Commentary: Black Fridays and Green Christmases

When I called home from a business trip on a recent Wednesday night, I asked Phyllis how things had gone. She laughed and told me what happened at prayer meeting. Our pastor had gotten an unrelenting itch he couldn't scratch between his shoulder blades. Ever practical, our pastor paused his Bible teaching and told the folks to excuse him while he got his wife to scratch his itch. She did what he needed; then he went on with his teaching. I laughed when I heard it.

But my wandering mind went to work immediately. I thought about the saying, "You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours." Then I thought of what I would give my pastor when I got home. It was a cherished item of mine I had bought in an out-of-the-way store in Hawaii over 20 years ago. When I got home, I found the invaluable object and took it to the church office as a gift my pastor needed — even though he didn't know it. The receptionist looked big-eyed at me and my gift, which I had to explain. But she promised to give it to my pastor when he got back to the office.

Soon my friend and pastor e-mailed me he didn't know whether the varnished V-shaped limb I had left him was a West Texas divining rod or a wishbone from a really big chicken. It did look like what he said. I explained it was a self-backscratcher for where you couldn't reach. He could put it over his shoulder when he teaches and scratch or massage his own back without pause or anyone else's help. He loved the gift when he found out what it was!

How does a self-backscratcher fit in with Christmas and missions? You've all read or heard that if you give a person a fish you'll feed him for a day; but if you teach him to fish, you'll feed him for a lifetime. Cal Guy — my old seminary missions professor from Tennessee — said things in his own way. He often said that if you give someone a bowl of rice, he'll eat it without thanking you for it; but the day you withhold it from him, he'll curse you for withholding it. He meant evangelize, disciple; then teach them to share with others and learn to provide for themselves without looking for handouts. We need Cal Guy's mission philosophy, which really is just New Testament applied.

Well, my pastor's wife — and church members like me — would be glad to scratch our pastor's back without asking him to return the favor. But what I saw was a chance to gift my pastor with the ability to scratch his back all by himself where he had itched and hadn't been able to reach. Incidentally, I sometimes create problems by trying to help people and give them unasked-for gifts. But our world needs — has to have — the grace gift of salvation for eternal life whether they know it or not. And we have a Great Commission to share the gift.

Missions is sharing the grace gift of God in Christ no one could ever earn. Every time we send out career missionaries and pray for them, we send a gospel gift to the lost of the world. Two key root words in the Greek New Testament are used for gift. One of those words can refer to the salvation gift or other gifts. But the other one deals with grace-gifts both in salvation and in the gifts that help us serve together as the family of God or the body of Christ. See Romans 12; I Corinthians 12-14; Ephesians 4 for the "charismata gifts."

When we give to Global Missions or the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, we help trained missionaries keep on delivering the gift. Those missionaries disciple (or "learn") the people how to live in Christ and share the gift with others. The 1925 birth of the Cooperative Program was a great way to move from the societal approach of missions to a cooperative approach. I would love to say it helped us to learn the meaning of both synergy and syzygy in Christ without ever looking those words up in an English dictionary. We can do more together than we could ever do apart for Christ. I pray the Cooperative Program will live in good health on into 2025 and beyond besides local church efforts.

I'm in contact almost daily with missionaries in foreign lands who depend on the mission gifts we give. It grieves me when they have to cut back and cut out any missions because we cut back on our giving. Hard times? We don't know hard times compared to Lottie Moon and others. We need to sacrifice and go over the top in giving even out of poverty. Give ourselves!

Well, what about missions and self-backscratching? Glad you asked. We share the gospel message, and God gives the grace gift of salvation through his Holy Spirit. Discipling follows right on top of that. And missionaries, in effect, teach nationals how to scratch their own back. Actually, most folks call that indigenous missions: missionaries working themselves out of a job. That's the ideal, but we can't really replace career missionaries until all the world has heard the gospel and been discipled in it.

Wildcat missions: Most football fans know what a "wildcat" is. I kind of think of "wildcat" when I think of churches sending out mission teams. It's kind of like the center of the football team hiking the ball, but the opposition doesn't know who's going to get the ball till it's hiked. Well, career missionaries serve as coaches and quarterback-players. But they also are experts at knowing how to receive missions teams and make the most of their efforts for the short while they are on the field and in the game there. I just love that. In my lifetime, I've seen this kind of strategy develop with stronger partnerships than ever. Mission teams themselves are a gift. And when they return home, they gift their churches with mission reports and passion like that of the apostle Paul. In other words, mission gifts become reciprocal in nature. They unselfishly honor God and bless both fields: abroad and at home.

Unselfish. Black Friday just blew by, but I live for a Green Christmas. The blackest day on earth in darkness was the one we know as Good Friday — because of the gift of Christ on the cross for all the world. Yet, we fanatically go crazy over Black Friday that now spills over other days and everywhere. I guess we buy gifts for others for Christmas and get bargains for ourselves. We're willing to pepper spray or commit violence or be a crush of human beings to get a bargain. The Great Recession may still be on, but it seems to be at the expense of neglecting the Great Commission and not reaching people still dead in sins and trespasses.

As a businessman, I knew the need to be in the black rather than in the red. But I pray for a green Christmas instead of a black one — greenbacks in the offering plates. Green in helping all the world come alive by receiving the first gift on the first Christmas tree: namely, Christ on the cross. My spirits are good. I'll enjoy my Christmas presents. But I do pray the world will start growing with a green Christmas as we give our money and pray our prayers for a lost and dying world that needs Christ as the essential Gift of Christmas.

So, let's determine to give more for missions this Christmas than ever before!

In the meantime, I will scratch your back if you need it; and you won't have to return the favor to me. You see, I've got an itch for missions. That itch gets scratched when you join in giving the Gift that the whole world needs.

Johnnie C. Godwin is a native of Midland and former Texas pastor and current international publishing consultant, who retired after a 22-year career with LifeWay Christian Resources. Contact him at johnniegodwin@comcast.net.