A King Jesus Economy

I’ve lived through a few quasi-movements when it comes to Christians and the economy, though I don’t believe at any time there was theoretically sound ideas about the economy. It was instinct and quasi-theological and quasi-biblical reactions. The Bible was called in to aid in a theory.

First, I grew up in the 50s and 60s when the economy was a burgeoning capitalism and consumerism following WW2. Second, I came of age in the 60s and 70s when the Jesus People and the radical edges of the evangelical world spawned some criticism of consumerism. Hence, we had people like Ron Sider and Howard Snyder and Jim Wallis. Third, the visionaries of that movement carried on with their only-occasionally strident protests while evangelicalism itself joined in the Reagan era with a deeper commitment to capitalism and consumerism. Fourth, there is a reawakening of a Christian economy today.

How deep will this reawakening run? Is the American church too economically complacent and comfortable to be bothered?

How so? Check out the new book by Michael Rhodes and Robby Holt, with Brian Fikkert called Practicing the King’s Economy: Honoring Jesus in How We Work, Earn, Spend, Save, and Give.

They have Six Keys to the King’s Economy.

1. “God, Not Mammon” || The Worship Key

2. “One Table, One Baptism, No Distinction” || The Community Key

3. “Work and Wages, Gleaning and Giving” || The Work Key

4. “No Poor among You” || The Equity Key

5. “The Heavens Declare the Glory” || The Creation Key

6. “The Lord Has Given the Sabbath” || The Rest Key

Do we have the courage to play with these keys? To use these keys?

It’s not all about thinking and theology and Bible and exegesis.

Short visits to this parallel economic universe contained in Scripture, though, aren’t enough; we’re called to bear witness to this world in our own lives and communities. We’ve got to come back through the wardrobe, bringing glimpses of God’s kingdom reign, including his alternative economic program, into our own world. This is hard work for at least two reasons. First, proclaiming King Jesus in territory occupied by other would-be kings can get us in trouble. … Second, we ourselves have been deeply deformed in our economic lives by living in kingdoms that fall short of God’s kingdom.

We learn by examples, by stories, by seeing it worked out in real life. Hence…

That’s why, in this book, we don’t just give you a chapter on each key to the King’s economy that will enable you to explore God’s economy in Scripture. We also include a second chapter on each key that contains stories of fellow sinners who’ve brought bits and pieces of that economy to life in our world. These stories will help you encounter each key.

And most important, these chapters will also include a set of formative practices, a training regimen, if you will, that we believe will help you embody the King’s economy back on this side of the wardrobe. By formative practices, we mean actions you can take as an individual, together with your family, as a church, or in the marketplace, that explicitly illustrate this economy.

Think of them as spiritual disciplines for your economic health. We believe these formative practices will do three things:

1. Act to bring about the healing brought by our King in the midst of our hurting world.

2. Express something to the world about the kingdom and our King.

3. Form our own hearts, habits, visions, and imaginations to see, bear witness to, and welcome this kingdom.