Leading the Group

Tonight's small group (with the Presbyterian church) was on part 3 in A Hole in Our Gospel, by Richard Sterns (the US president of World Vision). I had signed up to lead since people were reluctant too. I felt the same way... I went through most of the winter study without doing anything... I had joined after the assignments were filled in. But this time, the sign-up sheet was right in front of me with a glaring blank space for tonight.

I had read most of the section on my honeymoon... reading about the history and mechanics of extreme poverty while going 500 mph at 40,000 feet, and spending a descent amount of money on my happiness.

I really liked his opening stuff about the 75% disparity between the rich and the poor in the world. But then he made some sweeping statements about history, and started spouting in flowery language about obvious things... like we don't care about suffering unless it's personal somehow. And a recurring theme was a prayer by the founder to be able to experience sorrow for the poor like God does. I have heard this before and I don't quite buy it. I think it's kind of arrogant to talk that way; sorrow like that would crush me. He did re-word it well though: be soft-hearted and open to God's work.

So I spent a couple hours in the wee small hours of the morning writing down things like this and main points to talk about. The study questions in the back were completely worthless, so I was mostly winging it. The topic is something I've pondered quite a bit... and is rather important to me: how much are we supposed to help people far away who are very poor? How much should we leave to the politicians to bring about change in the third-world countries? How much of our God-given excess should be shared with those who have less?

I liked how he referenced lots of scriptures about how much God cares about the poor. Like Ezekiel 16:49... Sodom's primary sin was one of excess and uncaring for the poor and needy. And I liked how he described those people's conditions and outlined what it means to be poor and what keeps people in that situation.

A struggle for me is the people here on the streets... they are right here... but they have different options than the very poor in other countries. If they'd only try to work, they'd do better. One big point he made is that in many countries, it doesn't matter how hard you work; there is no way to make it better. So what does that mean for what I do with my money? I don't know.

The best part was how he talked about giving a hand-up instead of a handout. Giving small business loans, or things that will help them take care of themselves... like a clean water source.

Okay, you get the point. We talked for a little over an hour, and thankfully, many had opinions. I'd ask a question or bring up a point in the book to keep it flowing. They say I did a good job, but all I felt were butterflies in my stomach nearly the whole time.