Wendy Hammond

What is the definition of greed? I find it hard to believe that every single one of us doesn't have some bit of greed in their hearts. If Cunningham has found more greed among the poor, what was her reason?

Those are very sad stories, however to me it seems that the people were feeling hopeless, not necessarily greedy. I cannot imagine being in those situations.

Amen!

Really? No one you know desires things over God at least occasionally? Instructs their children to go into something that will make money rather than go into kingdom service? (seems there was a Banner Q&A about that recently). Works so much that they have no time for family or service in their church?

As for the Bible not instructing us to care for the poor . . . not even sure to start with that one. However I do agree that caring for the poor does not mean giving handouts.

Hi Doug, I did not mean those sentences as categories, merely as examples of where greed might be present. Also, I did not mean to imply that making money and kingdom work were mutually exclusive. Rather, in the Banner example, the parent was discouraging his child from going into nonprofit work because he was concerned that he wouldn't be able to afford to support a family or Christian schools. One might be surprised how often this happens - parents are dismayed that their child wants to be a youth worker or missionary because they will not make as much money as they might doing other things. If someone is called to be a lawyer, a doctor, or a business executive, that does not mean they are doing any less kingdom work than someone being called to be a pastor or a missionary. However, I do think it's wrong if people resist the call to do kingdom work if they are gifted in that area  simply because they feel they won't make enough money.

Hope that makes sense. Miscommunication and assumptions are one reason I try to stay away from commenting on complex issues online. That and people are so quick to categorize and politicize. It's interesting, isn't it? If someone says that rich people just might be greedy, the assumption is that that person thinks the poor are special and somehow more godly. If someone says the poor might be greedy, the assumption is that they subscribe to health and wealth gospel and don't recognize that some people are poor due to circumstance or injustice.

yes, I'll be asking for votes in an upcoming blog post :-) I'm really excited about the second edition of When Helping Hurts. So many churches ask me what to do once they've read it.

Interesting - although, when one is managing multiple accounts, and time is  limited, is it better to be able to post through Hootsuite vs. not at all? I've not noticed that posting through Hootsuite produces less engagement, although I did notice that Networked Blogs was awful.