Stewarding Nice Stuff for the Kingdom
September 15, 2009
Preaching the gospel week-in and week-out should have many effects on us as a people. We should become increasingly humble, increasingly generous, increasingly compassionate, increasingly evangelistic, and a hundred other things. Near the top of that list for us as Americans is that the gospel should increasingly ween us off of the American Dream. The pursuit of the bigger, nicer, and newer is poisonous to a people whose treasures are laid up in heaven.
I bring this up because this week Rachael and I purchased a house that is bigger, nicer, and newer than our current house. In fact, I’ll shoot straight with you: this house feels enormous to me. Ridiculously enormous. And it is finished with a level of quality nicer than what we are used to. And it was built only two years ago. Bigger, nicer, and newer.
So you can imagine the quandary that I was personally thrust into when we realized that we could purchase this house for less than we paid for our current home. Had the 2001 version of Chris Davis-the “bachelor till the rapture” one living in rural West Virginia, spending next-to-nothing, and reading books on simplicity-been faced with the decision, he would say “Absolutely not! Shun everything that hints at our treasures being on this earth!” But what about the 2009 Chris Davis-the one who is married to a gifted homemaker, with whom I would love to host church fellowships, enfold more children into our family, and provide a safe haven for those who do not experience healthy family?
After speaking with trusted mentors about the situation, we decided to put an absurdly low bid on this absurdly nice house, and in God’s providence, we signed the papers to close on Wednesday.
So how does should your pastor respond when he preaches against the American Dream yet purchases a house that looks like he is pursuing it? One option is to say nothing, yet this leaves the appearance of inconsistency between my life and preaching. Another option is to apologize repeatedly for owning such a nice home, but that would belittle God’s goodness in lavishing rich blessings on his children.
A third option seems to make the most sense: view this through the lens of stewardship. Instead of asking, “Is it OK to accept the opportunity to own something nice?” we decided to ask, “What would it look like for us to steward this home for God’s purposes in this community?” We do not fully know the answer to that question, but we have some ideas. More than anything, we want to hold tightly to God, his kingdom, and the commission his resurrected Son has left us. That means holding loosely to our domicile this side of heaven. Who knows if the next step isn’t for us to trade this in for a smaller, simpler, older house for a different phase of life at Whitton Avenue? All we can do is obey Jesus’ simple command to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).
Pastor Chris