I lived in some of the worst tornado areas in the country, a few years ago I spend a couple of days trapped in my newly Florida home by the ragging winds of a Hurricane. Watching my electricity flickering on and off and praying the good Lord would keep it coming back on. To be without computer and air conditioning in Florida is not a good thing for a fat old man. When one of the worst dust storms in the history of Bakersfield, CA., almost blew the city away with a hurricane of swirling dirt I was there.

This is my way of telling you I know what a good storm looks like.

So hear me brothers and sisters when I tell you that right we Americans are walking through an economy minefield. One from which we most likely cannot escape. This terrible storm is of our own creation and we are now only experiencing the strong warning winds of what's on the way. We created this storm ourselves, our government and us. Instead of hankering down, and nailing shut the windows of out of control spending, we have opened our doors to make the situation even worse.

The latest example is the heal care reform bill. A good idea at the worst time it could have been implemented. Read the words of Micheal Gerson, once a speech writer for former President Bush, now an opinion columnist for The Washington Post, in a column for the Tuesday, March 16, 2010, Post:

“But the value of this achievement will be determined by another historical judgment. If this health-care reform had passed in, say, 1994, it might have been just another burden borne by a growing economy, and later refined as the predictable, unintended consequences of the law became evident -- an economic drag but not a disaster.

Yet if the American government is headed toward a general entitlement crisis, Obama's health reform will be seen as historically irresponsible. He is adding a massive entitlement on top of a structure of entitlements that is already precarious. The costs of this new commitment are projected to grow at about 8 percent a year -- faster than the economy or tax revenue. And this entitlement is substantially funded by the easiest cuts in current entitlements -- money that cannot be used to honor existing, unfunded entitlement promises.

In this historical scenario, the irony will be thick. Having seen Wall Street court disaster with highly leveraged risks and many Americans ruined by overextended borrowing, Obama's main response to the economic crisis has been to repeat the excesses of both on a grand scale.

It is possible for a president to be strong -- and badly wrong. “

Yes Gerson is a Republican, but I'm a Democrat. Gerson is also a Christian who pushed hard for the Bush administration's support of compassionate conservatism. (A battle which he lost.)

Of course President Obama is not the creator of this problem, it dates back to when our capitalistic system sold Americans on the idea that a life which met our basic needs was not enough, we needed to be entertained as well. And to help that process along easy credit was made available so that folks could buy what they wanted without waiting. The fact that we could be paying for these items over and over again because of unpaid interest long after they were no longer of use to us wasn't advertised.

                   How We Got Here

And it dates back to when a majority of Americans got comfortable with the idea that it was the government's responsibility to back us up when anything went wrong in our lives. And, of course, we didn't want to pay taxes for all this support because that would be big government. The recent health care reform bill is an example of this thinking. The few cost controls in the bill came by possible cuts in other entitlement programs. At best this makes as much since as buying a new expensive car on credit when still owing thousands on the old car. But it's worse, because congress has always backed down from proposed cuts in these existing programs. So what we are really doing is keeping both cars without the ability, under our present income, to pay for either.

A third reason for our present distress is that our economy, based on a stock market system of short term gains, has become one huge gambling machine. Stock market guru Warren Buffet has often said as much. (Although much ink has been used by investor folks protesting the stock market gambling connection, one recent study found that individuals investing their own funds outperformed investment counselors. Most of these individuals were informed stock market participants.)

Why would our leaders do something so irresponsible? First because really dealing with changes needed to avoid this economic storm would be political suicide for what ever politician or party dealt honestly with the situation. Would we vote for someone who promised to drastically cut social security and other entitlement programs while also raising our taxes through the roof?

Washington Post Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt wrote this in a Monday, March 29 opinion piece:

The truth is almost no politicians are honest about what's needed. Republicans talk a good game now on deficits but were wildly irresponsible while they were in control. Democrats aren't about to give them an opening by raising their hands first to propose unpopular spending cuts or tax hikes.

Last summer I asked the president how he could overcome such inertia, given the almost impossible politics of deficit control. He suggested that events might jump-start the politics, when lenders start to fret about the creditworthiness even of the United States.

"I actually think that, sadly, decisions are going to be forced upon us," he said. "I mean, I think that if we don't show that we're serious in some fashion, then I think you're going to see a reluctance on the part of people who've been snapping up Treasurys to keep doing so. . . . And that, in some sense, will -- certainly compels me, if I'm being responsible in my office, to push hard on this."

This is why we are walking through an economic minefield.

Robert J. Samuelson, economic columnist for The Washington Post, ( yes I read The Post a lot), added this in the Monday, March 29 edition:

The reference to Moody refers to a warning from Moody's Investment Service that the U.S. Credit may be downgraded in coming years if we don't get our financial house in order. This would mean that countries we borrow money from through U.S. Treasury Rates could charge higher interest rates on the national debt. Not good.

Yet another Washington Post columnist David Ignatius wrote Thursday, April 29, The Vat May Resolve Debt Crisis:

"It is part of the human comedy that we sense what's coming but do not take action. The truly devastating shocks aren't the ones that sneak up on us but those we see approaching, inexorably, yet can't summon the political will to address.

President Obama could champion the cause of deficit reduction. He could insist that the new bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform that began work this week consider a VAT and other aggressive measures to keep our debt from reaching crippling levels by the end of the decade.

But taking action now would be stupid politics. The president would be right too soon. Better to wait until disaster is at hand. "

Never mind panicking – that's the worst thing to do in the middle of a minefield – we Christians especially need to start working at survival for those around us. There are things we can do through faith to reach out in the ministry of Jesus especially in a minefield.

Prayer is a good place to start. As it has been said there are no atheists in a fox whole during a battle. We need better grounding in our own faith to serve as salt for others. For up to now most of us have been part of the problem and not the cure.

Good News And Bad News

We have not followed the mandates of our faith about staying out of debt and living a reasonable life based, not on what we can buy, but how we can love and relate to others. The good news is that we don't need all that extra purchased stuff to have good relationships with others. In fact all that stuff usually gets in the way of such good relationships. The bad news is we really like that other stuff. So much so that our self image is built upon what we own. And we are going to be living in great pain and confusion when the economic storm washes away the houses of sand we have built. That anger and pain is already being felt by those in need, and others who fear for their own economic safety. Just look around you and feel the anxiety.

After continuing in prayer the next best thing we can do is organize. Organize, organize, organize. Stop thinking of getting people involved in our congregations as evangelism. We are now talking about survival techniques. We of the Jewish and Christian faith are society's experts on human relationships in troubled times. People now need us in a big way.

We need to organize our congregations in ways to meet the expanding need. Which means our recently traditional way of connecting people to God for one hour of Sunday morning worship is not enough. Churches are gong to have to make major changes, often painful changes, to respond to the ministries opportunities God is giving us.

This is the reason www.gochurch.info presently spends much energy in providing information about how congregations can successful accomplish change and transformation.

Our faith has always transformed itself and changed to meet the needs of the culture and people we serve. Bible study is important, but right now small groups which strengthen faith and support those who are losing their homes, have families falling apart under the pressure of lost income, and are facing other needs, are far more important. We need to worry less about getting new people to attend Sunday morning worship, and more about reaching out with God's supporting love in anyway we can.

Of course Sunday morning worship is important, but only part of a Christian faith. In order to meet the needs of more people congregations need groups and communities of folks where the lifestyle change needed for living in a society with reduced financial expectations can be supported and nourished. For this to happen congregations must confident themselves as missions to their neighbors.

Such a change for many smaller congregations will require movement away for the professional pastor centered model of the last 100 years toward a church of all missionaries. Raising and resourcing leaders in the congregation is now a key to effective church ministry. Smaller churches, in fact, may not be able to support any model of professional ministry. One of the reasons for www.gochurch.info's creation was to be a resource for leaders with little or no formal leadership training.

As the economy continues to struggle more churches will be forced to examine alternate ways to provide pastoral leadership. Some beloved facilities may have to be lost for financial reasons. Professional pastors and church complexes have never been necessary for Christian ministry. In fact, in some cases, reliance of paid ministry and the constraints church buildings place on congregations for upkeep have limited Christian ministry.

What congregations need today is spiritual growth, imagination, and a willingness to risk for God's Kingdom.

If I am correct in my prediction of a great economic storm on the horizon congregations will have great opportunity to renew their ministry. But even if I'm wrong our economy will be in a slow recovery that probably will take the next decade or more. This will still be a great time of folks reexamine their lives and looking for answers. Two pursuits the church is better situated to help people achieve more than any other organization in our culture.

by Monty Keeling