Ken Turner comments on the current financial crisis

Ken Turner

Recently while sitting in a meeting of leaders, we received an SMS from our daughter. Two streets behind her house a mountain was on fire and the fire was descending rapidly towards the houses. All residents living nearby had been evacuated, although fire fighters were on the scene, they were unable to cope with the blaze.

We interrupted the meeting to share this news and ask for prayer. We prayed and asked for God to intervene so that there would be no loss of life or damage to property. Thirty minutes later the meeting broke for lunch and we phoned our daughter for the latest news on the fire situation. With excitement she exclaimed "it's a miracle, the wind changed about 20 minutes ago and the fire was driven back up the mountain, all the people and houses are safe".

I'm sure that many people were praying, so we were all blessed by God's response. My reason for relating the story, however, goes beyond God answering our prayers. Many times in scripture and subsequent history, there have been events that God has used to arrest the attention of people. He has done this through a plague, a flood, an earthquake, a strong wind, an SMS about a fire, or an international financial crisis. His purpose is to get the attention of people so that He can impart wisdom, correction or discipline.

The world wide economic crisis is continuing to bite ever deeper. Many are experiencing hardship through retrenchment or working short time, while others have lost a great deal of money on the stock exchange. Many people have been left with mortgages to pay on houses that have dropped considerably below their mortgage value. In some parts of the world people face starvation.

This is a time on a worldwide scale, when God is arresting our attention as He wants to bring correction to our living. The front page of Time magazine a few months ago had the words "GREED" blazoned on the front cover, this being their analysis of a major underlying factor of the crisis. The Archbishop of Canterbury expressed a similar sentiment when he stated that the major bailout packages that were being offered by the British government could obstruct the necessary correction to mankind's greed.

With a worldwide crisis such as this, its easy to think "what can I do?". The damage is so huge and widespread that any individual actions seems futile. As mentioned previously, my wife and I were in a meeting of leaders from around South Africa, when we received our daughter's SMS. One of the main focuses of this meeting was to corporately discern what God was saying regarding the financial crisis and specifically how this pertained to our nation. After a time of quiet listening we individually shared the things we believed the Lord had spoken into our situation.

The responses revealed some common threads, one of which was the fact that, historically God has used either small groups or couples to achieve His will. This fact addresses the thought "What can I do?".

Jesus sent out seventy two believers with a specific mandate to go into the towns and places where He was about to visit. They didn't move around as a group of seventy two but went two by two. Their work was so effective that when they returned Jesus spoke of the implications of this work when He said, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven". The success of the seventy two provoked what is probably the most pronounced recorded expression of ecstatic joy within Jesus. These small groups had changed the spiritual atmosphere over the towns and places they served and this thrilled Jesus: The enemy had been defeated by humble followers acting in His Name.

We don't have to stand back feeling helpless. We too have a mandate that can be worked out in small groups and couples. Our actions also have the effect of changing the spiritual atmosphere over our community. The most powerful things that we can do in the current difficult situation is to serve others in Christ's name. In the Kingdom of God the greatest is the one who is the servant of all. Our mandate is to serve and in this way release the power of God to change the spiritual atmosphere of greed. Serving will become like yeast in unbaked bread, it will spread throughout society.

Governments need to do what they are called to do. The success of their work, however, still depends on the attitude change in people's hearts, and that's where we can make a difference. This can be done through sharing what we have with those in need, no matter who they are or what they believe. I have seen and heard of people serving by sharing transport, food, time, accommodation, and in many other creative ways. In this we will be working out the opposite spirit to greed.

A specific group venture that will take place shortly amongst churches in South Africa, is called the "Week Of Bounty". Congregations across the country will gather up anything in their homes that is in excess to their needs, whether it's clothing, unused building materials, bicycles, furniture, appliances, etc. In fact anything that is still in good working order that can be used by someone who is struggling financially, will form part of this collection. These materials will then be distributed in a way that preserves the dignity of the recipient.

The challenge is, let God arrest your attention, so as to move you beyond the feeling of helplessness into faith, to serve in whatever way you can in your community, believing that God uses "small servant initiatives" to make significant changes.