Thus, the church—the Christian congregation—unlike the world is a community that gives and gives up in response to the needs of others, propelled by the example of self-giving that Jesus carried to extremity. Thus, the habit of the church in giving and in self-giving is a quite countercultural habit, for the way of the world is to acquire, to hoard, and to accumulate to monopoly—so “bigger barns” and “storehouse cities.” But not the church!
