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| Kaleo Ministries | ||
| "Inviting followers of Christ to join in God's global mission." | ||
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Reflections
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Various writings related to our ministry... Story of Ma Sis's Place in Dorchester, MA
Tribute to Derrick Edwards 1986-2004
Derrick enjoyed video games, writing poetry, and rapping. He became a Christian in 2002 while attending New Life Restoration Temple. In March 2004 Derrick became a member of Quincy Street Missional Church. He worshipped with us on the very day that he was killed. Derrick leaves to mourn, his mother, Valerie Edwards, his father Kevin Robinson, three brothers David, Kevin, and Ernest, sister Valerie and a host of family and friends. We will miss him greatly, but we know that he is in the arms of his Savior.
How much is too much?Recently in my personal studies I have been reading about the average salaries of corporate executives in our nation today. I discovered disturbing numbers. In 2003 the NEW YORK TIMES reported that the average CEO of a major company received $9.2 million in total compensation. That would not seem like such a high figure if the average worker in America made $1 million a year, but according to BUSINESS WEEK, the average CEO salary was 531 times the average hourly worker in 2000 (up from 42 times the average hourly worker in 1980). After reading about the salaries of corporate executives I began to wonder how much executives of large Christian ministries make. I found a website named Charity Navigator (www.charitynavigator.org), a site to help donors evaluate large nonprofits. I first looked up a ministry that I have supported for many years that focuses on child sponsorship. I was astonished to see that the president, the man I receive letters and emails from every month pleading for me to make sacrifices in my life to support another child, made $292,693 last year! With this salary he could sponsor 938 children a year. Then I researched a familiar relief ministry, hoping that this trend was not true of other Christian ministries. However, I found that the leader of this international ministry to the poor made $283,798 last year. Next, I saw that the leader of a well-known international youth ministry that I have supported for many years made $215,125 in 2003. Finally, and most disturbingly, the founding couple of the world’s largest Christian television network pulled in $764,700 last year. Am I the only one who thinks there is inconsistency between the mission of Christian ministries and the salaries of their top executives? Many of these organizations are committed to fighting worldwide poverty and depend on the support of people like us to fund their nonprofits. However, if these are “nonprofit” organizations, why are these “servant” leaders making hundreds of thousands of dollars every year? Talk about injustice! Now, I do not know any of these leaders personally so I cannot be judgmental about their lifestyles and how they spend their money. For all I know they could give 90% of their salary back to their organization. However, if these leaders are in fact spending our donations to pursue the modern version of the “American dream,” will anyone else join me in speaking out? Appeared in Evangelicals for Social Action's "ePistle" - July 7, 2004
A young man’s struggle to embrace Kingdom Values “If I were still trying to please men,
– Galatians 1:10 Reflections from the Sudanese Refugee Camps in Uganda : July 2, 2002"But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?" - I John 3:17 It's one thing to see people living in poverty, but it's another thing to see your brothers and sisters in Christ living in poverty. Does the church in America care enough to both admit her wealth and expose herself to some of our poorest brothers and sisters in the world? After returning from a two-week trip to Africa this week I am convinced that something has to change in the churches throughout America . We can no longer avoid the fact that we are the richest group of Christians to be found in the world. I propose that we are missing out on much of the "blessed life," we seem to constantly talk about. Blessing seems to be one of the most common words heard in our Christian vocabulary, but do we really understand what this word means? Do we really know what this word means in a world where two billion people live on less than two dollars a day? And are we willing to admit that many of the people included in this figure are our brothers and sisters in Christ? What does it mean to be a blessing? Jesus told us that it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35 ). Are the blessings we receive ends in themselves or are they the means to something greater? Are we blessed just to be blessed, or are we blessed to be a blessing? I am convinced that unless something changes soon in our churches then we can go ahead and mark out the word " Laodicea " in Revelation 3:14 and write the word " America ." If we cannot figure out a way to change our lifestyle as Christians we can go ahead and assume that we are the Lukewarm Church . Verse 17 of this passage charges us to buy gold refined in the fire so that we can let our impurities surface. The Christians of Sudan have been going through this process for the past 20 years as 2 million of their people have died in this bloody civil war. These people understand what it means to suffer as they fight poverty, injustice, and racism on a daily basis. They have a better understanding of blessing because they have been without many of the blessings that we enjoy on a daily basis. The problem here is that we have not gone without many of these blessings so we cannot truly understand what it means to be blessed. Although many of the Sudanese refugees looked "miserable, poor, blind, and naked" (Rev.3:17) outwardly, I am afraid that it is really many of us Christians in America who are this way. After being around God's people in Africa the past few weeks I am convinced that America must awake from her slumber. My prayer is that we would join together in prayer and collective repentance for shutting our heart up to our brothers and sisters throughout the world who are in such desperate need. |
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Derrick Edwards was born on Nov 3, 1986 in Boston, MA. He
attended John F. Kennedy Elementary School, the Mary Curley Middle
School, and East Boston High School. Late at night on Saturday December 5, 2004 Derrick was a victim of youth violence as he was in the
wrong place at the wrong time and was shot and killed. He was mistaken
for someone else.