When a Christian retires, what does he do? Work his garden? Perfect his golf game? Travel the world? Here’s another approach —
The Sojourners, a band of traveling workers for Christ, finished a two-week stay at Crowley’s Ridge College on Friday, where they helped lay more than a mile of optic cable, painted some dormitories, cut down dead pine trees and constructed concrete forms.
Homer Kennon of Doniphan, Mo., headed the work crew. He said the Sojourners is a national organization of the Churches of Christ and composed mostly of retired people. …
The organization provides teams all across the country to work on projects at children’s homes, small churches, Christian colleges and church camps. They are headquartered in Marshal, Texas. Kennon said a team comes here every year to help the Children’s Home prepare for its annual homecoming. He said there might be a thousand or more people attend the event, and Sojourners come to mow, clean up and get ready for the event.
What are your retirement plans?
I am going to think freely for a second, without necessary committing my beliefs to what I state.
Jay — how would you feel about the Sojourners if they decided to add to their list of services things like offering legal representation to Fortune 500 financial institutions? Especially ones that have offices in Alabama, namely the Tusculoosa area?
How do you guys feel whenever you drive down the highway and there are 20 inmates out mowing the grass? It seems great, right? ….I suppose it seems great unless you happen to own a lawncare company that bids on commercial/govt contracts!
I live about an hour from Joplin, MO. TONS of people go there to give of their time. …But what if they didn’t? Who would have to do/pay for the clean up? It would be the insurers, would it not? So aren’t the insurers the ones actually catching a break?
…And what if you owned a disaster clean-up company? Times are tough, you’ve already been laying people off, you’ve cut people’s pay…and then an event happens in your area (tornado/Joplin) that will allow you to re-hire and stay busy for a year! …Until all of the churches come in and start doing work for free, that the insurance companies would have paid for!!
Just thinking out loud. 🙂
Okay, I went and read the article. 🙂
The Sojourners help with (only the COC, nonetheless): “…work on projects at children’s homes, small churches, Christian colleges and church camps.”
There is no scriptural basis for any of these things, except I’d believe a principle’d basis for children’s homes. Helping a small church…evangelize? No, I’m certain it would be building maintenance. Again, a problem that is foreign to scripture.
It’s great that they like to work and all, but, for me, I’d want to stop short of calling this a “ministry.” Through my admittedly, capitalist) eyes, they are helping people that don’t really need helped, and they are helping in ways that don’t really further the cause of Christ.
Just my opinion!! 🙂
Now, if they wanted to evangelize and share Jesus (NOT share coc) — or spend time establishing relationships with people (esp. poor) — then I’d say they were ministering. But that stuff is way harder to do than installing cables and painting.
I would conclude with “I don’t want to sound cynical”, but I think that ship has sailed. 🙂
uh JMF could you provide a scriptural basis for a church building?
Brother afraid you are being cynical.
JMF,
I think you’ve missed the impact that these folks have. I think they are sharing Jesus and establishing relationships. Even if they didn’t set up VBSs, go door to door, hold gospel meetings, or organize seminars (which they do,) they are still doing the Lord’s work by helping others who are in need. I’m not sure how you’ve come to the conclusion that the folks they help don’t really need help.
A wheel chair ramp can be a tremendous blessing for a small congregation. The same can be said for hot water or a toilet that flushes.
Josh
JMF
We help those without insurance for free and quote prices and charge insurance companies for what we do that is covered in the policy.
Whether a hurt person is a member of the church of Christ or not is not asked nor do we care. Who knows it may just bring someone to Christ.
Some only help fellow members “in good standing”.
Its a very touchy subject..
God’s Retirement Plan, you nearly gave me another heart attack, I thought he was going to retire 🙂
Alabama John,
very nice to here,
a little Common Sense,
in a push me pull me world.
Lamond
that’s is funny
i was totally unprepared for that one.
Barry B:
I may have stated in a confusing way, but no, I realize there is no scriptural basis for buildings. Or colleges.
Burntribs:
Good for them if they evangelize. The article didn’t suggest that they did.
As far as helping those in need, wheelchair ramps, etc….
If a church can’t afford a wheelchair ramp, they need to either merge with another church or meet in houses. These kind people (Sojourners) could be working in Africa or actually ministering, yet they spend their time/money maintaining a building which fiscally responsible people would get rid of… but why should they, when a Sojourner will come maintain it for free?
Again, nobody has addressed the question: What about the guy that builds wheelchair ramps for a living?
Alabama John:
AJ said: “We help those without insurance for free and quote prices and charge insurance companies for what we do that is covered in the policy.”
END AJ
Fair enough, you are basically running a for-profit business then.
Here’s my point:
Help the poor: GOOD
Help the insured: GOOD during the actual crisis, beyond that and you are taking money out of somebody’s hand.
I’m just suggesting that this seem generous and all, unless you are the guy that builds wheelchair ramps for a living, and your mortgage is going to be late because the Sojourners came to town and did the work for free.
And no, I don’t buy that a church can’t afford that sort of thing. The members should either give more money, merge, or close up shop.
JMF,
It’s great that you understand the finances of the congregations being helped. As far as the ramp builder goes I figure his fate is the same as the food vendors in the towns that crowds would’ve bought food from when Jesus fed the multitudes.
Mt 14:15-16 Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”
Josh
JMF,
Following the tornado in Tuscaloosa, the attorneys in town organized a system to provide free legal advice to the poor, to help with tenant issues, insurance claims, and such. My firm participated, even though the free services were in competition with free market legal services. We thought it was the right thing to do.
I offer free services to my home congregation and have provided free advice to countless others (not that I never charge — I have to make a living). I donate my services, and I think that ought to be the practice when the service provider can afford the donation. Not everyone can. When I donate my time to my church, I free up money to be used for better things. My health doesn’t let me go on foreign missions, but I can free up a few dollars so others can.
In the Tuscaloosa clean up efforts, in the case of emergency help, no one took the time to ask who had insurance and who didn’t. But once we got past the immediate crisis, as a rule, services weren’t donated to the insured — not by private persons and not by the government.
I can’t speak for Joplin, but around here, nearly every family hit hard by the tornado was poor and most were renters. Very few renters carry insurance. Very few of the poor can afford to carry renters coverage.
Meanwhile, the contractors and subcontractors are doing very well. We had a workman at the house the other day — a friend of a friend — who offered to do the work at pre-tornado prices — $30/hr rather than $50/hr. The contractors, subs, and their crews are doing very well. They will do even better as more insurance claims are settled and as more rebuilds come on line.
In fact, they are doing so well that we have many contractors here from out of state. Some are honorable and some charge the elderly and poor 4x a fair price, not because they’re insured but because they’re trusting. Hence, the need for free legal services.
It’s been 10 weeks since the tornado, and very few roofs have been repaired, even by the very well insured who can pay whatever it costs. For anyone with skills and a contractor’s license, come to Tuscaloosa, buy a business license, and go to work. There’s plenty to be done and the work won’t be finished for years.
Private enterprise is not being harmed in the least by the volunteers. In fact, we don’t have enough contractors and subs to go around.
JMF,
I really have to disagree with you. Church camps tend to run on a shoestring budget. The only way many will ever be adequately funded is to have volunteer time invested. The alternative, I suppose, would be for them to charge higher prices — but many kids who attend Bible camp can’t afford the cost. My church subsidizes tuition for many kids who just can’t afford it as is. If the price were to go up, it would be that much tougher to make camp work. And I’m a church camp fan.
Now, the benefit of helping a small church rather depends on the small church. Few would complain about Americans going to a foreign land to help a poor congregation build or improve their building. The same principle applies. Of course, if it’s a hateful, bitter, tribal church teaching an awful form of Christianity, now, we shouldn’t help. But neither should we assume that small = bad. There are also small churches struggling to turn themselves around. In fact, some are poor precisely because they lost support due to having a more gracious, Christ-centered theology.
The economic argument is that if I donate my time to paint the church, that frees up money that can be used for more missional things. This is one reason so many of our members volunteer to do maintenance and such at our building — so our money can be used for more important things. People convert their lawn mowing talents into better things.
One final note. It is true that American generosity does sometimes hurt indigenous businesses at mission points. Sometimes giving free clothes puts the local clothing merchant out of business, or doing home repairs might hurt local craftsmen. It’s critically important that those doing “good works” precede their trips with thorough conversations with the local people to make sure we aren’t doing more harm than good. Sometimes it really is better to send money than volunteers, as the money will build the local economy and help the people become economically self-sufficient. Other times, they need the donations and the people. You just have to ask and not assume.
Laymond,
God has not retired. And contrary to popular rumor, neither has the Holy Spirit.
JMF,
I think I want to amend my answer a bit. We live in tough economic times. Sometimes the best thing a church can do is give someone a job — even if it’s just to build a wheelchair ramp. It’s not an absolute rule, because sometimes the church can’t afford the ramp, and so wouldn’t have one but for the kindness of volunteers. But sometimes the church would do better to hire someone who needs the work — if it has the resources to do so.
Just so, in tough times, rather than having members volunteer to cut grass, it make be a good work — a better work — to let someone who needs the money cut the grass for pay — even if that costs the teens a trip to the beach. Allowing people who need the work to support their families to earn their pay with hard work is a good work in and of itself.
That doesn’t mean the lawnmowing teams gets off work. They might instead cut the lawn of the elderly poor who wouldn’t otherwise have their grass cut at all. Or maybe they can find other work that doesn’t cost someone else his job.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that therefore all volunteer work is a mistake. It’s not. It’s just that I agree that we should be sensitive to the needs around us, and far better to help someone by giving him a real job than a hand out.
It’s the sort of choice that church leaders have to make all the time in establishing their budgets. It’s not easy. I’m just saying that an element to be weighed into the budgeting process is the very real need to provide work to those who need it.
JMF,
My family is in the construction business as General Contractors or Prime Contractor if you consider Federal contractings designation.
Any of us can only give away but so much as we must make a living and pay subcontractors, insurance, lawyers, bonding agents, etc and a little to ourselves.
The more you can do work and get paid, the more you can give away to those in need.
Too many do not understand that and are working for free on projects or for people that are fully insured while those uninsured are mostly not getting volunteer help from anyone.
As a fairly new school teacher I have been going crazy in the summers not having anything to do until I got a part time job recently. I couldn’t imagine having that worthless feeling from the time you retire until death if you’ve chosen to shut it all down because you are no longer working. There’s a reason why God put that desire to work in us.
Sorry guys – but aren’t we dismissing the challenge of the original question for “interesting” navel-gazing?
The question is how are we, as members of God’s kingdom, to use our accumulated wealth and time once we are freed from our daily responsibilities to work?
Whether the group in Jay’s example is good or not, the idea is that they are filling their time by working for God’s kingdom (even if misdirected), and are spending their savings to do so.
It is so easy to miss the challenge of the question to focus on doctrine – and that is escapism at best, sin at worst.
Said differently, which is worse – to spend retirement golfing, fishing, and visiting family, or to spend retirement building God’s kingdom, even if misdirected?
I would argue for the second – misdirection can be corrected through gentleness, love, and right example. Selfishness, however, is a much tougher sin to overcome.
Sorry – misstated – the first is worse – golfing, fishing, and visiting family. That is the most selfish thing we could possibly do in retirement
In (semi) retirement, I tutor college students. And I ask those who are administering tutoring programs to keep paying the grad students because they do need the money.