Gospel.com Blog

Do you find it easy or hard to care for those who are hurting in the Church?

One of the more intriguing and challenging aspects of Christianity to me is the command to sacrificially care for one another. Jesus taught us that humble service was man’s greatest calling, and that to be considered “first” we must do our best to be “last.”

This devotional from Today in the Word reminds us that in the body of Christ we must look for those who are hurting and meet their needs, especially when it comes to helping the weakest of our members:

As the church of God, we must compassionately identify with those among us who hurt. Moreover, when members of our body are honored, we celebrate together. This isn’t mere sympathy or polite applause. With the kind of a radical unity in the body of Christ that Paul has been urging, we actually feel for one another. As followers of Jesus, we become like Him and take on each other’s pain and celebration in an incarnational way. In Christ, our stories and our lives really matter to others.

We can see what Paul is doing as he answers the questions the Corinthians have posed to him on the subject of spiritual gifts. He’s using his answer as an occasion to retrace some of his themes of the letter. We must remember that the fundamental problem the Corinthian church faced was its disunity. The disunity has expressed itself in multiple ways: believers had taken one another to court, the community had divided over the issue of whether one can eat meat sacrificed to idols, factions developed between sexual immorality and sexual asceticism, and the Lord’s Supper had become another occasion of the rich shaming the poor. Spiritual gifts were another arena where the Corinthians had despised one another.

Paul teaches that every member of the body is indispensable. We cannot do without what might seem to be the weakest of our members. As infinitely complex and beautiful as the human body, the diversity of the church is there by God’s creative design.

Read the entire devotional at todayintheword.com.

Have you witnessed an example of one member of the body of Christ caring for another recently? What are some practical steps you can take to care for those who are hurting?

If we believe the media, retirement is a perpetual vacation. After a long stretch of working, we finally have time to practice our golf swing or indulge in the finer things of life. But what would life look like if we viewed retirement as an opportunity to serve, rather than a time to sit back back and relax?

In today’s Our Daily Bread, the author points out that God told the Levites to help and minister to the people after they retired. It seems that Biblically speaking, retirement isn’t a time to rest on your laurels, but instead it’s a time to serve those around us:

Did you know that God told the Levites to retire from their regular duties at age 50? (Num. 8:24-25). But He did not want them to stop helping others. He said that they should “minister with their brethren… to attend to needs” (v.26). We cannot take this incident as a complete teaching on retirement, but we can see a godly implication that continuing to serve others after our working days are over is a good idea.

Many people find that when they retire they have nothing meaningful to do with their time. But as the Levites and Sir Edmund Hillary did, we can refocus when we retire—giving of our time to help others.

How could you serve after you retire?

Adam McClane recently reposted a comment he received from T.C. Porter about how Porter does church. I’ve read it a few times over the past few days and it continues to stick in my mind. The posture towards church that Porter adopts is both no-nonesense and rooted in the Bible. It’s also challenging to the status quo. For starters, their sermons are no longer than seven minutes, which leaves the congregation plenty of time to interact and support each other.

Here’s an excerpt from the Porter’s comment; you can read the whole thing at Adam’s blog on “Guest Post: Be the Church:”

- do it. stop talking about it. leave your church and do what you are saying. that’s the message i keep getting, and increasingly i have less time writing about church reform because there is, as you say, so much work to be done. people want this but we are on the leading edge and it is hard work. nonverbals are the message – what is our message – go out and get it done and build it; know that it will take a long time so you have to start now, stop writing about it folks. [...]

- a big trend that has to be bothersome is this rising chorus of critique against the church without a rising army of folks living out the alternative. gen x got its name from being meaninglessly, non-committal, and complacent. and i know too many of us who are not really engaged and fighting the good fight with a covenant community, we’re just saying things like “church is everywhere” and “love your neighbor” and yet it looks like a ministry of convenience more than anything. i like to write so i blog; i like to feed the hungry so i do that. i like beer so i drink with my neighbor. … all fine and good, but: are we becoming a generation of disciples and disciple-makers? is this generation being shaped and formed into Christlikness against he prevailing tides of individualism, hard-work, consumerism, well-touted charity, etc.

I’ve been writing for Gospel.com for a few years now, and before that I attended a Christian college. I’ve heard and read the “Church is failing!” argument more times than I care to count. Rarely, though, do people take all their anger about the church and turn it into something positive. It’s refreshing.

What do you think of Porter’s comment? Are there there things you wish your church did that were more in line with what Jesus taught?

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to find that our world is hostile to the Gospel. In fact, Jesus told us during his earthly ministry to expect this hostility. Sometimes, however, this opposition to the Gospel can make it difficult or impossible for Christians to do anything in a society, let alone share the Gospel.

Take the scenario described in this Our Daily Bread devotional, for example: Christians in a particularly anti-Gospel city struggled to make their message heard, running into opposition not just from competing religious trends but from the city council itself. But then they decided to shift tactics… and the results were incredible:

It was such a challenging environment for churches that they struggled to get building permits from the city council. And there was a lot of “woe is me” talk among church leaders. Until a group of pastors began to meet to pray regularly and then decided to take the love of Jesus into their city. They started a ministry to the homeless, to those suffering with AIDS, to teens at risk. Faithfully and intentionally they brought the love of Jesus to the needs of hurting people. Before long, the city agencies started calling on them for help. Better yet, the churches started growing as people responded to the gospel in action.

Which proves the point: Sometimes you’ve got to “show up” before you speak up. No one really wants to hear what we have to say about the love of Jesus until they’ve seen it in our lives.

It’s easy for self-pity and bitterness to set in when we run into obstacles in our neighborhoods and communities. But the appropriate response is incredibly simple: live a Jesus-shaped life.

Are you running into a wall right now in your city or community? Is it possible that the answer is to simply go forth and live out Christlike love and grace, and trust that the rest will follow?

When you serve, do you do so without reservations?

In this devotional from My Utmost for his Highest, Oswald Chambers describes Jesus as a man who “‘outsocialized’ the socialists.” Jesus’ vision of servant-hood has no regard for personal and financial concerns. To be a servant of all means committing to serve God and His children without consideration for how it will affect you personally:

The institutional church’s idea of a servant of God is not at all like Jesus Christ’s idea. His idea is that we serve Him by being the servants of others. Jesus Christ actually “out-socialized” the socialists. He said that in His kingdom the greatest one would be the servant of all (see Matthew 23:11). The real test of a saint is not one’s willingness to preach the gospel, but one’s willingness to do something like washing the disciples’ feet— that is, being willing to do those things that seem unimportant in human estimation but count as everything to God. It was Paul’s delight to spend his life for God’s interests in other people, and he did not care what it cost. But before we will serve, we stop to ponder our personal and financial concerns— “What if God wants me to go over there? And what about my salary? What is the climate like there? Who will take care of me? A person must consider all these things.” All that is an indication that we have reservations about serving God. But the apostle Paul had no conditions or reservations. Paul focused his life on Jesus Christ’s idea of a New Testament saint; that is, not one who merely proclaims the gospel, but one who becomes broken bread and poured-out wine in the hands of Jesus Christ for the sake of others.

Read the entire devotional at RBC.org.

Have you ever served freely, without reservation or condition? What would it take for you to be able to serve as freely as Paul?

Share your thoughts!

The prospect of spring might seem like a distant dream right now, but those warmer months will be here soon—which means it’s time to start thinking about how you’ll spend them.

Many missions organizations, churches, and camps provide short-term service opportunities during spring and summer. Short-term missions can range from a day of volunteer work in your hometown to a season of missionary work abroad.

Do you feel called to participate in a spring or summer missions trip this year? Have you done so in the past, and if so, was it an experience you’d like to repeat?

Share your thoughts!

When I was younger I remember going to the Tomb of the Unknown solider. I was too young to appreciate what it meant and spent much of the time profoundly bored, wondering how many more days it would be before we could go home and I could play Nintendo. Everyone was so quiet in front of the tomb, especially considering there wasn’t actually anyone buried there.

The monuments we build in the aftermath of battle reflect what a culture finds important. For all of its foibles, the United States is a nation built of and for its people, and nowhere is that shown more perfectly than in the way we memorialize those people who’ve died for it. The Tomb of the Unknown Solider is our country’s way of saying the unidentified will not be forgotten; that we appreciate each drop of blood and sweat spent in service to us.

The Tomb is important to Americans because it represents our remembrance of those who gave their lives for our freedom. Yet the tomb can be important to Christians too. It also stands as a sobering reminder that our service on this earth rarely ends in accolades and medals. Sometimes it ends in obscurity, and it’s only the truly humble that will take walk that path.

Jesus talked a lot about serving one another. He stated that:

 ¹³Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13, King James Version)

And

 ⁴⁵For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45, King James Version).

It is this picture of service that we should strive for: laying down our lives expecting nothing except to be counted last and among Christ’s chosen. And while not every solider goes into service with a selfless attitude, far more do than we give them credit most of the time.

Earlier this year my family laid my grandfather to rest in an Army cemetery. They gave him a 21-gun salute with all the pomp and circumstance he deserved. He served in World War II and lived a long and generally happy life full of love of his family and country.

Unless you’re cognizant of it, Veteran’s Day could just be yet another of those annoying days during which the post office is closed, and the Tomb one of those things you just have to be quiet around—which is a shame, because spending a day and giving a place to honor our servicemen and women is ultimately a small matter. Today is the one time we stop to say thanks for doing the unenviable job of serving us. Even the one’s who might never be known by name.

What veterans are in your life? What are you doing to celebrate them?

This weekend in Detroit, Craig Gross and Jason Harper gave away a house.

As part of their Jesus Loves You book tour, Gross and Harper are attempting to live out some of the things they talk about in their book. The house giveaway was prompted by a chapter in the book, “Jesus loves the disconnected.” Here’s the report from their blog:

We were in Detroit for the Free House Sunday giveaway that corresponds with the “Jesus Loves The Disconnected” chapter in the book. We have been working with Citadel of Faith Covenant Church since May to pull off this great day…Over the past several weeks 113 people have filled out an entry on www.freehousesunday.com. We worked with Citadel and Lisa Johanon from the Central Detroit Christian Community Development Corporation to select the family for this house and to restore the house.

The house went to a woman who was facing eviction after losing her husband. To me, one of the most remarkable things about the event was the response from those gathered after the house was given away:

At church 30 people committed to following Jesus as Pastor Carey shared a dynamic message. He talked out of Genesis about the word “Covenant”. He assured people that Jesus would always hold through on his part of the agreement. He mentioned that “Jesus loves you before you do what you do because he did what he did.”

At the close of the service Pastor Carey asked for people to consider joining Citadel of Faith Covenant Church if they did not have a home church and wanted to get plugged in. About 55 people came forward to join the church after the service.

Around 3pm, we took a tour of the house. We were able to pray over the house and for the moving in of the Baker family. Pastor Carey, Lisa Johanon, Jason Harper and I took a photo of the house on our way out.

It’s a heartwarming story of the body of Christ gathering together to meet someone’s specific needs.

What other examples have you seen of Christ-followers loving the disconnected?

Could your internet knowledge make a difference in your local community? The Mozilla Foundation, the organization behind the Firefox web browser, has declared September 14-21 Mozilla Service Week. The idea is simple: during that week, we all look for concrete ways that internet knowledge or skills can be put to work in the service of our local communities.

Here are some of the examples they provide:

• Teach senior citizens how to use the Web.
• Show a non-profit how to use social networking to grow its base of supporters.
• Help install a wireless network at a school.
• Create Web how-to materials for a library’s computer cluster.
• Refurbish hardware for a local computer center.
• Update a non-profit organization’s website.
• Teach the values of the open Web to other public benefit organizations.

As you can see, you don’t have to be an expert coder or a seasoned computer engineer to help out.

I think this is a wonderful idea—and easily translatable into a ministry environment. Who do you know in your community who could use some internet-related help? What local ministries or organizations could you help by donating a few hours of time upgrading software or training their staff? If you’re reading this blog post, chances are you have the skills to help a person or organization in your community in some way.

I note that UrbanMinistry.org has already jumped on this—take a look at their virtual volunteer opportunities, and think about how you or your church might get involved in a virtual service project this September.