He walked into the church building one weekday afternoon. He was obviously down on his luck, hurting, and needing some help. Our College Pastor met with him for quite a while listening to his story, encouraging him, praying for him, and helping where he could before he went on his way.

That Sunday morning, almost an hour before the first worship service begins, a young man is sitting on the curb outside the church building. Our Connections Pastor thinks it’s the same gentleman that paid a visit earlier in the week. She makes her way outside, sits on the curb next to him, and eventually inspires him to come inside.

It’s after the second worship experience of the morning that I meet him for the first time. His countenance now a tad brighter and his chest a bit higher, he shares of his Sunday morning encounter. I make sure he gets a sandwich that has been brought in for an after church meeting that I slip into and lose track of him.

After the meeting, I head back to my office and a note that has been left on the welcome desk catches my attention. I’m a little skittish about notes left for me on a Sunday morning, but I begin to read…

          Thank you Pastor Ryan…I planned on killing myself when I got out of jail.

          Something inside me said not till after Sunday. Go to church. I’m thankful

          for being here and I’m looking forward to next Sunday. Words can’t express

          how thankful I am right now. I’m speechless…

What if our College Pastor thought he had better things to do that afternoon? Or if our Connections Pastor ignored the young man sitting on the curb? What if we overlook those put in our path every single day?

EVERYBODY NEEDS A SOMEBODY WHO SEES THEM, KNOWS THEM, AND BELIEVES IN THEM!

Who is your somebody today?

 

 

 

 

A group of ten executives representing some of the nation’s most successful companies stood across from ten inmates in one of the nation’s most dangerous prisons. The executives had volunteered to spend the weekend mentoring inmates for a prison entrepreneurship program led by Defy Ventures. Defy is a nonprofit that capitalizes on inmate’s expertise in running criminal organizations by teaching them how to “transform their hustles” into legitimate business enterprises and is one of the most successful prison programs in the nation dropping the recidivism rate from 76.6 percent to 3.2 percent among its graduates.

Standing ten feet apart from each other in two parallel rows, executives lined up shoulder to shoulder on one side, mirrored by the inmates standing across from them. The name of the game was “Step to the Line,” and everyone in the room answered the same questions at the same time. Those who answered yes stepped forward. Those who didn’t stayed in place.

If you had two parents who tucked you in at night and told you they loved you, step forward.

All of the executives stepped forward. None of the inmates did.

If you went to a school where you didn’t fear gang violence, and where you had up-to-date books and technology, step forward.

All of the executives stepped forward. None of the inmates did.

If you had breakfast every day before school and took a packed lunch with you to school, never going through your day on an empty stomach, step forward.

All of the executives stepped forward. None of the inmates did.

If you had more than fifty books in your home, step forward.

All of the executives stepped forward. None of the inmates did.

If you grew up with an immediate family member in prison, step forward.

None of the executives did. All of the inmates did.

If you lost a family member due to gun violence while you were a child, step forward.

None of the executives did. All of the inmates did.

If you were addicted to drugs before the age of twenty, step forward.

Two of the executives stepped forward. All of the inmates did.

 

We all come from diverse places in life shaped by unique experiences which gives us distinct perspectives. Far too often, we judge those that come from different places and have different experiences and perspectives than we do. Or worse yet, we turn a blind eye to those different places, experiences, and perspectives.

We don’t need Defy Ventures to conduct this experiment. This week do one (or all) of the following:

• Have a conversation with a co-worker or neighbor that looks, thinks, or acts differently than you and that you typically avoid conversations with.
• Take a field trip to an setting where you are the minority. Document your experience describing your emotions and your reactions.
• Make a lunch or coffee appointment with someone who comes from a different background than you. Ask questions about their life story and a life perspective that is different from yours.

 

(Defy Ventures story modified from The Third Optionby Miles McPherson)

Jesus makes it clear we don’t get to choose our neighbor (Luke 10:25-37). But we can choose how to neighbor. When Jesus began his ministry, he stood in the temple and proclaimed these words: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor (Luke 4:18). Jesus made it clear that empowering the poor was at the top of his list. We must care about those living in poverty because Jesus cared about those in poverty. If we don’t care for the poor, do we really even understand the gospel?

Charles Spurgeon identified three groups that miss the gospel when it comes to empowering the poor:

1. The Apathetic– The apathetic are not cruel and vicious people; they just don’t think about things that don’t affect them. But if one-half of our children didn’t live past their 8^thbirthday, or were dying from preventable diseases, we would be all out focused on fixing the problem. We have a gaping hole in the way we see the world. It’s not that we don’t care about the poor, we just don’t know about the poor.
2. The Self-Indulgent– The self-indulgent may care but they love personal comforts too much to actually sacrifice anything for anyone else. We don’t typically think of ourselves as being rich. We think of people who have far more than we do but when most people around the world think of the “rich” they picture us. But if we have clean water, sufficient food, clothes, a roof over our head, access to medicine and the ability to read a book we are incredibly wealthy relative to billions of people in the world.
3. The Procrastinators– The procrastinators know they are supposed to do good to the poor, but they never really do anything about it. If the love of God is in our hearts, then it is not possible for us to ignore the poor in the world. The gospel compels us to action on behalf of the poor.

I don’t know about you, but I’m guilty – of being apathetic, self-indulgent, and procrastinating. Where do you struggle most? Where can we jump out of those ruts today and empower the poor?

But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need,

yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

1 John 3:17-18

 

 

 

 

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word “church”? I bet you think of a building or an event. We typically refer to the church as an address where it meets or a time that it happens. Unfortunately, what comes to mind for most people when they think of church is such a far cry from the reality of what took place in the era when the church was born.

Jesus was actually the first one to use the term church…kind of. In Matthew 16:13-18, at Peter’s declaration of who Jesus is, He says of Peter, “and on this rock I will build my church.” Jesus called it – the church that is! The Greek word used there is ecclesia. Jesus borrowed that word from the world He lived in. It wasn’t a religious term and the disciples were more than likely very familiar with the word. It simply meant “a gathering of people called for a specific purpose.” The church is simply that. Over time, as buildings were built for the gathering, the German word kirche took the place for church and it referred to the building they met in.

But if we are going to be true to Jesus’ prophecy of the church, we must ask ourselves what the purpose of our gathering together is. Looking at Acts and the entirety of the New Testament (which was the early church), here is what I believe the purpose of the church is:

1. Worship

The early church gathered together regularly to hear teaching, sing songs, pray with one another, and share meals and Holy Communion. Yes, all of these things can be done in isolation, but the essence of the ecclesiais a gathering. We are called to come together regularly to celebrate Christ in our lives with these practices.

2. Community

The word we see in the New Testament is koinoniawhich means sharing life together. Jesus intends for us to be in relationships with others – to literally do life together. They say there are 59 “one another” statements in the New Testament. We are called to be about the “one another’s!”

3. Mission

Jesus never preached a message of “wait for them to come.” His message was always one of “go to them.” We are called out beyond the walls of any building or event to our “…Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

Yes, it’s true that the “church” today is taking a backseat in our culture. Our lives are busy and it’s tempting to see church as just one more thing in our already overcrowded schedules. It’s no secret, regular weekly attendance in a church building is in a downward spiral. But perhaps that’s because we are looking at “church” as a building or an event? Is that what Jesus called?