Peter Greer's Blog

“You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.”
—Jesus, Matthew 5:9, The Message

It’s no secret that division is running rampant. We’re quick to disagree—often passionately—and divide.

Pets: Dogs vs. cats. [Dogs for the win!]Subtitles on TV: On vs. off. [Off!]Sports: Eagles vs. Cowboys. [False choice; Patriots for sure!]Pizza toppings: Cheese vs. pepperoni. [Another false choice; I’m a veggie pizza fan—and that means I often get the pizza to myself.]

And of course, there are weightier, more consequential points of contention.

Amid all the opportunities for disagreement, I find it deeply convicting to remember that Jesus said we would be known as His followers by our love for one another. As if to demonstrate how allegiance to Christ supersedes our many differences, Jesus brought together a group of unlikely disciples: a doctor and fishermen, a Zealot and a tax collector. The Church we’re part of today is the direct result of a grand group project Jesus initiated among the very first Christians. In Jesus’ longest recorded prayer (John 17), He asks God to unify all believers “that [we] may become perfectly one,” so that the world would recognize and know the Father’s love.

The mandate hasn’t changed. We’ve all seen countless examples of division, but I recently saw two beautiful examples of this counter-cultural, others-first unity among believers.

Earlier this year, I traveled to Washington, DC, to meet with pastors, church leaders, and staff from TearFund, Living Water, World Relief, and Enlace. We came together as members of The Global Lift Collective, an initiative launched by Life.Church, to discuss strategies for unified poverty relief efforts in Malawi and Central America. The Collective aims to coordinate global Christ-centered programs and equip local churches with sustainable tools to transform their communities. By pooling resources from multiple organizations, communities benefit from a broader support system and aren’t limited by what a single organization has to offer.

What stood out to me about this group of leaders was how little they cared about which organization got the credit for lives changed. They open-sourced information they could have seen as proprietary, believing it was a monumental win for God’s Kingdom if any among us were better able to serve marginalized communities as a result of this collaboration. No one felt threatened by others’ presence in their sector. No one felt the need to upstage others who work under a different organizational banner—because their greatest allegiance isn’t to an organization. These organizations are accomplishing more together than we could ever accomplish alone—and God gets the glory. To me, the Global Lift Collective is an encouraging answer to the prayer Christ prayed for His followers in John 17.

Last month, I traveled to Burundi, a small East African nation. Newspapers tell a story of division across East Africa, as conflict is growing between three nations engaged in an ongoing border war, destabilizing communities and endangering many. Yet in Burundi last month, I was privileged to witness a group of colleagues from these three nations gathering to participate in a regenerative agriculture symposium. There was a beautiful spirit of open-handed generosity, collaboration, and unity as these followers of Christ worshipped and served together, even as tensions escalated among their nations of origin. Their greatest allegiance wasn’t to a nation but to Christ and His calling.

As I returned home to a country where tensions continue to escalate, even among Christ’s followers, I thought of these examples and of God’s words in 1 Peter 2:9: “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” We won’t always agree, but I wonder what it would blike for us to rediscover the unity Jesus prayed for.  What does it look like to love amid deep disagreement? Where is our greatest allegiance? What examples of God-honoring unity have you seen, and how might God be inviting you to go and do likewise?

I’m grateful for those who have reached out over the last weeks to ask how HOPE International is impacted by the recent changes to  U.S. foreign assistance funding. Thank you for your concern, friendship, and prayers.

The short answer is that outside of one-time funding opportunities (e.g., related to COVID-19 shut-downs), HOPE does not accept government funding. Even though our ability to continue providing Christ-centered poverty alleviation services is not directly impacted, I am concerned about the impacts on HOPE and our partners—even in the short-term—and on many families around the world.

Part of what I love about the HOPE International savings groups I meet is their embodiment of hope for the future, their assertion that today’s sacrifice is a seed planted for tomorrow’s harvest. But one HOPE savings group I visited in Burundi years ago seemed motivated by just the opposite. Every member of this group had been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS—and they were saving for their funerals. They had seen other families fall into abject poverty through crushing funeral debt, and they longed to ease that inevitable burden for their families. They met, prayed, and saved together in a final act of love for their families.

Then PEPFAR (President George W. Bush’s global initiative to contain and control the HIV/AIDS pandemic) expanded to their community in rural Burundi. In just over 20 years, PEPFAR has contributed to saving an estimated 26 million lives globally, largely by providing antiretroviral treatment in communities like the one I visited in Burundi. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof helps us imagine the magnitude of that number, writing in 2023 that this number is far, far greater than all the deaths of American troops in all wars in the country’s history back to 1776.

Consistently treated, those with HIV can live normal lifespans. As beneficiaries of PEPFAR, these savings group members were at last able to save for their future: dreaming of business ventures, children’s school fees, and home repairs. They began investing in life, not death.

But HIV—like many other diseases—is managed, not cured. Treatment is administered through daily pills or bi-monthly injections. Consistency matters.

When news of the funding pause and stop work orders reached me, my first thought was of these group members and their ongoing medical needs. I wondered how long it would be until they were once again saving for their funerals.

At the time of writing, PEPFAR is among the initiatives that have been issued a limited waiver to continue some of their operations. I am grateful for the recognition of these programs’ significance, even though the future of international aid to those most in need—and the future of these group members—remains very much uncertain.

While people of good faith will continue to debate whether it is within or outside the role of the U.S. government to intervene in challenges beyond our nation’s borders, Scripture is clear that it is the place of Christ’s followers to care for the vulnerable and love our neighbors, near and far (e.g., Proverbs 31:8-9, Isaiah 1:17, Matthew 25:40, Genesis 22:18, Luke 10:25-37). We must not confuse our national response with our Christian mandate.

This time of uncertainty and financial precarity for many humanitarian initiatives is a time for the Church to step forward to welcome the stranger, care for the sick, feed the hungry, and invest in communities in poverty. Matthew 25 still provides clarity on our mission to see and respond to those in need, as if we are serving Christ himself.

Government funding for USAID amounted to roughly $43.8 billion dollars in 2023, the most recent year for which data was available. It’s a significant but not insurmountable sum. There are an estimated 2.63 billion Christians in the world and 232 million in the United States alone. We could make up the shortfall if every Christian worldwide gave just $16.65 or if every Christian in the United States gave $188.70. This is not an impossible task. It is a moment for a movement to bear one another’s burdens—and personally and organizationally, we are eager to come alongside our peers and partners most impacted and to keep showing up in the communities where we serve. For us as well as savings group members, today’s sacrifice is a seed planted for tomorrow’s harvest. That harvest could be significant indeed if a watching world sees the Church respond to the uncertainty of this moment with the love and compassion of Christ. May it be our finest hour.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/08/op...

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-rea...#

https://www.gordonconwell.edu/wp-cont...

Gallup polling reflects 68% of the U.S. population identifies as Christian (https://news.gallup.com/poll/358364/religious-americans.aspx). Applying that percent to a U.S. population of 341,340,565 at the time of writing (12:45 p.m., February 14, 2025, https://www.census.gov/popclock/), we estimate 232 million Christians in the United States.

 

A decade ago, Chris Horst, Anna Haggard and I published Mission Drift. Recognizing how prevalent drift is within organizations, we have been on a journey to answer the question, “How do we remain Mission True?” Internally at HOPE, we designed an assessment—a project completed thanks to Becca Spradlin’s tremendous investment of time and effort. This assessment builds on the Mission Drift Survey and provides specific organizational application.

Becca launched her own organization to equip organizations to stay On Mission. She has just released a new book, and we wanted to share it! Read on for an introduction to her recent project, Lead on Mission.

~~~

By Becca Spradlin, Guest Contributor

In 1948, J. Howard Pew and his siblings created the Pew Charitable Trusts. Through these trusts, the heirs of Sun Oil company (now called Sunoco) gave to a variety of charities, often giving anonymously.

In 1970, J. Howard Pew gave resources to help establish the Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. He also committed to give annually towards its operations. A year later, Pew passed away.

Fast forward twenty years. In a story on the Pew Charitable Trusts, this was reported:

Today, the Pew Charitable Trusts give millions of dollars to Princeton University and other Ivy League colleges. They have cut off the annual funding to the Gordon-Conwell seminary. And they join in partnerships with the very kind of government-supported programs that J. Howard Pew despised. (emphasis added)

What happened? How did the organization make a 180-degree turn from the founder’s original intent?

If you’ve read Mission Drift (and I strongly recommend that you do), this case might sound familiar. I had the privilege of joining the HOPE international team right around the time this book was published, over ten years ago. Given my background in ratings, I was asked to develop an assessment to identify areas of potential mission drift within the HOPE network. In Peter Greer’s words, “It’s not if we’re drifting, but where are we drifting.”

In 2014, we began piloting Mission True Assessments internally at HOPE. As Mission Drift continued to gain traction, requests began to come for help in detecting and preventing drift. Given HOPE’s practice of being openhanded, my team and I began doing workshops and assessments for other like-minded organizations, both businesses and nonprofits, like Edify.  Several years later, On Mission was born and I’ve been doing mission drift research and consulting ever since.

While most of my work focused on mitigating drift in nonprofits, I wondered if drift was happening among faith-driven businesses. A few years ago, JoAnn Flett, the executive director of the Center for Faithful Business at SPU, shared about Al Erisman’s book The ServiceMaster Story and the Pollard Research Fellowship, which studied the case of ServiceMaster. ServiceMaster provided a rich example of how businesses can effectively cultivate faith and develop a culture that seeks to honor God. It also illustrates the sobering reality of how businesses often drift away from their higher purpose over time.

As I spoke with more business leaders and advisors, the story was the same. It was the exception, not the norm, for Christian-led and owned businesses to maintain a higher purpose over time. This disappointing trend was one of the motivators to write, Lead On Mission: Advance Faith at Work. Avoid Mission Drift. Build a Legacy of Eternal Impact.

However, another compelling driver was equally as strong. Drift only matters if you’re moving away from something incredible. There is incredible eternal “fruit” being produced today all around the world through Faith Forward companies. Lead On Mission was written to celebrate and encourage this type of impact, impact that matters for eternity.

Faith Forward Companies: Businesses That Strive for Eternal Impact and Avoid Mission Drift

The global faith and work movement continues to grow and build momentum. Lives, families, and communities are being transformed as God works in the marketplace. Given this rich, eternal impact, more focus is needed on the sobering shadow side of this movement.

All too often, unintentional neglect in planning for culture and values continuity results in the rapid unraveling of a firm’s God-honoring ambitions. The sad reality is that any company is one leadership or ownership transition away from losing its higher purpose.

Case after case shows how decades of effort to advance the Kingdom of God in the workplace can be undone in a few years or even months.  In the process, team members may even turn away from faith as a company’s culture deteriorates.

As the research in Mission Drift and Lead On Mission demonstrates, drift is the default path for every organization that pursues a higher purpose. In businesses, however, drift happens even faster as one ownership or leadership change can completely change a company’s culture. As disappointing as it is to see this persistent, rapid erosion, there is hope. There are some remarkable exceptions that offer practical guidance on how to avoid mission drift.

Faith Forward companies aspire to make an eternal impact through their work, both today and for generations to come. Their leaders take steps to cultivate and perpetuate a higher purpose. They apply their faith at work by building healthy organizations that create space for spiritual growth alongside operational excellence, strong financial performance, and beneficial outcomes for society.

Now, more than ever, Faith Forward leaders and companies are needed in the marketplace.  As fewer people cross the threshold of churches in the U.S., the opportunity for employers to create faith-friendly cultures that point people to God’s love for them only increases.

There is an urgent opportunity to cultivate faith at work and to advance it for years to come, but this requires uncommon intentionality. Given the silver tsunami underway, the imperative of building businesses that sustain a legacy of eternal impact and avoid drift, is only increasing. Without intentionality, leaders’ ambitions to make an eternal impact will not endure the planned and unplanned transitions or challenges ahead.

Faith Forward leaders operate with a long-term view in mind. They strive to build their businesses for ongoing performance and eternal impact. Lead On Mission shares the common practices between these leaders and their companies.

Whether your company is discerning how to cultivate faith at work or you already see eternal “fruit,” let the cases and practices in Lead On Mission provide practical insights and encouragement for the journey.

Read stories of Faith Forward companies, as well as cautionary cases of those that drifted, in the book, Lead On Mission: Advance Faith at Work. Avoid Mission Drift. Build a Legacy of Eternal Impact. The book shares case studies and practices that businesses use to create, cultivate, and perpetuate a higher purpose while avoiding mission drift.  Visit www.leadonmissionbook.com to learn more and order your copy.

 

About the Author

Becca Spradlin, founder of On Mission Advisors, specializes in executive facilitation, organizational assessment, strategy design, execution, and change management. Becca started On Mission to help Christian business and nonprofit leaders define, protect, and champion what matters most in light of eternity.

She has facilitated workshops, strategy design, and evaluations of businesses and nonprofits across five continents. She is certified in change management, adult learning, and human-centered design. She holds a master’s degree in applied economics from Johns Hopkins University and undergraduate degrees in business and communications from Grove City College. Becca is also a proud “alumni” member of HOPE International, where she served for more than eight years.

She is the author of Lead On Mission: Advance Faith at Work. Avoid Mission Drift. Build a Legacy of Eternal Impact. She also coauthored the Mission True Workbook with the authors of Mission Drift. She served as a research fellow at Seattle Pacific University’s Center for Faithful Business, researching faith cultivation and drift in Christian-led businesses. She writes and speaks on how companies can define and align their firms around faith and avoid drift. Becca lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with her husband and three daughters.

 

 

 

Few evils disturb our conscience like human trafficking. The statistics are unspeakable: One in every 150 people are trapped in modern slavery, and 25 percent of victims are children under the age of 18.

I have tremendous respect for the work of International Justice Mission (IJM), The Human Trafficking Institute, Redeem International, A21, and other like-minded organizations that are confronting this evil head on. They work with local authorities to protect and rescue people in poverty from violent forms of oppression such as labor trafficking, sexual exploitation, and abuse of power. Their efforts culminate in dramatic moments of rescue, but each of these moments is precipitated by months of work. And tellingly, much of these organizations’ work focuses on helping ensure that the world’s most vulnerable never experience this kind of violent exploitation in the first place. That, it turns out, involves economics.

According to Traffik Analysis Hub, trafficking depends on four fundamentals:

Access to fresh recruitsIncome and the ability to move moneyDemand for the products and services of exploitationLow risk of discovery

It’s easy to see economics at work in the second and third fundamentals. Human trafficking generates $150 billion in revenue each year: a powerful lure for would-be exploiters. There’s no denying, human trafficking is lucrative. There’s also no denying that demand for cheap products and services has caused many to turn a blind eye to exploitative labor practices.

What often seems invisible is the connection between economics and the first fundamental: access to fresh recruits. Gary Haugen, IJM’s founder and president, shared with me that he believes as much as 80 percent of human trafficking is the result of debt and unscrupulous loan sharks.

It’s not hard to imagine. A family living on less than $2/day confronts a need or a crisis. Perhaps their child’s school fees come due, their crops are devastated by drought, or a medical bill exceeds their capacity to pay. Their friends and relatives may be just as hard-pressed and unable to help, or perhaps there’s too much shame in asking, so they seek out the local moneylender. There, they get the funds they need, at a higher price than they might have ever imagined.

In many parts of the world, “5-6” loans are the norm. Individuals borrow five units and repay six, equaling a 20 percent interest rate. The problem is that this rate is either daily, weekly, or monthly, depending on the particular loan shark. Consider a loan of $100, perhaps used to take a sick relative to the city for medical treatment. At 20 percent weekly interest, that $100 loan could quickly grow to a staggering $1,849 after just 16 weeks, becoming an inescapable trap for all who fall into it.

Having amassed an insurmountable debt, borrowers can be conscripted into debt bondage, forced to work for little or no money until the debt is repaid. In the meantime, traffickers often insist they’ve amassed new debts: transportation fees, job-finding fees, etc.

We don’t often think of banking as an issue of justice, but we’ve found that a simple savings account is part of an upstream solution to human trafficking, helping families avoid the usurious interest rates and exploitative schemes of predatory moneylenders.

Around the world, 2 billion people—roughly a quarter of the world’s population—do not have access to a safe place to save. When we think about the rural poor, in particular, banks may not be a viable option. For-profit banks won’t see the benefit in serving these communities and populations, and even nonprofit, socially motivated institutions may find it cost prohibitive to establish branches outside major population centers. Access to a bank account is heavily dependent on location, with 91 percent of adults in high-income countries having an account compared to just 28 percent in low-income countries.

Men and women in poverty understand the benefits of savings. Too often, there just aren’t options, causing people to live in places of vulnerability. My late colleague Dave Larson put it this way:

Those living in poverty are like someone on the edge of a steep, tall cliff. Perilously near the edge, it won’t take much of a blow to force them over the edge into a tragic fall. A fire, a flood, a drought, an illness, an accident—these and other traumas could easily result in catastrophe. Savings helps people reduce their vulnerability. In effect, it allows them to take a few steps away from the edge. Farther away, they are at less risk. A blow may push them toward the edge—but not over. When we help people to save money, we’re saving lives. Turns out, savings is an issue of justice. And it is a powerful tool in ending human trafficking.

Through more than 13,000 church partnerships, HOPE International has helped start nearly 100,000 savings groups in 21 countries, reaching almost 1.75 million individuals. And our friends at World Relief, The Chalmers Center, International Care Ministries (ICM), Tearfund, and Plant with Purpose are also training and equipping savings groups. Church leaders inherently understand the value of meeting physical as well as spiritual needs as part of their care for parishioners and communities. They, too, have read Jesus’ proclamation of His mandate in Luke 4:16-30: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19).

When Jesus spoke of “the year of the Lord’s favor,” He was probably referring to the year of Jubilee. Every 50 years, a trumpet was blown on the Day of Atonement to “proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants” (Leviticus 25:10). This proclamation freed people from crushing debt and slavery and returned land to families who had been forced by economic hardship to sell it. Jubilee alleviated the worst effects of continuing indebtedness and poverty; it was the release from debt and the restoration of rightful inheritance.

Our brothers and sisters around the world understand, perhaps better than we can, the importance of both the concrete and the spiritual dimensions of Jesus’ mission. The word “release” in Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew means breaking free from financial debts as well as the release from or forgiveness of sins.

Jesus lived this full definition of release by combining care for the physical person with care for the soul.

God is concerned about economic realities, physical imprisonment, and visual blindness, as well as freedom from the debt of sin and spiritual bondage. Jesus embodied the economics of righteousness, and it’s a joy to watch churches around the world do likewise.

And it’s working: Savings groups are reducing vulnerability, helping families take one meaningful step after another back from the edge. In a 2021 survey of 299 HOPE Zambia savings group members (compared to a control group of peers who are not in savings groups), savings group members reported they are two times as likely to be able to withstand a financial emergency ($57 U.S.) than those in the comparison group. A similar survey in Malawi found that 81 percent of savings group members are prepared to access emergency funds, compared to 37 percent of the broader Malawian population.

We see church-sponsored savings groups as the alternative to predatory moneylenders in underserved communities. Our hope is that one day, loan sharks who prey on the vulnerable would be out of business. We want to help reshape economic systems for God’s glory and the good of those who are vulnerable. Grassroots banking might not seem glamorous, but it is an issue of justice.

We need those who bravely break down the doors of brothels and help establish and enforce laws. We need those who investigate and prosecute perpetrators of exploitation, and we need those who ensure families are nowhere near desperate enough to consider bonded labor or the sale of their children a viable income-generating opportunity. In the economics of righteousness, there’s a need for us all.

_______

International Labour Organization, “One in every 150 people are trapped in modern slavery,” September 12, 2022, https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/multimedia/video/institutional-videos/WCMS_855438/lang–en/index.htm.

Stop the Traffik, “Definition and Scale,” https://www.stopthetraffik.org/what-is-human-trafficking/definition-and-scale/.

Stop the Traffik, “Traffik Analysis Hub Showreel 2022,” July 4, 2022, https://vimeo.com/726687628.

Stop the Traffik, “Traffik Analysis Hub,” https://www.stopthetraffik.org/what-we-do/traffik-analysis-hub/.

Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Leora Klapper, Dorothe Singer, and Peter Van Oudheusden. The Global Findex Database 2014: Measuring Financial Inclusion around the World, Policy Research Working Paper 7255 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2015), datatopics.worldbank.org/financialinc....

Few evils disturb our conscience like human trafficking. The statistics are unspeakable: One in every 150 people are trapped in modern slavery, and 25 percent of victims are children under the age of 18.

I have tremendous respect for the work of International Justice Mission (IJM), The Human Trafficking Institute, Redeem International, A21, and other like-minded organizations that are confronting this evil head on. They work with local authorities to protect and rescue people in poverty from violent forms of oppression such as labor trafficking, sexual exploitation, and abuse of power. Their efforts culminate in dramatic moments of rescue, but each of these moments is precipitated by months of work. And tellingly, much of these organizations’ work focuses on helping ensure that the world’s most vulnerable never experience this kind of violent exploitation in the first place. That, it turns out, involves economics.

According to Traffik Analysis Hub, trafficking depends on four fundamentals:

Access to fresh recruitsIncome and the ability to move moneyDemand for the products and services of exploitationLow risk of discovery

It’s easy to see economics at work in the second and third fundamentals. Human trafficking generates $150 billion in revenue each year: a powerful lure for would-be exploiters. There’s no denying, human trafficking is lucrative. There’s also no denying that demand for cheap products and services has caused many to turn a blind eye to exploitative labor practices.

What often seems invisible is the connection between economics and the first fundamental: access to fresh recruits. Gary Haugen, IJM’s founder and president, shared with me that he believes as much as 80 percent of human trafficking is the result of debt and unscrupulous loan sharks.

It’s not hard to imagine. A family living on less than $2/day confronts a need or a crisis. Perhaps their child’s school fees come due, their crops are devastated by drought, or a medical bill exceeds their capacity to pay. Their friends and relatives may be just as hard-pressed and unable to help, or perhaps there’s too much shame in asking, so they seek out the local moneylender. There, they get the funds they need, at a higher price than they might have ever imagined.

In many parts of the world, “5-6” loans are the norm. Individuals borrow five units and repay six, equaling a 20 percent interest rate. The problem is that this rate is either daily, weekly, or monthly, depending on the particular loan shark. Consider a loan of $100, perhaps used to take a sick relative to the city for medical treatment. At 20 percent weekly interest, that $100 loan could quickly grow to a staggering $1,849 after just 16 weeks, becoming an inescapable trap for all who fall into it.

Having amassed an insurmountable debt, borrowers can be conscripted into debt bondage, forced to work for little or no money until the debt is repaid. In the meantime, traffickers often insist they’ve amassed new debts: transportation fees, job-finding fees, etc.

We don’t often think of banking as an issue of justice, but we’ve found that a simple savings account is part of an upstream solution to human trafficking, helping families avoid the usurious interest rates and exploitative schemes of predatory moneylenders.

Around the world, 2 billion people—roughly a quarter of the world’s population—do not have access to a safe place to save. When we think about the rural poor, in particular, banks may not be a viable option. For-profit banks won’t see the benefit in serving these communities and populations, and even nonprofit, socially motivated institutions may find it cost prohibitive to establish branches outside major population centers. Access to a bank account is heavily dependent on location, with 91 percent of adults in high-income countries having an account compared to just 28 percent in low-income countries.

Men and women in poverty understand the benefits of savings. Too often, there just aren’t options, causing people to live in places of vulnerability. My late colleague Dave Larson put it this way:

Those living in poverty are like someone on the edge of a steep, tall cliff. Perilously near the edge, it won’t take much of a blow to force them over the edge into a tragic fall. A fire, a flood, a drought, an illness, an accident—these and other traumas could easily result in catastrophe. Savings helps people reduce their vulnerability. In effect, it allows them to take a few steps away from the edge. Farther away, they are at less risk. A blow may push them toward the edge—but not over. When we help people to save money, we’re saving lives. Turns out, savings is an issue of justice. And it is a powerful tool in ending human trafficking.

Through more than 13,000 church partnerships, HOPE International has helped start nearly 100,000 savings groups in 21 countries, reaching almost 1.75 million individuals. And our friends at World Relief, The Chalmers Center, International Care Ministries (ICM), Tearfund, and Plant with Purpose are also training and equipping savings groups. Church leaders inherently understand the value of meeting physical as well as spiritual needs as part of their care for parishioners and communities. They, too, have read Jesus’ proclamation of His mandate in Luke 4:16-30: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19).

When Jesus spoke of “the year of the Lord’s favor,” He was probably referring to the year of Jubilee. Every 50 years, a trumpet was blown on the Day of Atonement to “proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants” (Leviticus 25:10). This proclamation freed people from crushing debt and slavery and returned land to families who had been forced by economic hardship to sell it. Jubilee alleviated the worst effects of continuing indebtedness and poverty; it was the release from debt and the restoration of rightful inheritance.

Our brothers and sisters around the world understand, perhaps better than we can, the importance of both the concrete and the spiritual dimensions of Jesus’ mission. The word “release” in Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew means breaking free from financial debts as well as the release from or forgiveness of sins.

Jesus lived this full definition of release by combining care for the physical person with care for the soul.

God is concerned about economic realities, physical imprisonment, and visual blindness, as well as freedom from the debt of sin and spiritual bondage. Jesus embodied the economics of righteousness, and it’s a joy to watch churches around the world do likewise.

And it’s working: Savings groups are reducing vulnerability, helping families take one meaningful step after another back from the edge. In a 2021 survey of 299 HOPE Zambia savings group members (compared to a control group of peers who are not in savings groups), savings group members reported they are two times as likely to be able to withstand a financial emergency ($57 U.S.) than those in the comparison group. A similar survey in Malawi found that 81 percent of savings group members are prepared to access emergency funds, compared to 37 percent of the broader Malawian population.

We see church-sponsored savings groups as the alternative to predatory moneylenders in underserved communities. Our hope is that one day, loan sharks who prey on the vulnerable would be out of business. We want to help reshape economic systems for God’s glory and the good of those who are vulnerable. Grassroots banking might not seem glamorous, but it is an issue of justice.

We need those who bravely break down the doors of brothels and help establish and enforce laws. We need those who investigate and prosecute perpetrators of exploitation, and we need those who ensure families are nowhere near desperate enough to consider bonded labor or the sale of their children a viable income-generating opportunity. In the economics of righteousness, there’s a need for us all.

_______

International Labour Organization, “One in every 150 people are trapped in modern slavery,” September 12, 2022, https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/multimedia/video/institutional-videos/WCMS_855438/lang–en/index.htm.

Stop the Traffik, “Definition and Scale,” https://www.stopthetraffik.org/what-is-human-trafficking/definition-and-scale/.

Stop the Traffik, “Traffik Analysis Hub Showreel 2022,” July 4, 2022, https://vimeo.com/726687628.

Stop the Traffik, “Traffik Analysis Hub,” https://www.stopthetraffik.org/what-we-do/traffik-analysis-hub/.

Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Leora Klapper, Dorothe Singer, and Peter Van Oudheusden. The Global Findex Database 2014: Measuring Financial Inclusion around the World, Policy Research Working Paper 7255 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2015), datatopics.worldbank.org/financialinc....

Last week we celebrated the launch of Lead with Prayer, a book three years in the making. At the conclusion of a book project, I often have a favorite interview or insight, and this book was rife with possibility. It took shape from the wisdom shared in over 100 hours of interviews with world-changing leaders about how their prayer rhythms impacted their life and leadership. So many of the words these incredible leaders shared linger in my mind, and their revelations have changed the way I pray.  But this time, rather than singling out a particular interview or insight, my most lasting impression comes from a favorite experience.

Over the course of the three years that we collaborated on this book, I frequently met with my coauthors Ryan Skoog, Cameron Doolittle, and Jill Heisey over Zoom or, occasionally, in person. We’d work through an agenda that included progress updates and ideation, but as part of every meeting, we prayed together. Separately and together we experimented with new-to-us prayer practices, implementing the rhythms and in some cases even adopting the verbiage of praying leaders we interviewed or studied in Scripture. As I learned with and from Ryan, Cameron, and Jill, I saw firsthand what the global Church seems to have already discovered: the power of communal prayer. I loved these opportunities to pray together and to hear what each of us were learning.

In the United States, we often think of prayer as a personal pursuit. A Barna Group research study conducted in 2017 reflected that 94 percent of American adults who had prayed in the previous three months most often did so alone. Coincidentally, 94 percent of Google image search results for “prayer” are images of a single person praying. When we in the West think of prayer, most of us probably picture ourselves alone, but this trend toward independent prayer is a departure from what Jesus modeled, what the early church practiced, and how global leaders continue to pray.

Jesus modeled group prayer, directed group prayer, and promised to show up at group prayer. We know that “where two or three gather” in prayer, Jesus is there (Matthew 18:20), and “if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:19). I felt it in these shared times of prayer: Jesus was there with us and working among us.

In Luke 11:1, Jesus was famously asked, “Lord, teach us to pray.” What I had long overlooked in this passage is that it wasn’t a group of disciples who asked Jesus to teach them to pray. It was a single disciple, who could just as easily have asked, “Lord, teach me to pray.” Jesus responded to this disciple’s request with the Lord’s Prayer, a model for us to emulate—words meant to be prayed together.

The Sermon on the Mount, too, points to Jesus’ vision for group prayer. Author and former pastor John Onwuchekwa observes that all the pronouns in this oft-quoted sermon are singular in form (“You are the salt of the earth,” “If you love those who love you,” “When you give to the needy”) except when Jesus is talking about prayer. Then He uses plural forms. In the southern United States, Jesus’ words on prayer would be translated “When y’all pray” and “This then is how y’all should pray” (Matthew 6:5, 9).

Certainly we can, should, and often will pray alone, but meaningful prayer is not an exclusively solo activity. Jesus often withdrew to pray, but even many of these “personal” prayer times included others, like one instance described in Luke 9:18 “when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him.” Jesus was praying in private, with His disciples.

Lead with Prayer was written in community and prayed over in community. If you’re thinking of reading it, we hope you’ll consider doing that in community as well. Who do you know who could help create meaningful changes in your prayer life? Invite them into this process and consider reading the book together. And as you read, know that there are people gathered in 24/7 prayer rooms around the world praying for you.

We’ve created a host of free resources to help you practice prayer. You’ll find everything from a personal and organizational prayer assessment to reflection questions, one-sentence prayers, and a prayer calendar at www.leadwithprayer.com .

John Onwuchekwa, Prayer: How Praying Together Shapes the Church (Wheaton,

IL: Crossway, 2018), 41.

I first recognized that I had a prayer problem, ironically, on one of HOPE International’s quarterly days of prayer. When a facilitator invited our team to pray silently, I ventured outside for a prayer walk—but spent my “prayer time” ruminating over operational and staffing challenges HOPE was facing. My internal RPMs were revving, and I couldn’t seem to quiet my mind or heart.

By the end of the day, I had set a new fitness record as I paced the grounds but spent precious few moments in prayer. I strategized, planned, and toiled—focusing on what I needed to do with a sprinkling of prayer pixie dust. I concluded the day with neither peace nor clear direction, but I did have growing clarity and conviction that there was a disconnect in my prayer life: I would have described prayer as a first priority, but the way I invested my time suggested it was a last resort.

I’m not alone. Conversations with friends and studies of Christian leaders confirm the struggle. One study showed that only 16% of pastors are very satisfied with their prayer life. Another revealed that 72% identify “consistency in personal prayer” as one of the greatest needs they need to address. Expanding beyond pastors, a large foundation in the United States commissioned a top-tier research firm to investigate prayer practices within Christian organizations. Their primary goal was to understand how these organizations had overcome the barriers to prioritizing prayer and how others might do the same.

Researchers identified hundreds of Christian organizations—including ministries, nonprofits, and for-profits—that publicly espoused a culture of prayer. They looked to this group as exemplars from whom others could learn. But from the start, nearly 90% of invited organizations self-selected out of the study. Most of the remaining participants reported that prayer occurred just once a week within their organization—a commitment that seemed to fall short of a trajectory-shaping reliance on prayer.

When I saw the results of the study, I couldn’t help but wonder, if this is the disappointing reality among the leading organizations in prayer, how much bleaker is the landscape for everyone else? What might we be missing when we miss prayer? And if Christian leaders aren’t praying, what is the impact on the organizations and teams they lead?

To learn to lead with prayer, I’ve spent the last few years working alongside Ryan Skoog of VENTURE and Cameron Doolittle of Practicing the Way to find what the research study largely did not: praying leaders who would let us sit at their feet and learn how to pray like leaders, modeling and then multiplying prayer in the organizations we lead.

We spent more than 100 hours in interviews with leaders across six continents who collectively serve in more than 100 countries. We talked with well-known ministry leaders like Francis Chan, Joni Eareckson Tada, John Mark Comer, Tim Mackie, Mark Batterson, and John Ortberg, exploring their daily prayer habits. We interviewed a billionaire business leader, C-suite leaders of publicly traded companies, and faith-driven entrepreneurs. We also learned from incredible global leaders whose ministries are drawing millions to Christ. These leaders not only affirmed the primacy of prayer in their lives but also shared specifics of what motivated them to pray; how they overcame disappointments, distractions, and obstacles to prayer; and how they even made time for prayer.

We compiled their answers into our upcoming book Lead with Prayer, along with new research, personal stories, biblical accounts, and practical tools designed to equip readers to create thriving cultures of prayer wherever they lead.

I wanted to write this book because I needed to read this book. What I learned has changed the way I live and lead, and I pray it will do the same for you.

Watch the Book Trailer ->

Join the Lead with Prayer book launch team ->

Pre-order Lead with Prayer ->

Download the free prayer resources ->

Some years ago, author and New York Times columnist David Brooks spoke of the difference between résumé virtues and eulogy virtues. He posited that although most of us would agree that eulogy virtues—things like compassion, faithfulness, and courage—matter most, it’s résumé virtues—marketable skills—that we most often invest in building.

This temptation may be especially great among current and aspiring leaders. We want to serve our organizations well, find our place among gifted and well-educated peers, and make our mark on an industry or issue. Metrics hold us accountable to our job performance; meanwhile, no one is measuring the kind of person we’re becoming.

With this awareness, I joined a group in 2015 with the name “The Eulogists.” The seven men in the group share a commitment to living in light of what ultimately matters. We connect throughout the year and meet in person each January to reflect honestly on whether the way we’re living is consistent with what matters most.

Scripture affirms that we are not promised tomorrow. Proverbs 27:1 says, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.” James 4:14 says, “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” Jesus clarifies our priorities through a parable in Luke 12 of a man who stores up abundant treasure for himself but won’t live to enjoy it. And the entire book of Ecclesiastes addresses the meaninglessness that characterizes so much of human striving. We need to live asking, What ultimately matters? And nothing clarifies that question more powerfully than a friend’s funeral.

A few weeks ago, a dear friend who served as senior pastor of Highland Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas, invited me to deliver a sermon that, in essence, explored making Christ’s priorities our own. Bryan and I had met in a young leaders group in 2006, and although I joked that I wasn’t sure we could still be described as “young” leaders, by all accounts, Bryan was at the prime of his life and ministry. He was faithfully serving God and his congregation; actively inviting his community in Dallas to fully follow Christ; and loving his wife, Ali, and their three children well. I returned home from our time together feeling full; that was Bryan’s effect on people.

Just days later, a mutual friend called to share the news that Bryan had died in his sleep. I prepared to fly back to Texas for funeral services in a persistent state of disbelief. But as I sat and listened to what was shared during the memorial service, I was struck by the consistency between what Bryan said mattered and how he lived his life. He loved his wife and kids, he challenged his congregation to make their priorities match God’s priorities, and he invested deeply in others. His wife of 15 years reflected that Bryan was the first to apologize; he was quick to listen and slow to speak; and he was eager to know how to become a better husband and father, even as he shepherded a growing congregation. A friend described Bryan as a man of unmatched humility and unreasonable kindness. In his presence, people felt accepted, relaxed, and safe.

Bryan was a great man, and many titles describe him: husband, father, pastor, leader. But perhaps the best description would be follower, because Bryan went after the heart of Jesus with everything he had. I pray the same will be said of me, as I, like Bryan, learn to live with eternity at the forefront of my mind.

We are not promised tomorrow, so let’s live today in light of what matters most.

I have grown to love public speaking. Staring out at faces and trying to communicate is exhilarating. However, put me in front of a camera, staring into nothingness, and I flounder. So when a foundation that supports HOPE’s work invited me to participate in a video series they were recording in Chattanooga, TN, a few months ago, I was equal parts honored and anxious.

Ahead of my arrival, the team from the recording studio, SociallyU, scheduled an introductory call. In addition to going over logistics, they used the time to get to know me, asking about my taste in music and thoughtfully inquiring about any lunch preferences for our time together. Wanting to be a low-maintenance guest, I told them I’d eat anything. My response was truthful—my global travels have taught me to enjoy virtually any type of food—but the SociallyU team wasn’t satisfied with my reply. As they continued to press for a favorite food, I responded lightheartedly, “Chilean sea bass!” before hurrying to add that any sort of sandwich would be great.

When I pulled into SociallyU’s parking lot a few weeks later, I was surprised to see my name above a reserved parking spot. Walking into their studio, I was even more surprised to hear a familiar song from one of the bands I’d mentioned on our call playing overhead. I smiled at this totally unnecessary, but not unnoticed, kindness. Already I was feeling more at ease. Later in the day when lunch arrived, I could not believe I was looking at Chilean sea bass. My mouth dropped open. “You didn’t!” I protested. I was blown away.

SociallyU’s team went far above and beyond every expectation to extend ridiculous hospitality to me. And I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. The fact is, extravagant kindness makes us sit up and take notice; it’s memorable and contagious.

All four gospels recount a story of extravagant hospitality and kindness bestowed on Jesus at a dinner party (Matthew 26:6–13, Mark 14:3–9, Luke 7:36–50, John 12:1–8). Scholars debate whether this was the same incident retold from different perspectives or multiple occasions with different followers lavishing love on Jesus, but the underlying premise of each account is the same. While Jesus is seated at the table, a woman poured out an entire jar of expensive perfume, anointing His head and feet. From the disciples’ reactions, we can conclude this was no ordinary act of hospitality. Perhaps a drop or two would have been courteous, but the whole bottle? The disciples would have preferred moderation to this extravagance. They called it a waste—but that wasn’t how Jesus saw it.

Jesus told the woman that her extravagant kindness would be remembered always. “Wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her,” He said.

What if more followers of Christ came to be known and remembered for the way we showed ridiculous, above-and-beyond, lavish love and kindness?

Since my experience at SociallyU, I’ve found myself looking for ways to share their spirit of radical hospitality. After receiving that kind of extraordinary care, I’ve wanted to extend it to others. Even more fundamentally, may we remember there’s nothing moderate about the love and kindness we’ve received from God. May Christ’s followers regularly extend immoderate, extravagant love and kindness—the kind we’ve been given and the kind that will be remembered far longer than our names.

For 476 days, we’ve heard about the dire realities of war in Ukraine: Thriving cities abandoned. Loved ones missing. Lives and livelihoods plundered.

Just last week, farmers HOPE previously served in the Kherson region woke up to the reality of losing yet another harvest. With fields under water from enemy attacks on the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant, their crops and profits have been wiped out.

While traveling to Ukraine to visit our HOPE colleagues recently, these scenes were at the forefront of my mind. The horror and destruction of war I’d read about was real. But as I spent more time with staff and entrepreneurs there, one thing became clear: Even as bombs weakened infrastructure and devastated neighborhoods, they most certainly did not crush the Ukrainian spirit.

During my trip, I heard HOPE Ukraine staff recount story after story of God at work in the midst of chaos and instability. Max, manager of HOPE Ukraine’s resilience efforts, was one of many who chose to remain at home despite being in close proximity to the conflict. Max is not alone; many in Ukraine have a deep commitment to be part of restoration—even as enemy forces continue to sow destruction. Their motivation? To put their faith into action by providing swift aid and meaningful response in service to their communities.

Two entrepreneurs I met who shared that same determination were Andre and Iryna. As restaurant owners, they have viewed their business as a calling. Not just a calling to their nation, but to their King. At dinner together, Andre told our group that earlier in life he had wanted to serve God by joining his church’s choir. Laughing, he commented, “But I wasn’t very good at singing.” Instead, he and his wife realized they were skilled in operating restaurants, providing employment and modeling generosity.

Andre has been a long-time client of HOPE Ukraine, utilizing investments to scale their business. When war broke out, he was one of the first to seek a recovery loan. With unreliable electricity services across the country, Andre used his loan to purchase a generator to power the kitchen, dining area, and office of his restaurant, as well as half the residences on the street. Andre has also used his business to employ internally displaced individuals. They now make up more than half his staff. He’s trimmed his profit margins to maximize employees’ earnings and pays them daily, knowing they might need necessities for their families during this time of turmoil. He and his employees also cook extra meals and deliver them to families whenever there is a need. His work is evidence of God’s goodness. Although he wasn’t singing in the choir, Andre found a way to worship through his work.

Like Andre and Max, the work of so many other Ukrainian believers is proof of God’s goodness pushing back against evil and destruction. It’s obvious in business leaders who risk their safety to provide work for others in desperate situations. It’s shown by families who open up their homes to strangers in need. Ukrainian believers continue to walk in God’s leading in times of war, just as they had done in times of peace.

Despite the devastation Russia inflicts on their country, the Ukrainian spirit will not be broken. We will continue to see Ukrainian believers serving on the front lines of a courageous response, daily finding ways to love God and love their neighbors.

Co-authored by LeAnna Vine