How Badly Do We Want It?

Our church is in a state of transition. For months we have been busy putting in foundations - building relationships with each other, bringing key players onboard, learning what it takes to make things run, getting people in the right positions, and developing a church personality. It is pretty safe to say that our foundations have been laid in and are pretty solid. Now begins the work of becoming significant in the life of our community.

The big problem with significance is that it involves actually getting outside of our little safe havens and our comfort zones into the real world of our community. To be significant, we have to be willing to get up next to people and develop enough relationship with them to earn their trust. That is both scary and messy. It is scary because we have to be willing to put down our masks and "stand naked on the battlefield" so to speak. We have to be real about our shortcomings and our trials and risk the judgment of our neighbors. We have to be willing to let our lives be interrupted by the needs of others.

It is messy because as we are able to be vulnerable in front of our neighbors they will find it easier to be vulnerable with us. It is in that vulnerablility that true ministry begins to happen. As their masks come off we discover that their lives are as messy or messier than ours. We discover brokenness, and loss, and need right in our own neighboorhood.

I am reminded of a testimony shared by Scott several months ago about his time in China. He talked about how one of his evenings was interrupted by a neighbor who had gotten drunk and locked himself out of his apartment. Scott was able to help the neighbor out and as a result a lasting dialogue has been continued between the two of them - a dialogue that has allowed Scott to effectively share the gospel with this man.

The October 20 post at Our Daily Blog really seemed appropriate to our situation. here is an excerpt:

...as much as Jesus desired to minister to His own people, He was compelled by His Father to bring the Gospel to these others (the Gedarenes) who were hurting and broken.

No matter where you are today, God will call you to go to the "other side." Just as He led His own disciples, Jesus will bring you into the lives of needy, wounded people.

No matter how different they are from you, or how much you abhor their lifestyle, they are part of the reason Jesus put you in this world. If you are unwilling to follow Jesus into these darkened places, you will miss the joy of the harvest He has intended for your life.

- Jim Laffoon @ Our Daily Blog

So the question that we really have to ask ourselves is, "How badly do we want it?" How badly do we want to be an agent of change to Salisbury, NC? Are we willing to overcome our fear, our inconvenience, our insecurity and our prejudices and offer our lives as a sacrifice to God to be part of His solution to the hurting people in our community? I pray to God that we will.

God please give us the grace that we will need to overcome ourselves and go wherever You send us. Fill us with belief in who You have told us that You are. Cause our hearts to abound in love for You. And cause our lives to overflow with that love to our neighbors - even the unpleasant ones. Forgive us for our fear and unbelief and self-righteousness. Cause us to be pleasing to You. Amen.