I had a friend ask me the other day what made me decide to work for a church. Good question, I told her, considering I have for most of my life never wanted to work for a church! So why am I now working for one?
I have always had a strong love for God, but have also had a strong desire to help people and an avid interest in politics. I think my interest in politics and government first developed because I saw how many people could be helped and how much could actually be changed through systemic change. I’ve always naturally been a big - vision person, so I saw people hurting, and I saw governments with the most power to help those hurting people.
But the past couple years – through books I’ve read, conversations I’ve had with friends and mentors, organizations I’ve worked for, and most recently through my church – I have seen that there is great power elsewhere as well:
In the Church. Church with a capital “C” - the body of Christ. As I began to read and study and look at examples, I saw that if the Church was truly living the way Christ taught us to, we would be the most powerful, effective force for systemic change. If the incredibly large Church that exists today was truly living out the radical, selfless love of Christ in every part of our lives, the world would look very different. Power lies in the words and teachings of Christ, and in the Spirit He has given His people that empowers us to live out those teachings.
I began to see that passing a law is ultimately not a guarantee that people will be helped – we see proof of that all around the world today. And having Christians in politics ultimately doesn’t do much good if those Christians don’t really know how the truth of Christ affects their politics. A law can be passed saying drugs are illegal, but that won’t stop inner city youth from using and selling to make enough money to eat if that is the only option they see in their neighborhood.
Power lies in the Church. We have the Spirit of the living God in us. Therefore, we have the ability to change the culture around us through truly living the way Christ taught and the apostles model in Scripture. It lies with us to learn how Christ’s teachings affect the racial and class divides in our neighborhood, the politics we stand up for, the issues we care about. It lies with us to be an example for the government and to utilize the government to truly do justice. It lies with us to live selflessly and care about others as much as we care about ourselves, and to challenge those around us and our leaders to do the same.
And that is why I am working in a church this year. My pastors and my church community model so well what it looks like to live so differently that it affects the culture around us. And I have already begun to see the effects of that on our neighborhood, on the way those in our community think about political and social issues, on what our lifestyles look like. And I want to learn from this awesome church community I have, and be a part of this vision God has given them. I want to learn how to better teach and equip the Church to be an influential effective, powerful force in our culture, so that politics, government, and other institutions are truly used to help the poor and oppressed. I have come to believe that if the Church at large is better equipped and mobilized to live out the selfless, counter-culture love of Christ, effectual and lasting change will come to broken situations all over the world. And the reality of Christ’s love will be seen.
In the past month and a half that I’ve worked for my church, I have already begun to learn so much about what it looks like to build relationships and invest in the surrounding community, help the community where there is need, and mobilize others to do the same. I have seen great examples from those in my church of what it looks like to be the Church to our neighborhood, and have seen how powerful this is. Here are a few of the things I’ve gotten to do in September and October:
- I organized our church’s Columbia Heights Fall Festival: On October 1st our church, in partnership with a few community organizations, held a Fall Festival to meet residents of the neighborhood and provide a fun environment for families and kids! Despite rain and having to move to an indoor location, it was a huge success! Check out some pictures on our Facebook page.
- I’ve been able to meet with various community and religious leaders about the positive work they are doing in our neighborhood, and have been encouraged by the ideas exchanged and the promise of future partnership to together bring justice and peace to our area.
- I have regular weekly meetings with several people, some for more strategic outreach-planning purposes, and others are to give more personal mentorship and guidance. I have already had some amazing conversations, and am excited to see how God uses these regular meetings both in my life and their’s! One of the regular weekly things I’ve started doing is a Wednesday morning breakfast for women in our church, and I can already tell this is going to be one of my favorite things!
- I have started leading a weekly small group with Stephen and one of our friends, Bruce, on God and Justice. This small groups studies and addresses some pretty intense issues having to do with God’s justice and what it should look like lived out in our lives today – and there have been some intense discussions! – but every week so far has left all of us feeling encouraged and challenged.
- I have begun to lay a framework for Outreach at our church, researching and developing regular outreach opportunities with many different organizations. I’ve been talking to leaders in our church, as well as my outreach team, about God’s vision for our church and where He is calling us to invest our time and resources over the next few years. For example, it is clear that a huge passion of many people in our church is youth and education, and inner-city youth issues are a huge need in our neighborhood. So I have begun to help set up many outreach opportunities in this area: our church has just launched a Youth Club in partnership with a couple other churches and the Community Center in our neighborhood. I have also begun to see what need our local schools have, and have started by organizing volunteer opportunities in the classrooms of the teachers in our own church, like Steve’s.
- My church sent me to a conference a couple weeks ago put on by the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA). Check out their website if you have a minute – they are an incredible organization. I learned so much in the three short days I was at this conference about how our church can practically form relationships with schools, non-profits, governments, etc and truly help reform the community around us. I heard some amazing examples of ways churches have turned entire cities around. I heard one story about a church in Maryland that started their own charter school because their public educations system was failing their kids, and they ran their charter school so well and made such a difference in their community that the MD city government approached them the next year and asked them to run the new public school the city was opening! So now the pastor and several other members of this church run this public school, and are allowed to hold chapel everyday –which isn’t mandatory – but every student still chooses to come to chapel! I can’t remember the statistics, but the high school graduation rate in this city in MD has increased by an exponential amount. All because of God’s work through this church investing in their community! That is what it looks like for the Church to truly live differently in this world – so differently that the city government comes to them for help! Needless to say, I’m incredibly inspired. So if you get an email from me at some point asking for money to help us start a charter school, don’t be surprised… :)
I’ll end with this encouraging story: this past summer, I volunteered with the small group I was in last year at Samaritan Inns, a drug and alcohol rehab facility in our neighborhood. We served dinner to the residents of Samaritan Inns, and we got to talk with them as we served them and then ate with them. Myself and a couple friends ended up inviting several of the residents to our church, because they all kept asking why we were there. Well, the next Sunday Antonio - one of the residents we had invited to church - came! And he has been back every Sunday since, and now regularly brings 2-3 other residents with him. Antonio and another woman from the program are now in my small group and are two of the most passionate, kind people I have ever met. I see a genuine love for God and for people that you just don’t see very much anymore, even in church. I’m so glad they are a part of our community, because they both still have a long road of recovery ahead of them and I am so glad we can walk alongside them. But even more than that, I am glad they are a part of our community because God has already used them to teach me so much about what it looks like to love Christ passionately and love others freely. And He has used them to remind me what Outreach is all about, about the heart behind all the programs and projects and strategic planning: we love others because Christ first loved us, and it is through loving others that Christ is truly seen (1 John 4:9-12). Because of serving a simply meal at Samaritan Inns, Antonio now knows Christ, and, as he just told me last night, “I didn’t just follow others out there on the streets. I used to lead others to do bad stuff. And now I want to lead others out there to know this better life.” We serve others so that they can know the fullness of life that Christ has for them, and we strive to help them live in that fullness. And it is through doing this that I truly believe the world will be changed. This is why I work for my church.
Prayer requests:
- God has blessed me over the past few years with amazing connections and fruitful relationships with many wonderful people and organizations. Whether it be through meetings with faith leaders in the White House, conferences with some very influential leaders, or meetings with leaders on important policy issues, God has allowed me to develop and maintain some very special relationships. Please pray that I would not become overwhelmed or try to control these relationships and use them as I see fit, but pray that I instead would, as Henri Nouwen prayed above, be made faithful to the vision God has given me, "so that wherever I go and whomever I meet, I can be a sign of [His] all-renewing love." Pray that I would continue to maintain the relationships God wants me to maintain, trusting that He has led me where I am for a reason, but also trusting in His hand in the situations and relationships He has led me into and releasing them all back to Him to use for His purposes.
- Please pray for wisdom and insight for my pastor, for me, and for the other leaders in our church as we continue to seek God's vision for how He desires His Church to look. Pray that we would be able to discern His Truth from cultural and religious raditions and our emotions and opinions.
- Please pray specifically for wisdom and insight for me as I develop the vision for Outreach at our church.
- Please pray that I would continue to learn how to better delegate, teach, and equip others.
- Please pray for the Youth Club, our work with Samaritan Inns, the relationships we have with various schools, and the other things God is leading our church to do. Pray for His love to be seen through us.
- Please pray for the youth of our city. The things I hear from Stephen, from other teachers, and the things I see on the streets everyday break my heart. The inner-city culture and the subsequent issues these kids are trapped in are so sad and seem so insurmountable, but we know our God can do anything, even change entire cultures. So please pray earnestly that God would save these kids from the cycles their stuck in, from the situations they cannot even help – pray that He would move in their lives, in their culture, and in our city, that He would truly begin to change their minds and hearts and open them up to Him. Pray that He would use us to help do this and that we would be willing!
- Please pray for Stephen. I am blown away everyday by the passion, patience, and selflessness of my husband. Sometimes I can’t even stand to hear about his class because it is that bad – his students are so hard and the reasons why are heartbreaking. He sees and deals with things in his 5thgraders that I can’t even imagine, yet comes home to me and asks me how he can help me. Pray that God would bless him for his selfless heart, and that He would give Stephen strength mentally, physically, and spiritually to go into his classroom everyday and love his students the way God has called him to. Pray for his students, especially for Jerome and Christian, who already seem so past help at the age of 10. Pray that God would move powerfully in their lives, and use Stephen to impact them in greater ways than he could ever imagine.
- Please pray for our marriage. We both have incredibly busy jobs that don’t allow us to spend a lot of down time together. Pray that we would learn how to serve God the way He has called us to in our jobs, while still putting each other and our marriage first! Pray that He would continue to show us how to seek Him and His vision for this world together, amidst the busyness of life! Pray that we would learn better and better everyday how to love each other selflessly and love God with our whole hearts.
"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." (1 John 4:9-12)
"Dear God, give me the courage to live and work for a new heaven and a new earth as Jesus did. Give me the freedom to be critical where I see evil and to offer praises where I see good. Most of all, make me faithful to the vision you have given me, so that wherever I go and whomever I meet, I can be a sign of your all-renewing love. Amen." - A prayer by Henri Nouwen
No comments:
Post a Comment