Finished Will and Lisa Samson’s OUTSTANDING book, Justice in the Burbs: Being the Hands of Jesus Wherever You Live (emersion: Emergent Village resources for communities of faith). Absolutely one of the best books I have read in a while. Maybe it was because I live in the heart of the Burbs. Maybe it is because I am the 53,205,017 richest person in the world! (placing me in the TOP 0.88% richest people in the world!). Maybe it is because the more removed I get from typical church congregational life the more I see the absurdity of the economics of church.1 No doubt is a combination of several of these things and many more that I am not even consciously aware of. But whatever it is, this book hit me in very formative ways at a great time in my own journey.
Great book. Go buy a copy. And while your at it, go see how rich you are buy clicking the picture below:
| I’m the 53,205,017 richest person on earth! |
- From page 151-152 of Justice in the Burbs: “In 2000, American Christians gave nearly $269 billion to charitable causes. While this data seems impressive, it begins to pale when compared with other data. For example, of the previous figure, only $7.8 billion, or about 2.9 percent, actually went outside the walls of the church. Then compare that amount to the income of American Christians. In 2000, American Christians earned $5.2 trillion. Put these two figures together, and you begin to realize that American Christians give less than two-tenths of one percent to support causes outside the church.” –data from “Key Statistic on Generous Giving,” Generous Giving, www.generousgiving.org/page.asp?sec=4&page=311 [back]
