When you drove into Germantown/Shelby Park this weekend, did you take note the poverty all around us? Or if you are like many, have you grown numb to this reality?

Did you notice the boarded up house on Mary Street?  Did you take note of the broken windows, peeling paint, cracked sidewalks, trash on the streets?  Did you think about the elderly shut-ins who live in fear and isolation?  Did you see any of the neighborhood children running around without parents and guide-less?

When you drove to Sojourn East this weekend, did you take note of the poverty all around us?  Or have you thought of poverty as only existing in the inner-city?  Did you think about the people who are living in those nice homes and how they are facing loneliness, domestic violence, emptiness, and household debt?

If not, I invite you to wake up to reality.  Poverty is all around us.  Why do you think there is so much poverty?

Let’s consider a biblical description of poverty:

Poverty is the result of relationships that do not work, that are not just, that are not for life, that are not harmonious or enjoyable.  Poverty is the absence of shalom (peace) in all its meanings.

As God’s ambassadors, representing God’s kingdom[1] and all that it entails to a broken world, how are we as Christians to set the pace in addressing the poverty around us?[2]

To address poverty one must engage in the ministry of reconciliation[3]:  moving people closer to glorifying God by living in right relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the rest of creation.

Therefore the reconciliation of relationships is the guiding compass for our mercy efforts, profoundly shaping both the goals that we pursue and the methods we use.  We must engage the marginalized, the poor, and our neighbors with loving redemptive relationships that point them to Christ, who reconciles us to God.[4]

So what does all this mean? Bottom line, mercy begins and ends with relationships.  Our neighbors and the poor do not need a cold and sterile program to help them through their struggles.  No though helpful, a program is not enough.  They need a Person and they need the church.  They need Jesus Christ and his family to bring about lasting genuine change.

When you think about mercy and poverty – do you think about a 2 hour service project or do you think about Bob, who struggles to make ends meet, care for his children, and who calls you when he needs advice, help or someone to celebrate a victory with?

Sojourn wants to challenge your understanding of God’s special heart for the poor, the nature of poverty and how you can personally address it.  To get started simply join us every Monday night at 6:30pm at the 930.  We visit homes of the elderly, the marginalized and the poor.  You won’t go at it alone.  Join us and discover the joy as well as the gifts that God has given you as you serve families in the city.  Contact Jesse Moss at jmoss@sojournchurch.com for more information regarding Mercy Mondays.

If you would like to dive deeper into the nature, meaning, and how to address poverty, I encourage you to read the helpful book When Helping Hurts by Corbett and Fikkert.

[3] 2 Cor 5:17

[4] Romans 5:11