About three months ago my wife, Lauren, and I attended our first Mercy Monday.  We weren’t really sure what to expect or what exactly we may be doing.  We ended up prayer walking.  This is something Lauren and I have heard of before, but never actually participated in.  As we exited the 930 I asked Nathan Ivey what prayer walking was.  Did you pray to yourself?  Was it something done through conversation with one another?  Or did you simply pray out loud? As we began walking down Mary Street Nathan instructed my wife and I through example and began praying for the Germantown community.

Immediately we came to a young high school girl and boy who were sitting on the front step of the 930.  We learned that they used to attend the elementary school that once was inhabited the 930, and that they thought of the building as a safe place to hang out to get away from the negativity that is within the surrounding community.   That’s right: Sojourn is seen by Germantown residents as a safe place to hang out.

As we dove deeper into conversation with the two high school-aged kids we were able to learn about their past and current situations. It turns out that one of their families are in great need for a place to live.  As we engaged the 15 minute conversation, God gave us the opportunity to share the gospel with them and invite them out to QUEST on Wednesday nights.  The young girl exchanged phone numbers with my wife and arrangements were made to walk her to the building that next Wednesday.

As we left the front steps and continued down Mary Street I began to pray and ask God begin to open their hearts to the good news of Christ and to allow us to pour into their lives.  That next Wednesday God opened the doors for Lauren and I to meet the young girl’s family and to walk her to QUEST.  I couldn’t believe that inviting someone – an unbeliever, a stranger – to church was so simple.  Strangely, after a few conversations, we weren’t strangers anymore.  My wife and I cared for this young girl.  God warmed our hearts as we longed for her to know Christ.  She too, responded to us with warmth as she acknowledged our newly forming friendship.

Let me fast forward a few months.  The young girl has yet become a believer, but God has provided and is continuing to provide opportunities to surround her and her family in gospel community. We have been able to bring our community group along side of us in this mission, and have been welcomed into the young girl’s home with smiles, great hospitality, love and prayer.  We can see evidence of God’s common grace all throughout this journey are continuing to praying for God’s saving grace to penetrate the lives of this young girl and her family!

Rob Maine, the writer of this blog, is a Sojourn Community Group Leader.  To contact Rob or to join his group on mission, you can reach him by emailing him here.

The Centrality of Proclamation

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. – 1 Corinthians 1:18

It is easy to miss the surprising nature of this statement.  What is the power of God?  How are we saved from God’s judgment?  How are we reconciled to God?  Paul does NOT say that the cross is the power of God as we might expect.  He says that the message of the cross is the power of God.  God’s power and Christ’s saving work are present through God’s word.  So if the priority of the future drives us to seek the reconciliation of people with God through the cross of Christ, then this in turn must drive us to proclaim the word of the cross.

Proclamation of the word simply means sharing the message of the gospel with people.  It can take many forms including dialogue and conversation.  It is NOT exclusive to a preacher in a pulpit.  It is more likely to take place over a cup of tea or reading the Bible with an unbeliever.  Whatever the form, making known the message of the gospel must be central (see Luke 8:4-21; 10:38-42; 11:27-32; 16:19-31; 24:25-27, 44-47).

In social involvement, in Seed, there will always be a commitment to the reconciliation of our neighbor, whoever he/she is, with God through the gospel.  The proclamation of the gospel must be at the heart of Christian social involvement.  Our aim will always be that the poor and our neighbors are blessed in this life and for all eternity.

Are you sharing the gospel with those whom you are serving?  Or are you merely doing good deeds hoping that they will “get it”?

What are your next steps to sharing the gospel with your neighbor, co-worker, friend?

Seed and Evangelism series has been adapted from the book Good News to the Poor by Tim Chester.

The Need for Reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ [1]

We see all sorts of needs around us.  But the priority of the eternal future means that the GREATEST NEED for all of us is to be reconciled to God and so escape his wrath.  This is the greatest need of the poor and of our neighbors.

The bible is clear:  we are all alienated from God – young and old, white and black, male and female, rich and poor.  Paul talks about us as God’s enemies.  It is not just that we have become God’s enemies, God has become our enemy.  Our sin has broken the relationship with God for which we were made.  God would not be God if he ignored this rebellion.  He would not be just if he ignored the pain and suffering it causes.  He would not be worth worshipping if he was indifferent to evil and inhumanity.  And so OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM we all face is the problem of God’s judgment.  Our GREATEST NEED is to be reconciled with God.

But God in his love and grace has sent his own Son to die in our place, to take our punishment, to pay our debt.  So we can be reconciled to God and we can escape his wrath through Jesus Christ.

Moving Beyond Felt Needs

This is familiar to most of us, but we need to be clear about its implications.  It means that it is NEVER enough to address people’s felt needs (think Seed Projects).  Seed Projects can be a good starting point because the gospel addresses the human condition in all its complexity – the whole gospel to the whole person.  But, we need to move beyond people’s felt needs.

People (i.e. insert the name of your next door neighbor, co-worker, grocery store clerk) think they have all sorts of needs and often they are real and pressing needs.  But there is a much greater need of which people are unaware.  It is our job to warn them of the coming judgment of God.  We cannot wait for people to express their need for reconciliation with God.

Time and time again this has proved to be the greatest challenge facing Christian social involvement (i.e. Seed) – to keep in view the greatest gift we have to offer a needy world:  The words of eternal life.

We were made in the image of God, created to be in a perfect relationship with our Creator.

But the world is not as God made it.  People are no longer in relationship with God.  The doctrine of creation means that cultural and social involvement are valid, but the doctrine of sin and the offer of salvation mean that to engage in social action without evangelism is to fail the people we profess to love.
Do you often think about the eternal fate of your neighbors?

How have you failed to love your neighbors through the ministry of the Word?

Join us on Monday nights and get exposed to Word and deed ministry.  We share gospel truths every Monday night with neighbors who need Jesus and also need material goods.  Contact Jesse Moss at jmoss@sojournchurch.com to join us.

[1] Adapted from Good News to the Poor: Sharing the Gospel through Social Involvement, Tim Chester, 50-58.

The Greatest Need[1]

What is the greatest need of people in your area?  Your answer might depend on where you live.

Germantown/Shelby Park:  Safety, racism, physical health, unemployment, slumlords, fatherless youth.

East End/ St. Matthews:  behind the nice homes are people facing loneliness, domestic violence, emptiness, and household debt.

Ethiopia:  clean water, proper sanitation, health care, housing, education, and regular income.

We might well agree with these needs.  But the Bible opens our eyes to a much broader horizon.  It reveals that people have a need much greater than any mentioned above and of which we are largely unaware – the need to be reconciled to God and so escape his wrath.

The Priority of the Future

As we reflect on social need and social involvement with our neighbors (deed ministry), the place to start is the end.  We must begin by considering the end of history.  The Bible is a story that is heading towards a climax when Christ returns to judge the living and the dead.

If this is true, then blessing in God’s future is more important than blessing in this life.  Jesus himself tells us this when he said,

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” – Matthew 6:19-20

“If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.  It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have tow hands or two feed and be thrown into the fire of hell.” – Matthew 18:8-9

In the same way, we need to say without embarrassment that it is better if someone is converted but remains poor than if they become healthy and wealthy but remain unconverted.

The Bible consistently says we should make the eternal future our priority.

“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” – Matthew 10:28

The issue is NOT whether the soul is more important than the body.  Jesus says we should be concerned for both soul and body.  The issue is that our eternal fate is more important than what happens to us in this life.

Do you believe this?

The overall biblical model is this: God transforms people’s lives as people bring his Word to others. God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things in the lives of others[1].

Mercy ministry is more than meeting needs through deeds.  Biblical mercy includes a personal or relational aspect.  Many churches have done well at accomplishing deeds of mercy, but we all have room to grow regarding the relationships we form with those we are serving.

God wants you to experience the joy of bringing more than a heart of compassion, a willingness to listen, and a commitment to help bear someone’s burden (deed driven).  Though these are the sweet fruit of Christian love, God wants you to offer more.  God wants you to bring the heart-changing truths of Scripture to people in the midst of their situations and relationships.  Biblical mercy is about people loving people with good deeds, but in a way includes bringing God’s word.  This is doing and speaking “truth in love.”[2]

How have you entered into a relationship with your neighbors or with those in need?  Have you brought more than a willingness to carry a burden?  Have you brought to light Scripture and how there is hope, joy, and confidence in our God through Jesus Christ?

Our tendency is to be deed driven, especially when it comes to mercy ministry.  My challenge to you is to see beyond the physical needs of people and realize that our greatest need is reconciliation to God through faith in Christ.  Yes, we meet physical needs and step into the suffering of others, but if we fail to bring to light God’s Word, we fail to truly love the very neighbors we claim to care for.

[2] Ephesians 4:15

This past Monday, August 17, 15 Sojourners gathered at 6:30p.m. at the 930 to kick off Mercy on Mondays.  We split up into three groups.  One group celebrated with a member up the street, one group went grocery shopping for another neighbor, and one group prayer-walked down Mary St. and St. Catherine.  It was beautiful to see the body of Christ coming together to serve and pray for the people of Germantown.  As we went our separate ways to serve, I was reminded of the words of the Prophet Isaiah:

“if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry

and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,

then your light will rise in the darkness,

and your night will become like the noonday.” (Isaiah 58:10)

I also recalled Paul’s words to Timothy:

“As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.” (1 Timothy 6:17-19)

Many of us at Sojourn are materially blessed.  God has provided for us and has cared for us, and we who are materially blessed have a biblical responsibility to care for those who are not so materially blessed.  It is very easy to look at material blessing and see ourselves as superior to those whom we “spend ourselves” on.  But all who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ should recognize and understand poverty better than the secular world.  We need look only to Christ who “though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9).  To become rich we had to be poor first.  Poor materially?  No.  Poor spiritually.  And we had the worst kind of poverty–the kind that leads to death and hell.  But God in his grace spoke into our lives and helped us to see our poverty so that we might look to Christ and become rich.

We will be meeting again this coming Monday, August 24, at 6:30 p.m. in the lobby of the 930.  The call is clear.  We who are the body of Christ should act as Christ acted.  He humbled himself, cared for the poor and the marginalized, and was a servant in all that he did.  We will be making three visits this week:

• Pamela lives in Puritan apartments and loves to interact with the Body on Sundays, but she often cannot make it to services because of hip and leg pains.  We will celebrate with her by taking a meal to cook at her apartment.
• Mary used to live across the street from Sojourn until her house was overtaken by drug dealers and squatters.  We have helped her move several times and will be visiting her to encourage and re-connect with her.
• Freida is an older, independent spirit who has been to Sojourn several times and is hungry for relationship.  We will be visiting her with some homemade brownies.

Want to be more involved in service?  Have you been waiting for an opportunity to plug into the SEED ministry but aren’t sure how to start?  Do you just want to see what service in Germantown might look like?  Mondays are for you.  Come and join us!

Jesse Moss is a Seed Leader and member of Sojourn.  You can contact him at jesse.moss@gmail.com.