Question for Gospel for Asia: How Many Indian Churches Would $45 Million Build?

In Revolution in World Missions, K,P. Yohannan says the money needed by the rest of the world’s churches is held by North American Christians. Because he believes this, he has strong words for church leaders who construct expensive churches:

Is it God’s fault that men like Brother Paulose are going hungry? I do not think so. God has provided more than enough money to meet Paulose’s needs and all the needs of the TwoThirds World. The needed money is in the highly developed nations of the West. North American Christians alone, without much sacrifice, can meet all the needs of the churches in the Two-Thirds World.
A friend in Dallas recently pointed out a new church building that cost $74 million. While this thought was still exploding in my mind, he pointed out another $7 million church building going up less than a minute away.
These extravagant buildings are insanity from a Two-Thirds World perspective. The $74 million spent on one new building in the United States could build thousands of average-sized churches in South Asia. The same $74 million would be enough to guarantee that the Good News of Jesus Christ could be proclaimed to a whole Indian state—or even some of the smaller countries of Asia.
But I rarely spoke out on these subjects. I realized I was a guest. The Americans who had built these buildings had also built the school I was now attending, and they were paying my tuition to attend. It amazed me, though, that these buildings had been constructed to worship Jesus, who said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20).
In Asia today, Christ is still wandering homeless. He is looking for a place to lay His head, but in temples “not made with human hands.” Until they can build a facility of their own, our newborn Christians usually meet in their homes. In nonChristian communities, it is often impossible to rent church facilities.
There is such an emphasis on church buildings in the United States that we sometimes forget that the Church is the people— not the place where the people meet.
But God has not called me to fight against church building programs—we try to provide adequate church buildings for the small but growing Asian churches whenever possible. What troubles me much more than the waste is that these efforts often represent a worldly mindset. Why can’t we at least earmark 10 percent of our Christian giving for the cause of world evangelism? If Christians in the United States alone had made this commitment in 2000, there would have been nearly $10 billion available for Gospel outreach! (Revolution in World Missions, pp 47-48.)

I am not drawn toward large churches or extravagance so I can relate to Yohannan’s negative reaction. Some of my interest in the Global Fund story at Mars Hill Church was driven by my curiosity about what Mars Hill did with the funds given for missions. As it turns out, much of the money (“the preponderance”) was spent on U.S. expansion rather than supporting the basic needs of mission pastors.
In my interviews with former GFA staff, a recurring topic is the discrepancy between the rhetoric of moderation and the reality of excess. A case in point is the relocation and building of the new GFA compound at Wills Point, TX. The project cost around $45 million. Staff were told that the project would save money. Former staff I have talked to indicate that they had to spend more money to live when they moved to Wills Point than before the move. More about that in the days to come.
Below is a picture of Gospel for Asia’s headquarters completed recently. There is a gallery of the GFA campus posted (for now) at HH Architects website.
HHArchitectsGFA
GFA HQ Front
 
GFA HQ inside
Here is the multimillion dollar chapel.
Wills Point GFA Chapel
I realize things cost money and GFA needs a headquarters. However, this project required nearly $20 million from “the field” to complete. Believers’ Church in India had to borrow $20 million for GFA’s American offices.* I am trying to reconcile this what I read in Revolution in World Missions.
 
*I need to add that the project included staff housing, including for K.P. Yohannan. Numerous homes were built along with the HQ.
 
 
 

David Barton's Legend Grows to Include Supreme Court Winner

David Barton was given a PhD by Glenn Beck and was sorta called “America’s Historian” in a World Net Daily article and speaks for over 400 (600?) groups per year.  Barton has also added NCAA Division One basketball player and translator for the Russian gymnastics team. Now, he can add winner of cases at the Supreme Court. Watch this invitation to hear Barton speak at an Assembly of God church in Texarkana, TX (full video here):

Barton has filed some amicus briefs (friend of the court) which anyone can do (e.g., here) but he is not an attorney and hasn’t argued before the court.  Of course, I realize Barton didn’t say this but I wonder if he will correct it. He has some responsibility for it since he says in his bio that he has “participated” in Supreme Court cases. The minister took the word “participated” and made it into “argued and won.” He also made Barton into a “Constitutional scholar.”
My point isn’t that Barton is responsible for the false things people say about him (although in Beck’s case, he should have corrected the misinformation). Rather, I am focusing my attention more on the social and cognitive factors that operate in the evangelical environment that elevate Barton to expert status. Here is one. This minister gave Barton a superhuman build up, using false information to do it. Since the minister wants Barton to motivate his congregation, he fails to tell his people about Barton’s misleading stories, his disgraced book about Jefferson and the general negative associations Barton has among actual experts, Christian and otherwise. And this minister, who probably did not intend to speak falsely, adds the stuff of legends.

Deja Vu All Over Again: David Barton Misleads Audience Again About Crime Statistics

Watching Maris and Mantle hit home runs during the early 1960s, Yankees catcher Yogi Berra was reported to say that the frequent long ball was like “deja vu all over again.” That’s about how it feels watching David Barton mislead churches when he speaks.
On March 30, Barton spoke to Victory Christian Center in Austin, TX. Right Wing Watch has one aspect of the speech which is a newer wrinkle in his misleading ways, but watching the rest of the speech, I had that deja vu feeling again.
There were many whoppers but I’ll note one I have written about at some length. Barton again told his audience that crime has gone up 694% since the Bible was removed from public schools. The camera work doesn’t permit a look at the slide he used but he said nearly the same things about the claim as he has in past speeches. Start watching at 38:24.
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/91349660[/vimeo]
After 38:24, Barton claims:

You remember Benjamin Rush said if you ever take the Bible out of public schools you’ll spend all your time and money fighting crime when you could prevent it? I’ve been a consultant to the U.S. Justice Department and I can show you violent crime statistics for a number of years back. When we took the Bible out of schools, violent crime increased 694% since that point in time. Wow. Think of how many more lives would be alive today because of that increase in crime…

While there was an increase in violent crime between the early 1960s and the mid-1990s, Barton does not disclose to his audience that violent crime among youth and adults has dropped dramatically since the mid-1990s. The murder rate now is about the same as before the Bible was removed from schools. This chart provides the rest of the history about overall violent crime rates that Barton didn’t tell.
UCR_Vio_11
 
And as I pointed out in that prior post, the Bible had been long gone from schools many places around the country before the 1960s and is absent from schools in other nations where the crime rate is much less than our own.
This is just one fact claim in this speech; there are other outrageous claims. After all the debunking from Christian and non-Christian historians and scholars, he continues to have a platform to mislead people (e.g., at Urbana University in Ohio later this month).
 
 
 

Records temporarily sealed in Scinto vs. Mankind Project

Last Friday (6/6/08), a Harris County, TX judge partially granted a motion to seal the Scinto wrongful death case. The Mankind Project wanted the case marked confidential and the Exhibit A removed from the settlement document. Exhibit A spelled out changes agreed to by MKP which I reported here last week. As it stands now, the case is “sealed temporarily” with another hearing to be held on July 18, 2008.