community ethics

Over the last few weeks and months I, like many, have wondered about our nation and worlds economic position.

I have wondered what the effects of the loss of jobs will have on my family and friends. I've wondered how low income families, as costs go up, will be able to make ends meet.

Along with all of this, I have wondered about the general church and its practice of supporting the ministerial clergy. As one, I have wondered how the current economic situation will impact my own life. As church congregants continue to feel the pinch, I wonder how will this effect their giving to their local church, and as such, impact the personal support of their staff.

For generations we have had vocational & bi-vocational pastors; the bi-vocational pastors are men and women who lead congregations while also maintaining "secular" jobs - to pay the bills.

To some degree I consider what I'm doing now - with the coffee house and church ministry - kind of a bi-vocational thing. Although, it's not completely bi-vocational, since the coffee house is in direct connection to the church. Yet there is a since of bi-vocation as the coffee house can end up being a full-time job.

So as the rise of unemployment continues upward, the cost of living, and what not continues to spiral downward, I can't help but wonder how this will impact me, my friends, and the church.

If push came to shove, I am confident I could go outside the church to pay the bills. But as I look at this possible option, I'm not certain this is the principle of God's upside down kingdom our faith community is or should be striving for. There is something beautiful (even biblical) about a group of people coming around and supporting their clergy (see 1 Cor. 9).

As I look at this historical practice, I can't help but wonder if consciously or subconsciously we have set this as a way of modeling the kingdom; our community ethic - relying on the support of one another.

Perhaps this ancient practice has practical implications as we strive to living out the upside down kingdom - the anti empirical kingdom of God. Perhaps this practice of supporting the clergy was established to place & encourage the spiritual leaders to model what it means to live in community. I can't help but wonder if Jesus, with his reliance upon others, wasn't speaking to us a new ethic of living in community - where we look not only to the needs of our self, but also to the needs of the other, where we take care of one another... in regards to all of our spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical needs.

Perhaps as we look at our country/world economic position, we need to re-look at our own community ethic. In this time, as many are in need, God's upside down kingdom just might be calling us to love in new ways. God's upside down kingdom might be asking us to come around one another - in a truly supportive fashion - to display God's upside down kingdom to one another and the world.

God's upside down kingdom, is just that, upside down to the world, and this might be our chance to once again step into it!