As I think about Habitat for Humanity and Church I find myself frustrated time and again by superficial pragmatic thinking. Now don't get me wrong, I am a practical activist type person, but my beef is that our practice must be motivated by basic values and principles and express these. What I find in many situations is that our practice drifts off the basic values we say we espouse by on the spot, superficial reactions to circumstances.
I am out of sorts with Habitat for Humanity. When I began there was a much more generous approach toward home owners, a much more relational attitude and a "warmth" about the "spirit" of the movement. Now I feel I cannot promote it as whole heartedly. Over the years, locally, nationally and internationally it has changed to "house projects" orientated and I am not sure the poor are treated with as much dignity. There are endless forms, and contracts and rules and manuals, all evolved out of responses to situations, but in the process I believe, they have lost touch with the loving principles which are meant to be at the heart of the operation. The late Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat, was reported to have said of the current trend, "It is now run by bean counters with no faith." That's my summing up. Somehow the "spirit" has got lost, and we have "projects" and "human resources", not people, home owners and workmates.
I know the same happens in church circles. If you run a church planning day the questions asked are, "What do people like?" or often, "What do I enjoy? Now is my chance to tell them what I want!" Very few ask the prior question, "What can we do in this community to express the heart, mind and movement of Jesus?" (I used to be very hot on Church planning days... now I consider them a waste of time) The church has over the centuries, by such superficial leadership drifted off from the directions and spirit of its founder. I see this in Church official boards. They will respond to things pragmatically and often with very "secular" thinking. They will not ask the deeper theological questions. They will rip into projects that give the illusion of "progress" but really are a superficial response to circumstances, and the deeper questions or principles are not applied. We have churches which try to please people, but are not asking or listening to what Jesus would want his people to be doing in the world today. Even if the right questions are being asked, few willing to jump out of traditional ruts and do church in a different way... its just not pragmatic, it's too costly.
It has happened in the Inter-church Trade and Industry Mission movement at various times. There has been a tendency to respond in pragmatic ways to the world about us, and in the process lose touch with the "Spiritual" - "love" base. It has happened with groups like the YMCA. A number of years ago I attended what was then the YMCA gym. Various weight lifters would bring boom boxes with music to help motivate them in their training. A pastor I knew, a very good weight lifter, brought his music along. They were christian worship songs. He was asked not to bring them because they might cause offence to others. (He did not have it as loud as others had theirs) This is in what was officially still called the Young Men's Christian Association.
It happens in Governments. Our current government is rewriting education policy. Lets spend our money on "reading, writing and maths". Other subjects are being neglected. But in my experience as an individual and as a parent, "reading writing and maths" were boring and irrelevant as stand alone subjects. It was when I was exploring interesting stuff like science and the issues of real world that I lived in that reading, writing and maths came alive. And there are deeper skills in life to master which need to be a part of learning. Another example is that Governments look at economic efficiency. They think "economics" and make pragmatic decisions on that basis, without really asking "What is this doing long term for the wholeness and well being of people?" It may look efficient, but is it wholesome? The struggles mental health patients have is a result of this superficial thinking.
One of the reasons we don't do it is time. We don't want to take the time to think deeply about things. We rush from one issue to the next with our eyes on the clock.
Steve Covey in his books (7 Habits and Principle Centred Leadership) makes the case for firmly establishing the values we base our life on. (Or the values we base our organisation on) Then making sure in our spending of time, resources and energy that we are in fact expressing those values in a consistent way. At the moment I am feeling that "the Church" and Habitat for Humanity are not doing that consistently.
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