From Economic Discipleship to a Gratitude Economy

This is another blog from BFJN's archives. We are thankful for those who came before us and faithfully worked to create spaces where christians could better understand and align themselves with the way of Jesus!

When a group of Christians in Boston began a conversation about money in 2006, the economy looked very different than it does today.

It was a year of seeming prosperity, but amidst it, Gary VanderPol, a Boston-area pastor, and Mako Nagasawa, an InterVarsity campus minister, sensed that something was wrong.

They saw a deep forgetfulness of the Bible’s teaching about wealth among many American Christians and much of American culture. Happiness? Yes. Generosity? Good! Stewardship? Okay.

Yet bizarrely missing from these faithful conversations was frank talk about money. Money is rarely discussed in polite company, even though the topic is frequently addressed in Scripture and the mal-distribution of money underlies the daily tragedy of three billion people living in extreme poverty.  

Gary and Mako’s vision led them to develop a Bible study called Lazarus at the Gate. It is based on one of the New Testament’s most challenging teachings about wealth and poverty. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells the story of a rich man who held Lazarus, a poor man, in contempt and refused to share even the scraps of his table. Meanwhile, Lazarus lay, suffering, at the man’s gate. The rich man died and found himself in hell, apparently as punishment for his treatment of Lazarus. Speaking from heaven, the patriarch Abraham reminded the rich man that neither he nor his family could not blame their sin on ignorance. “They have Moses and the prophets” (Luke 16:29) whose teachings command the care and defense of those who are poor.

In 2007, the Lazarus at the Gate study became a foundational experience for the Boston Faith & Justice Network. The Network, in answering the Micah Challenge to cut global poverty in half, decided to help folks start Lazarus groups in churches around Greater Boston. That challenging story of Lazarus and the rich man caught on and as did the Bible study with his name, perhaps because it provided an opportunity to discuss the taboo subject of money in a supportive and frank setting. Since then, I and nearly 150 other people in a dozen churches in Greater Boston have participated in a small group on “economic discipleship” – that is, learning to follow Jesus with our money.

The practice of economic discipleship has four parts: give thanks, spend justly, spend less and give more. Each Lazarus at the Gate group starts with participants drawing up and sharing their household budgets. Group members discuss and pray over areas of particular challenge and joy related to money. (Yes – people share real numbers with each other about household income and spending!) Group members commit to particular, concrete lifestyle changes – eating out fewer times each month, walking rather than driving, avoiding impulse buys of new clothing or games or electronics. Each Lazarus at the Gate group ends with a collective gift – drawn from the participants’ commitments to spend less. Together, the groups have given away over $100,000 to fund health care in Haiti, midwives in West Africa, and HIV/AIDS relief in Asia.

For many of us, the honest look at our budget revealed a balance sheet that was unsustainable. Debt outweighed assets; costs exceeded income or left little cushion for times of emergency. Turns out that corporate America ran on similar budgets and we’re all experiencing the calamitous consequences.

In light of the new economic realities, Gary and Mako’s prophetic call to simplify  lifestyles in order to give more away feels a little different and even more urgent. Many of us will have no choice but to simplify and cut back.

As I reflect on my economic discipleship experience in the last year, I see practices that are even more meaningful for the months to come: telling the truth about money; moving from repentance of over-consumption to re-valuing what I have; building community as a core resource for economic discipleship; making the effort to keep giving – as a way to face our fears. 

Above all, what I found most important about economic discipleship is its foundational practice: gratitude. My “thanks-giving” commitment is to say a prayer each time I turn on a water faucet. That clean water is so readily there for me is an amazing gift. Its a luxury unavailable to a fifth of the people on earth. When I started to make a practice of giving thanks, I found it easier and easier to separate myself from the lure of consumption and to seek out a gratitude economy.

Living in a gratitude economy is, I think, profoundly different than riding a prosperity bubble or responding to the siren of guilt. It is a way of living that both appreciates and shares God’s abundance. So, join me, this week in spending justly, spending less and giving more – starting by giving thanks.