June 24, 2002

EDITORIAL:
Habitat for Humanity's problem should be ours, too
___What church wouldn't trade problems with Habitat for Humanity?
___The Christian charitable homebuilder, founded by Millard and Linda Fuller 26 years ago, has coordinated millions of volunteers to construct more than 120,000 homes for poor people across the nation and overseas. The volunteers work alongside the families who will receive the homes, who must invest 500 hours of "sweat equity" in order to take the keys to their new home. Almost universally, the new occupants would not have been able to own a home--a major step out of chronic poverty--without the partnership. Habitat has changed literally hundreds of thousands of lives.
___Habitat is an avowedly Christian organization, and the Fullers intend it to stay that way. It got its start out of a deeply spiritual search for meaning. Financially successful (they were millionaires by the age of 30) but profoundly unhappy, the young couple scrapped their lifestyle and moved to Koinonia, an integrated farming community founded by Baptist racial-justice pioneer Clarence Jordan near Americus, Ga. Jordan died prematurely, and the Koinonia experiment languished. But the spirit infected the Fullers, who began to dream of eliminating substandard housing--first in Sumter County, Ga., and then the world.
___Habitat works with local "affiliates," which raise funds, recruit volunteers, secure building plans, screen recipients and construct the homes. Habitat began by recruiting Christian groups to build the homes as ministry projects. Each recipient family also receives a Bible and a copy of "The Theology of the Hammer," a book by Millard Fuller that tells the Habitat story, emphasizing the Christian foundation of the enterprise.
___So, what's the problem? It's too popular, according to the cover story of a recent edition of Christianity Today magazine.
___The intrinsic goodness and value of the program resonates with corporations and groups from other religious faiths who recognize the need to create affordable housing for poor people. Employee groups from secular business and members of non-Christian faiths are clamoring to help build homes, even as too few evangelical Christians--Baptists included--are volunteering to build all the houses that must be built. Meanwhile, the need for low-cost housing only escalates.
___"We feel daily pressure to secularize," Fuller says in the Christianity Today article. Conservative Christians, such as Baptists and Pentecostals, are "nervous about going into a situation where someone is going to challenge them on what they believe," he explains. "And on a Habitat work site, we have an open door. We don't have a gatekeeper who says I've got to check your doctrine before you can hammer nails." The reason is simple, he adds: "I want to end poverty housing in the world, and you've got to have a big crowd to do it."
___Fuller and Habitat resist that pressure to secularize. Corporate volunteers and members of other faith groups often step forward to help build homes. But at almost every construction site around the world, the workday begins with prayer, no matter the background or motivation of the volunteers. Christian churches still provide the primary source of volunteers, and they offer an authentic witness at every location--not only to the families who will own the homes, but also to the volunteers from other faiths or no faith. And each family still receives a Bible and the blessing of prayer when they receive the keys to their new Habitat home.
___The "pressure to secularize" weighs heavily on Fuller, for he feels the need to build as many houses as possible as rapidly possible. We should not take that lightly. But what if more of our churches had Habitat's problem? What if our ministries were so obviously good and wholesome and needed that we had "too many" volunteers from local schools and businesses and industries wanting to participate with us to meet needs?
___What a problem to face. It would give us the opportunity to harness enough people-power to alleviate suffering, reduce poverty and spread the gospel to every home in our city, town or village. We could meet human needs, and we could earn the right to speak the gospel, not only to the people whose needs we were meeting, but also to other volunteers who wanted to be a part, just because they recognized it was a good thing.
___This is the kind of evangelism that will transform our communities, our state and even our world. Too often, we Baptists think "evangelism" is speaking a set of words on behalf of God. By definition, it is sharing the "Good News" of Jesus Christ. And when we look at what Jesus said and did, we see that he met people where they hurt--physically, emotionally and, of course, spiritually.
___The best evangelists I've ever seen were people who were a lot like Millard and Linda Fuller.
___I met them when I worked for the old Home Mission Board, and they did too--in jobs that took them to the threshold of human need. They served in a tenement in Harlem, a barrio in Tucson, a mental hospital in San Antonio, a housing project in Houston, Seattle's Chinese district and a drug-infested section of Boston. Like the Fullers, these missionaries asked God to help them see where people hurt and to give them wisdom to ease the pain. And as they did that, they earned the right to explain why they were there loving and helping these people--because Jesus loves people and wants them to have a better life here and eternal life with him. These practical evangelists lifted up the light of Christ in the nation's dark places, and it attracted people like moths to a campfire. God's love is like that.
___And that's why Habitat for Humanity has a problem. It's providing homes for people today and helping them reserve mansions in heaven for tomorrow--practical and spiritual ministry.
___May the Baptist General Convention of Texas and all our churches have Habitat's problem.
___ --Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com


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