Whenever I talk to churches about becoming engaged in their communities, a few common objections keep coming up. There are all kinds of reasons – or excuses – given as to why a congregation stays away from getting involved in the real problems of their neighborhoods. These problems are hard to solve, difficult to understand, hard to get started on and even harder to sustain. These problems are complex. After all, if they were easy to fix, someone else would have already done it.
Let’s begin by remembering two things. First, there is a clear command from God to His people to be involved in the lives of their communities. The letter Jeremiah wrote to the exiles in Babylon in Jeremiah 29 is the most often quoted text for this kind of ministry. Jeremiah told the exiles a couple of things they didn’t want to hear. First, you aren’t coming home anytime soon. Second, since you aren’t coming home soon, build a life where you are. Not only that, but work for the success of the city where you are exiled. As the city succeeds, the exiles would succeed as well. That must have been a hard word for the exiles. They were being commanded to become a blessing to the very people that had destroyed their country and hauled them off into exile. In the same way, the church is called to be a blessing to the neighborhoods where they are. As it was God’s word to the exiles, it’s God’s word to us.
Second, the church made some of its most important contributions to society when the church decided to take on a problem no one else wanted to touch. In the first century, the church would rescue abandoned babies and adopt them into the life of the church. In the time of the plague, Christians would care for the dying and bury the dead. Hospitals were born out of this movement. Churches built orphanages in the early days of the United States and most of the colleges founded in the colonies were faith based. Today, the best responders to natural disasters are faith-based organizations.
Let’s begin by remembering these two things: God has called us to do it, and the church is pretty good when we do.
As a church, the first thing we need to do is pray. I know this sounds obvious, but this crucial step is often overlooked in our excitement to get up and do something. We want to pray about a couple of things. First, we want God to break our hearts for our neighbors and communities. We want God to fill our lives with the same love He has for our towns and cities. We want to pray with Christ for the salvation – in every way – of our friends and neighbors. We want our communities to thrive in such ways, God is the only way to explain it.
Second, we want Christ to fill our lives to the brim. We want to be filled to overflowing so we don’t need anything from anyone. We don’t need affirmation from anyone. We don’t need praise from anyone. We don’t need to be loved. We have this from Christ in more ways than we can imagine. Why is this important? Because we’re going to be working and serving in places where kind words are hard to come by. We’ll have to show up every day and bring our own kindness. We’ll need to bring our own joy.
Next, walk around the community. Talk to community leaders. Everyone knows where the problems are, even if they don’t know what to do about them. Talk to the people affected by the problems. Talk to those who are working to solve the problems. Even if they’ve closed up shop because they didn’t seem to be able to gain any traction, they will have learned valuable lessons that will save your church time, effort and money.
After that, focus on one problem. No, we can’t fix everything, but because we can’t do everything doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do something. Yes, there are a lot of pressing needs and painful issues, and the temptation is to look at all of the suffering and throw up our hands in despair. You know what despair is? Despair is the sin of thinking things are so bad that not even God can do anything.
That’s a lie.
Lastly, start small. Don’t try to do everything at once. Fix one leak before you try to drain the river. Going to start a tutoring program? Tutor one child. Find out what works and what doesn’t. Then, work from there. Add another child, then another. Start small. Work slow but keep working.
In closing, I want to remind you of a very important point. Some, if not most, of the people we’ll encounter won’t be believers. They may have lifestyles very different from our own. That’s OK. Remember, we never know who we are sent to bless. You don’t know if you’re there for the political leaders you’ll meet or the social workers who’ll be advising you or the person you were sent to minister to. We just know we’re there to bless someone, not to be blessed. We’re there to love, not to be loved.
And in loving our friends and neighbors, they will begin to ask about the love Christ has for them in our love for them.
Which, of course, is the whole point.
