Obstacles to Following Jesus

This Sunday, during our worship gathering at Riverside, we will talk about seven obstacles to following Jesus. I want to share two of the biggies with you here in this article.

First, we get distracted.

A couple Thursdays ago, in Colonie, New York, a father drove to his job, parked his car, and went in to work. But he forgot something important. His one-year old child was strapped into a car seat in the back and was supposed to be dropped off at the daycare. Temperatures did not rise above fifteen degrees.

At four, the father got a call from his wife asking him about their child after she discovered that the boy wasn't at the daycare where she was supposed to pick him up. In a panic, the father ran out to the car.

And found their baby - bundled up and doing fine.

Police Lieutenant Winn said, "Other than having a soiled diaper and the normal stresses of being in a car, the child in all aspects appeared okay."

The news story said that the guy had been under a lot of stress at work and had just recently had a death in his family. Something obviously distracted him. Not all distractions end so well.

We get distracted from following Jesus an awful lot. It can be a semi-good thing like a thought about God or a true teaching of Scripture. It could also be something destructive. Whatever it is, getting hung up on something other than following Jesus can have dire consequences. One moment of sin, whether sexual sin, letting the wrong thing slip from your mouth, or some other sort of sin, can destroy years of building and investing into who you feel called to be.

It always amazes me how long it takes to build a sand castle, yet how quickly it can be destroyed. The same is true with our life. Sin is the ultimate destroyer of our lives. It can destroy families and friendships. It can cripple dreams. Things you have spent years creating, sin can destroy in a moment. That's the danger of sin. And even if it doesn't have dire, visible earthly consequences, it typically disables us spiritually. Once we sin, we can't take it back. And that moment of error can create a major obstacle to following Jesus.

So let us not get distracted. Let us stay focused on following Jesus.

The second obstacle that I want to talk about here today is how we like to pick and choose what we want when it comes to following Jesus.

Tony Campolo shared the story about how he was having dinner in a restaurant in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He was seated comfortably at a table next to the front window, ready to begin enjoying his meal, when he realized that he was being watched. With their noses pressed flat against the glass, three raggedy, dirty Haitian boys stared at the food on his plate. Their hair was rust-colored because of a lack of protein, and they had the distended stomachs that give evidence of extreme malnutrition. Their eyes, riveted on his food, were disturbing.

The waiter, recognizing how upset the situation was making Tony, moved quickly to pull down the window shade. "Don't let them bother you! Enjoy your meal!" he said. The blind was down, and, for all intents and purposes, the starving children were gone.

Following Jesus means that we don't pull the blind down on helping the poor around us. Others get excited about helping the poor while ignoring God's call to right living. We have this tendency to pick and choose which part of following Jesus we want. Helping the poor. Right living. Not doing this. Not doing that. Making sure that we do that one thing. We pull the blind down on the parts of following Jesus that we aren't comfortable with while making the part we enjoy an essential that we use to evaluate the spiritual lives of others.

Following Jesus is a journey. I'm not perfect now and will never be on this side of the grave. I will discover something this year, maybe even today, that I need to be doing. I will also discover something I need to stop. But we can never use the idea that we aren't perfect as an excuse to not strive to be better followers of Jesus. When we see an area that we need to change, we change. We're followers, meaning that we are on a journey. We haven't yet arrived at our destination.

We can tell that we are following Jesus when we are following him in areas we aren't completely comfortable in. I know that because I follow Jesus there are a few stances that I take that I would rather not take. I do things at times that I would rather not do because I want to be a faithful follower. And I have stopped doing things I enjoy for the same reason. Instead of making God into our image, we need to allow Him to shape us in His image.

We can't pick and choose what we want to do when we are called to follow Jesus. Either we are following Him or we are following ourselves.

These are two common obstacles that we face in following Jesus. May we not let them get in the way of the life God wants us to live.

Tony Campolo, Disney, and Three Child Prostitutes

 

Some of the young people I work with and have recruited for ministry are working right now in Haiti. They've been there for many years. I went down and visited them. They dropped me off at the Holiday Inn right there in the middle of Port-au-Prince. I was walking across the pavement to the entrance when I was intercepted by three girls. I call them girls because the oldest one was seventeen.

The one in the middle said, "Mister, for ten dollars you can have me all night long."

I was stunned.

I looked at the girl next to her and said, "I'm an old guy. Would you sleep with me all night long for ten dollars?" She said, "Yes."I looked at the third one. She tried to conceal her contempt with a smile. But it's hard to look sexy when you're seventeen and you're hungry. Your mother and father are dead. And you got a brother and a sister to feed. And there's nothing you have that can earn money except your body.

I said, "You're in luck. I've got thirty dollars. I'm in room 210. You be up there in a half hour. Not before."

I rushed up to the room. I called down to the concierge desk and said, "I want every Walt Disney video that you got in stock. How many you got?" He said, "Eight." "All eight of them."

I called down to the restaurant. "I want banana splits. I will pay you extra, but I want extra ice cream, whipped cream, cherries, nuts, syrup - I want four of them."

Then the girls came. The videos came. And the banana splits came. We sat on the edge of the bed and watched Disney til about one o'clock in the morning. That's when the last of them fell asleep across the bed. 

As I sat there in that stuffed chair, looking at their little bodies strewn across the bed. I thought to myself, "Nothing's changed. Nothing's changed. Tomorrow they will be back on the street selling themselves to dirty, filthy men. And there will always be men like that who for ten dollars will destroy a girl. Nothing's changed. Nothing's changed."

And then something welled up inside of me. I don't know if it was the voice of God or what, but I just felt these words come to me.

"But For one night, Tony. For one night you gave them back their childhood. For one night you let them be kids again. For one night you let them be children once more. You didn't solve the problems of their lives. But you did what you could. You did what you could." 

That's all Jesus wants of you. To make a commitment today. A commitment to do what you could.

We talk about your hope. I want to know this. I want to know Christ's hope for you. Jesus does have hope for you. He looks at you, and he has hopes. He has expectations. He has plans for you. And He's hoping you will become the kind of person he wants you to be. And the question here this morning is are you willing to say, "I give in to you. I want to actualize your hopes for me. I want to become the person you hope I will become. I will do the good you are calling me to do." 

Excerpted from Tony Campolo's message at Christ United Methodist in Jackson, MS on February 26, 2012.

Tony Campolo - Birthday Party for Agnes

Here is video from my favorite Tony Campolo illustration. When I met him, he told me that this story is real.

I am always broken and inspired when I hear this story. It's a great broken. It's like that moment where you glimpse that life is much more than we are currently experiencing.

When I ponder what is grace, this story reminds me of what it looks like today.

The story in written format can be found here.

Ice Cream Grace

In Tony Campolo’s recent book, Stories That Feed Your Soul, he shared a story about when he was asked to present to a university class “how Christianity could be a movement that would foster positive and radical social change.” 

Campolo passionately told the students how Christianity could solve the world’s problems. The students were enthralled. They wanted that world that following Jesus could bring. But then the professor, who had invited Tony, interrupted him and shouted, “Tony! Tony! Be sure to tell them the cost! Tell them what it will cost them if they become the kind of Christians that Jesus expects them to be. Explain to them the sacrifices that they will have to make if they are to be true followers of Jesus.” In explaining the cost, Campolo lost the crowd. They wanted all of the benefits, but none of the cost.

So what is the cost to follow Jesus?

We have a tendency to confuse undeserved forgiveness with free forgiveness. We must realize that none of us can ever do enough good works to deserve forgiveness for any of the wrongs we have done, are doing, and will do in the future. None us can abstain from enough sins to cover up any of the times we have missed, are missing, and will continue to miss opportunities to love the people around us. Since we cannot pay the price, we do not deserve forgiveness. That is why it is a gift. But being a gift does not mean that it is given without cost.

I have fantasized about telling my kids that the ice cream truck was the boogey man truck. This way they would hide and cower behind the bushes, terrified of the music and the truck rather than ask me to buy them ice cream at the truck’s siren call. But I digress.

The other day, we were sitting outside at the lake with my aunt and uncle. The hypnotic music of the ice cream truck could be heard coming closer and closer. My aunt, upon hearing the noise, wanted to buy my kids ice cream, so she did. My kids were happy. My aunt was happy. Everyone was happy. And my kids became messy enjoying their ice cream. We wrongly visualize an image similar to this, where God is like my aunt and we are like my children, when we attempt to understand receiving God’s grace. God wants to give us grace, but there is a cost. It isn’t just us running happily to an ice cream truck.

Jesus taught, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” [Matthew 16:24-26 (ESV].

This is death imagery. It would be like Jesus saying, “Deny yourself, climb into your electric chair, and follow me.” The cross was a disgraceful, humiliating execution device.

The cost to follow Jesus is everything. It’s not going through a confirmation class. It’s not raising a hand in response to a commitment call. It’s not going to the altar. It’s not being baptized. It’s not saying a specific prayer. It’s not most of the things we confuse it with. The cost to follow Jesus is everything. It’s not attending Sunday morning gatherings, taking the Lord’s Supper, giving in the offering plate, or some other religious ritual. It’s everything.

It’s the giving of your whole life, everything from your time at work to your time in the neighborhood. From your time with family to your time entertaining yourself. God’s grace, given to us through Jesus’ death on the cross, is not a cheap grace, it’s an undeserved grace. It’s an expensive grace, freely given.

When young people are asked what they think of Christians, the first thought that comes to mind is that Christians are judgmental. Something is drastically wrong when followers of Jesus are known for a trait that was not modeled in the One they claim to follow. Christians suffer an image problem in our culture.  This is an inevitable result of watering down Christianity from a teaching of costly grace to one of free benefits. When our churches are filled with people who want the benefits of following Jesus without the cost of following Jesus, we will exhibit a Jesus who is selfish rather than serving.

There are great benefits to being a Christian, both on a personal and on a societal level. However, these benefits cannot be received until we give ourselves completely to Jesus. We must stop living for ourselves and start living for others. In doing so, we will find the grace that God provides through Jesus. The benefits we receive might not look like the benefits we wanted when we were living selfishly, but they will be the benefits we and the people around us need. May we find the strength to climb into our electric chair and follow Jesus.

On Frank Viola, Church Structure, and the Thought That Our Way of Doing/Being Church is the Best Way

A friend of mine posted a comment about Frank Vola.

I made the comment:

I still think Viola uses Scripture to argue for a church model that is not clearly defined in Scripture. Without it being clearly defined, we have the liberty to be different.

I once did church thinking I was being church better than everyone else because the structure was "more biblical." I don't want to go there again. Maybe it's my fault, but Viola's teachings (and those of other house church/organic church leaders) lead to that prideful thinking. When I look back, at least from my faulty perspective, God has impacted people through His ministry through me more in a "corporate" setting than in a conversational, mutual ministry setting.
 
And when it comes down to it, structure doesn't matter. Fruit, especially love, is what it is all about. And Viola always leads people to argue about inessentials.

My friend and his wife - another friend - both then shared replies explaining things.  I do not feel comfortable sharing their replies here.  But I will share my reply back to them.

I appreciate the beauty of your journey and the inspiration Viola has been to you, yet I find his teachings dangerous - not in that good, radical follow Jesus way, but in that divisive, church is better the way I do/be it way. Now, I do think that we all should be doing/being church the way that we feel best. If not, we need to change.  But we don't have to come across that our way is the only way.

I did read the article, 10 Straw-Man Myths About “Pagan Christianity” & “Reimagining Church." Twice. To see if I missed him addressing my main thought about him. And I don't think he did address my complaint.  Maybe he did in a roundabout way but not in a way that satisfied me. Why is church structure an essential? 

We could all be going to churches that are structured correctly. Whatever that means. And that would not matter. The problem with church is not the structure; it's the lives of the people outside of the structure.  I agree that some structures are more conducive to inspiring people, but that structure changes culturally.  For me to be dogmatic about the way I connect with God and expect that to be the structure would cause the church to stagnate once the culture I am ingrained in has passed society by.  This has been one of the greatest problems facing the church.

There are people called to church leadership. There are leadership positions clearly established in Scripture. Everyone wanting to be church leaders or theologians makes an unhealthy church. Not being a leader does not make anyone less important. It actually makes everyone the part of the body they should be. What makes a healthy, vibrant church is everyone living out the faith in their homes, their communities, and their workplaces. We might disagree, but I think mutual leadership is more of an appeal to the Thoreauish individualism of America than to the early church.

I used to be overly cynical about the traditional, sanctuary church and its leaders. But now serving as a pastor, I know I don't want people to just show up, eat up, and leave on Sundays. But I also don't believe in open leadership. I want people to come, be involved in one another's lives, encourage one another, and go out and live the faith in a radical way that makes them shine the light of Jesus in our culture. Open leadership really is irrelevant to that happening.

There is a reason you find people to minister to who are burnt out from institutional church.  That's because we serve a great God who knows who to send people to to minister to them, and you and Eric are great ministers.  But the danger we face in ministering to people who have been turned off from the same things that we have been turned off from is that cynicism can flourish.

I think it is fine and great to do church differently. I am happy Viola invigorates you and others. But I would hope that there would be enough grace to not tear down different expressions of the faith. Just like you don't like the traditional, sanctuary church acting like they are the only game in town, I think nobody should act like they are the only game in town. The kingdom is big and expansive, and once we get dogmatic on structure we lose some of our witness.

I am not so kind to say that I am not trying to convince you. I would love to convince you, Eric, and the whole world that the church can be a megachurch with 50,000 people and it can be a group of three worshiping in a clearing in the woods. It can have top-down leadership; it can have mutual leadership. It can have worship leaders with a planned, rehearsed, and flawless presentation; it can have a lady who brings out her guitar and sings spontaneously. I have seen empty, passionless Christians in churches of all varieties, from organic churches to megachurches. I don't think the structure is the issue.  Total surrender to Jesus is.

As a minister - as every minister I know has been - I am inflicted with tremendous pain by the body of Christ at times.  I understand hurt.  Maybe yours has been more extreme.  But I also see tremendous beauty.  It's amazing.  As Tony Campolo said, "The church is a whore but she's my mother."

I view Facebook as a place of conversation, more of like saying something publicly so that other people respond with their thoughts. If that is not what Eric and you want with it, let me know. Because I still want to be your friends on here, but I don't mean to upset you.  I post on Facebook to hear what others think of what I think or am experiencing. I just assumed others do too.  After Eric's last refusal to comment, I did quit commenting on his posts for a while. But what sort of friendship is it that does not talk about different ideas and disagree at times? Personally, I am not just engaging in mental sparring. Although you are probably not intending this, stating that is my motive is a way to dismiss my thoughts and not consider them. If there was any evil in my comment it was to arrogantly hope that Eric would consider what I wrote initially: "When it comes down to it, structure doesn't matter. Fruit, especially love, is what it is all about. And Viola always leads people to argue about inessentials."

To sum up, I don't think the problem is institutional versus organic versus house or versus some other kind of church.  The problem is bad church versus the kingdom.  The kingdom can manifests in all sorts of believers, no matter how many they are or how they are structured.

Committed to God more than to Ourselves

The author or Total Church shares a story of an incident at his church.

“Matt rang to ask what he should do.  His friend George has asked him to go street preaching.  Matt wasn’t interested but didn’t know how to respond.  So the three of us got together.  As the conversation began, it was clear that George thought we were selling out in some way.  But as we talked about sharing our lives with unbelievers, about evangelism that was 24/7, about opening our homes, George’s tone changed.  At the end of our conversation he admitted, “I’m not sure if I’m up for that kind of commitment.”

We would like an easy out.  Our fallen nature would like to be right with God by going to church every time the doors open, evangelize one night a week, and have the rest of our lives to ourselves.  But this just is not being a Christian.  There are reasons that we come to church and gather together – I think it is extremely important, but I think the most important places to worship God is at our workplaces and in our homes.  Our faith, if it stays in this building, is no faith at all.  And our faith, if it remains only words, is a mockery of the life Jesus intends for us to live. 

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.   James 1:22-27 (ESV)

There is a danger in talking about loving people in that we can talk about it so much that we deceive our hearts and believe that we are doing it.  God is not impressed with us if we just sit around and talk about loving others.  He enjoys us when we actually go out and do something.  It can be small like giving our neighbors a present, it can be significant like giving someone a car, it’s helping out and meeting people’s need however we can.

If we have money as Paul taught in Ephesians 4 when talking about the new self and old self, then we are to use that money - not to fulfill our own dreams of having our dream home, nicer cars, or something for ourselves - to help those in need.  Most churches do not have the resources to significantly help people because we are like the Israelites at the time of Haggai the prophet (Haggai 1).  We spend all of our resources on our homes and our own desires while the work of the church struggles on.  So we, as a church find small things to help people in, but we could do so much more if we were all committed financially to ministering through the church, committed more than we are to our homes, to our cars, our entertainment, or other indulgences of this world.  Are we living our live for things that will last or for things that will pass away?

The church is a great tool to help us be who God intends for us to be.  But if we just talk church, go to classes, listen to sermons, yet do not let Jesus’ life of love shine out from us, then we are guilty of a grave sin.  Pure and undefiled religion is to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.  We see the pendulum swinging here, a struggle within the faith.  Some like to abstain from sin and think that makes them right with God.  Others like to do loving deeds and think that makes them right with God.  The truth is that it is a combination of the two that is pure and undefiled religion.

In the documentary, Lord Save us From Your Followers, Tony Campolo shares the following illustration:

When I was in high school there was this boy name Roger.  He was outed - a gay kid and his homosexual orientation became known.  West Philadelphia High was a huge and tough inner-city school.  You can imagine what we did fifty years ago when ignorance prevailed on this issue.  We humiliated this kid at every turn.

On Fridays, after phys-ed, when all of the other kids would go into the shower Roger wouldn’t go in with us; he was afraid to.  When he took his turn we waited for him with our wet towels, and when he would come out, we would whip him and sting his little body.

I wasn’t there the day that they took Roger and dragged him into that shower room

and shoved him into the corner.  While he yelled and screamed for mercy, five guys urinated all over him.  I wasn’t there when that happened.

He went home.  He went to bed at about ten o’clock.  They say it was about two o’clock in the morning when Roger went down into the basement of his house and he hung himself.  I knew I wasn’t a Christian because if I was a Christian, I would have been Roger’s friend.  You don’t have to legitimate somebody’s lifestyle in order to love that person, to be brother or sister to that person, and to stand up for that person.

A true faith, one that isn’t just about me being sinless and me getting to heaven, lives itself out through meeting other people’s needs.  It is about befriending the friendless, giving to those who are not able to give back, and loving those around us any opportunity that we get.

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 

But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.  James 2:18-26 (ESV).

Loving Those the Christian Pharisees Hate - Being Jesus in Our World - Tony Campolo and His Gay Classmate Roger

Tony Campolo shares the following story about a gay classmate in the documentary Lord, Save Us From Your Followers.

When I was in high school there was this boy name Roger.  He was outed - a gay kid and his homosexual orientation became known.  West Philadelphia High was a huge and tough inner-city school.  You can imagine what we did fifty years ago when ignorance prevailed on this issue.  We humiliated this kid at every turn.

On Fridays, after phys-ed, when all of the other kids would go into the shower Roger wouldn’t go in with us; he was afraid to.  When he took his turn we waited for him with our wet towels, and when he would come out, we would whip him and sting his little body.

I wasn’t there the day that they took Roger and dragged him into that shower room and shoved him into the corner.  While he yelled and screamed for mercy, five guys urinated all over him.  I wasn’t there when that happened.

He went home.  He went to bed at about ten o’clock.  They say it was about two o’clock in the morning when Roger went down into the basement of his house and he hung himself.  I knew I wasn’t a Christian because if I was a Christian, I would have been Roger’s friend.  You don’t have to legitimate somebody’s lifestyle in order to love that person, to be brother or sister to that person, and to stand up for that person.

You Are An Onion - Tony Campolo on us being onions

I had the privilege of hearing Tony Campolo speak at the opening of a youth center in Coldwater, MI.  He told us we were onions.

***

Tony Campolo tells the story of a college sophomore who entered his office and plopped down in the chair.

He said, "Doc, I've decided to drop out of college."

Campolo, knowing the answer already because he had heard it spring after spring, humored the boy as if he would hear something new and asked, "What’s going on?"

A glassy veil dropped over the student's eyes as he looked longingly out the window of the office as he said,  “I’m going to find myself.  Everyone expects me to be someone I am not.  Friends, college, family, church, society.  They each have expectations of me and definitions of who I need to be.  I need to just get away from it all and find out who I am.  I need to find the real me.”
              
Campolo just shook his head and asked, "What if, after you peel away all these socially prescribed layers; after you pull away all the layers created by the church and your family and your friends, you discover that you are an onion?"

The young man was stunned.  “An onion?”

Then Campolo continued, "Now that may sound crazy, but what do you get if you peel away all the layers of an onion?  Nothing.  The onion is only the sum total of its layers – there is no center.  Many people will spend their whole life trying to peel away all the layers of their identity only to discover in the end that there is no “real me.”

Our identity - who we are - is not something we find; rather it is something that is created.  It is not something within us; it is something created from
the outside.  Who we are is determined by what we are committed to, who we decide to be – it is determined by what our commitments are.

Many people commit themselves to good things.  But if the good things they commit to are limited to this life, then they are ultimately futile.  When you commit yourself to God and his service, you are working for things that will make an eternal difference.

You are nothing more than the commitments you make.  You are an onion.

Responses to Campolo's Article on "Making Matters Worse in Haiti"

The comments in response to the post on Tony Campolo's article Making Matters Worse in Haiti were great.  You readers are a smart bunch.  So I thought that I would give them a better spotlight rather than just have them hidden in the comments.

From Tim Smith:

Well a couple things cross my mind. He makes some good points on the effectiveness of the money. And if it were a trip to build something a year ago he would have a point in regards to Haiti.

In the case of a natural disaster, including in our very own country, even if every person in the affected area were involved there is still more work to be done than can be in a reasonable amount of time.

I also strongly believe if you are going on a trip just to build something and head back, the point of the mission is lost. It is supposed to be a gesture of love and a chance to share the gospel, even if only in action do to language barriers.

If what Tony says is spot on, Haiti would not have been in the spot they were before the quake. There is a flip side to the sending just money. Many people are willing to stroke a check and forget about it, but giving your time takes a deeper commitment. Should we go build something while they watch? No, we should be working with them to build something and to teach them things they can use to grow as a nation and spiritually.

I think his tie to welfare is counter productive. In fact I think his conclusion is closer to what we have done with welfare than the point he argues against. If we just send money it is sending the welfare check to the lady cashing it and buy smokes or worse, we have all seen it. Where as if we love them, and show them and give them ideas to better themselves all while sharing the message of Jesus Christ, then we might truly improve their lives far beyond the life of the building we used to make the point.

Bottom line if we were going somewhere to build a building that wasn't just ravaged by a natural disaster I would say we at least need to think of a different reason to go. But if Louisiana needed outside effort to recover from natural disaster, you can be assured Haiti needs physical help, not just money. Thats where I think Tony misses the point, his article is spot on . . . the day before the earthquake.

From Shannon Caroland:

I don't buy much of this argument at all. I've heard in many forms hundreds of times.

But incarnation is a better strategy than check sending almost every time.

Being there has meaning. Connections are built that brochures and slideshows can never accomplish. (You should ask someone like Craig Gates why he surrenders so much of his time to "babysitting" unskilled American teens. Believe me, he has thought that through).

Construction is kind of a lazy answer as to how to best help. That literacy thing sounds really neat.

But these trips should not be seen as an end in themselves. They are means to an end. The end is a bigger sense of the Kingdom in the mind and heart, so that this new perspective bares fruit.

Here's a better solution: When my brother-in-law takes college students to the Philippines, he has each student commit to be a financial partner to that ministry. They pledge $50 a month for life. Now this connection is baring fruit

Now the money coming in to the mission is from a friend they have met. (Wouldn't money from unknown U.S. churches have the same welfare-like effect Campolo fears these trips have?)

From Greg Wack (the Wackerino):

Thanks for the good blog, Regan. Tony Campolo really hits the nail every time. When I think back to when I went to Haiti. Our group of about 12 adults finished building a church while the parishioners watched in poverty. We couldn't even share food because it would instigate a food riot. If we had sent all the money that was spent on our trip to a group that would hire Haitians to do the work, we would have done so much more for them. As it was several Haitian women walked at least a mile, several times a day, with large buckets full of water on their heads so that we had water for the cement we made. They worked every bit as hard as we did, didn't get paid a cent, and were probably a hundred times more grateful for what we did than we could fathom. Thanks for putting good stuff out here for us to think about.