Last Sunday while on the streets with Victoria's innercity community and CARTS someone made the comment to me, " We should get a bus and bring them to our church." Our CARTS community, I call it that because that is what it is...volunteers, and our inner city friends; homeless, poor, addicted, mental health issues, working poor...or a mix of everything. Some we see on a regular basis. Some for 5-7 years. Some we connect with during the week on the street. Some at the Rainbow Kitchen. We have built up a relationship over time. We've seen each other in the good times and the bad times. We've seen each other on sunny days, and we've seen each other in the bitter cold and snow. We've gone out with abundance, and we've gone out when the cupboard has been bare. The point is we've gone out because it has been more about love and friendship than anything else. When we've run out of that we'll put the CARTS away.
" We should get a bus, and bring them to our church." Really! My biggest question would be why? Would it be anything more than hanging a trophy prize on your wall like some hunter would. Nothing more than " Poverty Pimping " to make the church look good. Would it be just to bring them in for some cutting edge worship music, and a three point sermon where they could get some sound bytes to plug into there lives, push play and make their lives better. Would that be why we would get the bus.
Ok, church...I'll get the bus if...
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Your willing to can the music...can the sermon. They've been preached at enough.
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Your willing to serve an extravagant meal. But don't sit off on the sidelines, or watch from the kitchen door. Sit down and listen to their stories...you might find God is already there.
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Your willing not look at this a " short term " mission, something you'll do once a month. Think " relationship ", long haul...relationships take time, effort, commitment. They've had enough people dump and run, come once or twice and never again.
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Your willing to provide shelter for some on a permanent basis.
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Your willing to provide food, clothe and quench their thirst ( Matthew 25 ) on a regular basis.
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Your willing to find help for their addiction, mental health and health issues. Mentor, build deep friendship...live life together in real community in real time, not just Sunday, or once a month.
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Your willing to see your church financial statement go into the red for awhile.
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Your willing to see things get a little messy for awhile.
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Your willing to be taken advantage of...be willing to understand servant-hood, and sacrifice in a whole new reality.
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Most of all, if your willing to understand grace and love in dimensions never before seen.
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Your willing to discover Jesus in a whole new way.
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Your willing to be their advocates, to be thier voice in places where they have no voice at all.
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Your willing speak, and act against injustice...speak against the power of the day, religious or political.
Ok, church...do you still want to get the bus?
Even if 'church' provided all of the connection and relationships that happen through CARTS, it would still subconsciously pass along the wrong message: 'You aren't important enough for God to find you where you are, you have to go looking for him.'
I'm so glad that Jesus became one of us, moved into OUR neighborhood, so we don't have to hope that somehow we can find him in some unnatural, uncomfortable setting.
Thank God that the attractional model for church is being replaced by an incarnational understanding. Thank God that we realize that we get to live the kingdom everywhere, not just dispense it in little doses from our ivory towers.
Posted by: Al | August 19, 2011 at 06:06 AM
Just thought of something else... Maybe the bus we get should be to bring 'the church' out to where the real world is. Since it often looks like it isn't going out there on its own.
Posted by: Al | August 19, 2011 at 10:34 AM