If you had a million dollars (and only a million), what would you do to help alleviate the pain of the current economic crisis?
Paul Watson asked this question on his blog a week ago. This his how I answered it.
I would "probably find a way to help the churches and mission organizations retool with an eye towards microbusiness and social enterprise in order to emerge from the recession equipped for long term sustainability. What about a million for 100 10k micro-loans for that purpose? Track all 100 of them and create a community blog so everyone can cheer them on and learn from them.
The need for churches and mission organizations to move from dependence to sustainability was one of my teaching themes in 2008 (Australia, Netherlands, USA, UK). Some of my thoughts can be found here. Cooperatives, Mission and the Fourth Sector, On Going Fourth. I don't think my sustainability message was taken very seriously during year, before the economic downturn, but am hoping that the new circumstances will create more openness to think again about how we do mission.
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