This is one of the reasons I love blogging. Not only does it allow me to express my thoughts on all manner of things, I also get to hear the thoughts of people from all over the world on the topics I write about.
A couple of weeks ago I posted something called “Church Planting: Slums or Suburbs? WWJP? (Where Would Jesus Plant?)” in which I basically made the case that Jesus was intentional about spending time 
with the poor and that we should follow his example and do the same.
A lot of good discussion followed – some comments in agreement, others not. I found this comment by Edgar de Blieck (who lives in Scotland and blogs here) particularly compelling as a rebuttal:
It’s not clear from the existing evidence that Jesus did make that choice. Let’s imagine – for the sake of argument only – that he was democratic in the way he spread his ministry about. Of course, that would involve him being with more poor people than rich people, on demographic grounds: there are *always* significantly more poor people than there are rich people.
Moreover, in his day, the Roman occupation saw to it that the poor-oppressed were proportionally greater in percentage terms than they are at other periods in history and in other locations. Given the paucity of the source material, and given its qualitative nature, I’d be uncomfortable making a quantitative case about how Jesus spent his time on the basis of it.
I do hear about him getting into trouble for hanging out with rich embezzlers like Zacchaeus. I daresay that the wife of Herod’s steward wasn’t flavour of the month with the ornery folks either…
At the same time, it’s clear that rich and poor hung out with Jesus, and that he sent his people out without money or provisions, expecting that they should be provided for.
This provision might reasonably be expected to come from those whose charity could extend to itinerant preachers on the basis of their ability to support them. The labourer may be worthy of his hire, but if he can’t be paid, then he labours in vain.
All I can say is that Jesus loves me, and, like you, I’m mind-meltingly wealthy. (We don’t even have to get as far as the fact that you’re reading this on a computer screen to make that deduction: the fact that you’re literate at all is evidence of your wealth!)
I’m glad God laid obedience to the great commission on the hearts of the folks that planted my church, where someone told me the gospel, or else how would I have heard it? It was through hearing it that I was saved.
Wealth isn’t a constraint or a consideration. The earth is God’s. He’ll make it possible for churches to come into existence wherever his Spirit blows. I’m praying for African missionaries to come to Scotland.
