American go home... but leave your money behind

We have all probably read the articles and books written about rejection of the American. Any of us who have lived overseas for any length of time have certainly seen this sentiment. This isn't a post about foreign policy or sociocultural domination. No, this post arises out of a conversation that my wife recently had with a believer on our trip back home. As she was visiting with a dear friend, our friend M commented that she wished that US volunteers would stay away.

There is another local church that has been utilizing hundreds of volunteers each year to "build" the Kingdom. They have built an incredible compound and are currently building a church building that will hold several hundred people, when the membership is only a couple dozen. M is one of the members of this church and she commented that while they are well meaning volunteers, they are causing problems within their small church. The amount of foreign "investment" that has flowed into this little congregation is probably now well over a hundred thousand dollars.

She said that when the volunteers are present, hundreds of people will come to the activities to receive the free stuff that is brought but that when the volunteers leave, so do the people. She said that she is frustrated that their church has not made any decisions but that everything is decided for them.

I wish that I could say that M was the first person I have heard make a comment like this. Often I will hear, American stay home, just send us the money. In M's case, it was more just let us do what we need to do. We can do it without the money and without the "volunteers". It isn't always expressed vocally, sometimes it is said with actions instead of words.

When are we going to learn that God is the ultimate owner of everything.

God has placed resources in the harvest. Why is our temptation so often to look somewhere other than the harvest for resources?

When we introduce outside resources to the equation, most certainly we introduce control. We introduce our influence, for better or for worse. Most of the time, outside resources send the message to the unbelieving world that the main reason most of those "Christians" are part of the church is because they are getting dollars for being there. Too often, the testimony of the church is not one of dependency upon God but instead, dependency upon the American.