be formed which raises millions of dollars and throws money at the faceless masses, hoping against hope that some of it “sticks” and a few people are helped. The second option is that millions of people can go out and develop loving relationships with these millions of people with needs, so that love and service is partnered with financial assistance and education, when and where it is needed.

In the first instance, all that is usually accomplished is the mass of needy people become a mass of dependent people. Nothing really changes in their lifestyle or outlook. Millions of dollars cannot be managed properly to meet individual needs, or to provide any long term solutions. It is impossible.

In the second instance, where individual relationships are developed in the process of helping individual needs, the mass of needy people are transformed through loving personal relationships, in which they are coached and trained to make any necessary changes in their life, or just provided with the means, resources, and personal accountability to climb up to the next step. And in return, the people who serve and help others gain a sense of satisfaction, significance, and joy, because they have done something more with their lives than sign their name on a check.
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At the center of God’s Kingdom are relationships.

Relationships are the focus of His plan for accomplishing His purposes on earth. One of the greatest downfalls of the modern church era is the movement away from genuine relationships, and into the corporate model of the church where we think the most important thing is to increase our market share, and expand our influence through size, numbers, and a year-over-year increase in attendance and giving.

I would not be too surprised to see the day when a church has an IPO and begins selling stock to investors.

Robert Farrar Capon says it best when he concludes his analysis of the corporate church model by saying this: “The corporate model is, hands down, the worst thing that ever happened to the church.”

Yet we have adopted the corporate model because we think big churches can do everything better. We feel that big problems require big answers and big bank accounts to offer big solutions. And to get the big bank accounts, we need big donors, so we can pool lots of money to make the biggest difference in a big world of big needs.

Bigger is not always better

But as more and more churches are beginning to understand, this “big is better” approach does not work. At least, not for God’s way of doing things.

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In a previous post we discussed the giving pattern of the early church, it was seen that those who had more sold their possessions, and the money was distributed to those who had less (cf. Acts 2:45-56; 4:32-35; 6:1). This is the true biblical model of “redistributing the wealth.” But notice what is not involved anywhere in this redistribution: the government.

Wealth Redistribution: Great Idea. Bad Practice

Redistribution of wealth is a wonderful idea, is commended by God, and we find numerous examples of it within the pages of Scripture. But wealth redistribution is not something that can be commanded, required, or legislated. You cannot create laws which are enforced by the government to take money from the rich and give it to the poor. This has never worked in the history of the world, and never will. Why? Because if the rich want to remain rich, then threating to take their riches will only cause them to hide it better, or find other ways to become even more rich than before.

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Yesterday, we briefly considered the account of Jesus telling the Rich Young Ruler to sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor.

Does this tell us anything about how God views money?

Jesus probably isn’t so concerned with the wealth the rich young ruler had, and He probably isn’t overly concerned about the buildings that churches own. His primary concern is with how these possessions are viewed, and what we do with what we have, especially for those who do not have as much. Jesus wanted to challenge the whole way of thinking which says, “Those who have more are loved more; and those who have less are loved less.”

Could it be that God has given some people more than others, not so that they can feel extra special, or become puffed up about how great of people they are in God’s eyes, or how wonderful their ministries are for the advancement of the Kingdom of God, but so that those to whom God has given more can use what they have to bless others who have been given less, and in so doing, be blessed in other ways in return?

Could it be that wealth distribution has nothing to do with righteousness, morality, and God’s blessing, and has everything to do with God’s plan to make a people of God for Himself where everybody works together and provides for one another in a vast array of interconnected friendships and mutually dependent relationships? For the physically poor often have spiritual, emotional, and relational wealth which those who are physically rich know nothing about.

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