Jun 11, 2009
Time to Thrive
Hey Ridgers! I've been thinking lately about what an absolutely crazy financial disaster California is. Man our state is a mess!!! Everytime we turn around there's more news of economic woes in the state of CA. Then it came to mind what a wild task we're engaged in...starting a new church for those who don't "get" church. For a time it really discouraged me to think about the incredible obstacles that the economic recession alone creates for the work we're doing.
But........yesterday I realized that it's nuts to believe the state of California in 2009 is in worse shape than the world around which the church in the first century was born! Let me put it another way. Do we really believe that the early church faced less obstacles and smaller ones than we face today??? That's crazy! The early church faced tremendous social, political, and fiancial opposition~yet it gained momentum & influence! The believers we see in the book of Acts (a book in the Bible that's basically church history) had a faith that gave them the courage & hope to overcome the circumstances around them.
In the second chapter of Acts we see that among the early church, "all the believers were together and had everything in common...selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as they had need..." Part of the power of the early church was its ability to provide an alternative culture where there was oneness, generosity, and hope! We have the chance to do the same thing in unique ways today. We have the opportunity to be a community where the over-resourced gladly share with the under-resourced and neither take advantage of the other. Our faith is not in the government but in Jesus! The church offers (at least it should) the kind of "life" and relational connection that nothing else in the world can.
In short, we don't have to be afraid of the economic challenges around us. This is where the church can really thrive!!! Where else in these crappy times can people turn for hope, help, and true community??? Non-Christian historians in the 2nd & 3rd centuries remarked at the churches ability to provide and care for its members and the larger community. They marveled at the reckless generosity of the early church. One historian remarked that "among the Christian church, there are no poor...everyone with need is taken care of..."
This is when God can shine!!! This is where he can demonstrate what his church can be! When investments dry up, jobs are lost, and the future seams uncertain and bleak...this is where God does some of his greatest work! I'm fired up to see what he will do. Let's dare to be continually generous and care for those around us. God will give us enough resources to meet the needs around us...trust that. Together, we can see God do incredible things! Who can you help this week?
Comments
Shirley Jeffreys on Jun 12, 2009 4:35pm
What a perspective. God is in this all the way!
Elizabeth Fritz on Jun 13, 2009 7:48am
I was thinking about the same thing tonight while I was watching the movie The Pursuit of Happyness. I don't know if you've seen it, but it is a really good movie with Will Smith. At one point in the movie while he is homeless and is in great despair he goes to church. He begins to breakdown while holding on to his son. You don't see anyone reaching out to him even there. Another time he is waiting in line to get into the homeless shelter with hundreds of other people and you see a convertible drive by full of seemingly wealthy people, just laughing and having fun, ignorant to what is happening outside of their bubble. It is so easy for us to get inside our own little bubble and become ignorant to what is happening in the world around us. Here was a man who had done nothing wrong but had just had some bad luck and fallen on hard times. Everyone had deserted him and he had no where to turn. Where was the church? In a bubble... It really convicted me about how much we have and how easily I take it all for granted. I am excited to be a part of church that desires to create that community where every need is taken care of and God is ultimately honored and glorified through that!
Shirley Jeffreys on Jul 10, 2009 5:07pm
God always uses circumstances around us to bring us to Him.