How We View the Poor

One of the things we will make a priority with our church is serving our community, and specifically the poor/oppressed. I was reading an article by Mark Buchanan called Wreck the Roof about the ways they've had to change their focus as a church in order to really reach out to the needy and came across a great quotation. He is talking about a program they do where they give backpacks with school supplies to the children of single parents. Before they begin he meets with the volunteers from his church and here is what he tells them.

"Today, you are Christ's voice, his hands, his feet, his eyes, his heart. If these people see Jesus, it will be in you. And, like Christ, we are doing more than rendering a service. We are loving them as ourselves. We are not just serving, but having Jesus' attitude--being in very nature servants.

"Life and circumstances, and ofthen their own bad choices, have taken many things from these people. But what each of them needs most today is not clothes or a new backpack or an oil change. We can give all those things and fail to give the one thing needed, or even worse: we might give all those gifts with one hand, and with the other strip them further of the one thing needed.

"The one thing needed is dignity. It is their sense of being loved and worth loving. It is their sense of their infinite value in the eyes of God, and in the eyes of God's people. If we give all those other things today but don't give them dignity, we fail. Today, give the one thing needed. Today, we host kings and queens, princes and princesses. Let us act accordingly."

I nearly cry every time I read the last two sentences. So often we see the poor as projects at best and a nuisance at worst. If we serve them with that attitude we will do more to push them down then to give them a hand.

Once in Denver I pulled up to a stoplight and there was a man begging on the corner. I rolled down my window and here's how our conversation went.

"Hello."
"Hello"
"What's your name?"
"My name's Abraham."
"Hi Abraham. My name's Trevor. I'm sorry I truly don't have anything I can give you today, but I just wanted to say hi. It's got to get tough being out here all day."
"Thanks man. I lost my job two weeks ago and haven't been able to get another job. I've been putting in applications but nothing's come through. I really hate being out here and just want to find some work so I don't have to be."
At this point the light turned green.
"Well, I will pray that you get work soon."
"Hey, thanks for saying hi. You don't know how much that means."

The look in his eyes is one I'll never forget. When he told me it meant a lot that I said hi it was like he had been given hope. That seems wierd to me, to get that from someone saying hi, but I've never had to beg on a street corner, so I can't know what that does to you.

I don't tell this story to say I'm great or something. I shudder to think how many times I haven't stopped to say hi or how much I should have done and didn't. My point is that dignity is important. I can't imagine how humiliating it would be to stand on a street corner and ask for money. Or how humiliating it would be to go apply for welfare. We can do so much good by treating the poor as the equals they are. We cannot forget this point if we really want to please God.

God's Goodness in Pain

Coming to Denver from Indiana five years ago was tough for us. When we left we all had to drive separate cars, and when we made our first stop I got out and saw Michelle's eyes stained with tears. She said she had cried for the first two hours of our trip. We both had a hard time leaving our families. We assumed we'd be in Denver for three years and then move back nearer home.

Now, five years later, we are taking the step we thought would be a relief--we're moving back to the Midwest. We are very excited for what lies ahead of us, but it is very difficult too. One of the prayers we prayed when we came here was that God would give us good friends, and I know Michelle prayed for that especially hard. We have seen God answer those prayers beyond what we could have imagined.

Now, when Michelle thinks about leaving, she is moved to tears in the same way she was when we came. If I stop and think about our move in the midst of the busyness I also have a hard time thinking about the people we're leaving.

It's this pain that has been my greatest reminder of God's goodness in the last few days. First, that God would create us with an ability to relate to others in a way that leaving them would be painful. I praise Him for that. And the fact that he has made this place that is so far from home become our home, that could not have happened without His hand, and I praise Him for that. So our pain is our reminder of the goodness of our God. It is this goodness we throw ourselves on as we move to the next chapter in our lives.

The Chinese Church

Last week I made a connection that has encouraged me about the missional church movement. As you probably know, the Chinese underground church has grown rapidly--impressively--over the last decades.

The Chinese church forms cell-like structures because they have to. The government's persecution and interference have forced them underground, but they've stayed connected and networked. These Chinese house churches simply can't become a religious institution with "baggage"--buildings, famous leaders, theological and political debates. They have to "travel light," as Alan Hirsch says in The Forgotten Ways.

And the movement has spread because they're driven to prayer, and the Holy Spirit, and the responsibility and passion for sharing Christ comes back to the individual and away from an institution.

I see some connections here with how a missional church usually works. We can learn alot from the Chinese church--and come to think of it, it's not too different from the early church, is it?

Raising Support

One of the necessary parts of what we are doing is support raising. I don't think a family of four can live on thirty hours a week at a coffee shop, so I have to pursue support relationships with people. This is probably the thing I have dreaded most of all that we are doing, but two conversations in the past week have eased that dread a little bit.

The first one was with a guy named Matt who works with Missio. We were talking about raising support and he said, "This is going to be very difficult for you until you believe that people need to give to you as much as you need them to give." I've been reflecting on that, and I do believe that it would be beneficial for people to be involved in it through financial support. It is a way that others can participate with us in God's call to missional church planting. We can't do it without them and they might not be gifted or called to go and do it.

The second conversation was with a friend from Southern Gables named Jim. He and I haven't had the chance to get together all that often, but he always challenges me to think and I appreciate his influence in my life. He was talking about the chain that exists between people in all the work of the Kingdom. For instance, if a person enters into a relationship with Christ, there is someone (more likely many people) who have represented true Christianity to them through words and actions. And there are people behind those people who shaped them in a way that they would be disciples. The chain goes on and on, but I think it really applies to our support raising. We don't yet know who will be impacted by our efforts in Aurora, but I believe those people will go on to have significant impact on others for the Kingdom. If it were not for people supporting us, that chain of influence would not continue to expand.

I can't say I want to become a full-time fundraiser now, but these conversations did help to give me some perspective.

Recieving Faith

Since Michelle (my wife) and I decided to leave Denver, my job, our friends, and all that is familiar to pursue the vision God has given us for planting a church we have prayed that he would give us great faith. This is something we both struggle with, but in different way.

I struggle having faith that we will actually be able to do what God has called us to do. I've always had this lingering heresy in my head that God gives you the opposite of what you want, so even in something he's called us to that creeps in. Practically this means I lack the faith to believe that our house will sell--the biggest thing that could keep us from pursuing our calling.

Michelle tends to struggle with faith in areas of security and stability. So the things that are hard for her are things like: Will God provide friends in Illinois like he has here? Where will the money come from to support our family? After all, we have no jobs there and can't raise any support until our house sells.

The wonderful way that God has answered our prayers for faith is that he has given Michelle faith in the areas I lack it and vice versa. I think it would be easier for me if God would give me faith in all things, and I still try to have that and ask him for it, but I am amazed at how God is answering this prayer in a way that draws my wife and I together. In a time of great stress, transition, and unknown, God is using Michelle and I to give each other hope and faith in God.