What You'll Hear: Art Lindsley in 4th grade at a summer camp committed his life and felt forgiveness and closeness to the Lord He got a BS in Chemistry, a Master of Divinity and PhD in Religious Studies. He worked at the Ligonier Valley Studies Center with R.C. Sproul for 6 years as Director for Educational Initiatives and for 25 years at the C.S. Lewis Institute partly as President and has been at The Institute for Faith, Work and Economics for 6 years In his book "For the Least of These - A Biblical Answer to Poverty", he talks about the poverty industry and quotes from the book "Toxic Charity", Bob Lupton saying "You give once you elicit appreciation, you give twice you create anticipation, you give 3 times you create expectation, you give 4 times it becomes entitlement, you give 5 times you establish dependency" The book "Dead Aid" essentially states that the U.S. ought to stop giving Africa aid as a long term solution. 85% of the aid has gone to a place other than which it was intended. A great film "Poverty Inc." talks about the need for a new paradigm dealing with poverty. There is often a missing small/medium business in these countries. In one case, some in Hollywood sent 100,000 miscuito nets which drove the local African business out of business In Deuteronomy when it said "you'll always have the poor" it meant we'll never have an excuse for not helping the poor The best way to help the poor is to help affirm their dignity as image bearers of God and give them an opportunity to apply their gifts Peter Greer from Hope International asked some poor people how they defined poverty, the answers almost 100% did not deal with money In 1800, 85% were living in desperate poverty, in 1950 50%, in 1992 25%, in 2007 15%, now 10%, almost solely through enterprise Any attempt by government has to take into account that the ultimate goal is to empower people Government, non-profits, and business all have a role In almost every case he would prefer the church rather than government help the poor About 30% of what you give to the government goes to help the poor, about 30% with a non-profit goes to help the poor In the past, the church did take the responsibility of helping the poor In his book "Counting the Cost: A Christian Perspective on Capitalism", he found an argument against abuse is not an argument against use In Lindsley's book about C.S. Lewis, he wrote that Lewis as a young boy had a problem with prayer and quit praying because he found it inadequate. Lewis found that just because something is old or something from the past that it is wrong. He also struggled with the problem of evil. He found that if evil is real, there had to be a sufficient basis for it. A discussion between Lewis and Tolkien about myths made a big impact on Lewis. Lewis found a contradiction between his reason and his imagination. From his book "Love The Ultimate Apologetic", 2 of the major worldviews that standpoint against Christianity, Atheism (all is natural) and Eastern Religion (all is spiritual) provide no basis for love. The path to love Work - Jesus was a small business-man for about 20 years and was noted in His field for being excellent at what He did and He spent 3 years in ministry. It must be OK to be in business and to work with your hands. Work-life balance - we're called to be faithful in every area of our lives (God, church, family, work, health). No one area is to drive out the others. There should be a compatibility between these things. There's always a way to make time for everything if you work with your schedules. Our ultimate purpose from Genesis is to work. Because of the Fall, we have alienation from the creation (our work). We are to reverse the effect of sin through redemption including work. Work is valuable in and of itself. Most people don't fully grasp that. One professor said there are times when it's immoral to share the Gospel at work. We don't just work to share the Gospel or to make money. The primary purpose of work is to be faithful with the gifts God has given us. Life verses: Eph 6:10, Matthew 18:21, Psalm 130 For work commute, listen to the Bible, sermons, 20 hour long lectures called "The Basic Apologetics Course" on Youtube and the website, podcasts on the website Contact alindsley@tifwe.org, www.tifwe.org
