These are some great words from Rick McKinley in Portland, Oregon in regards to an initiative that his church has to "Love Portland". Imagine that....
We just finished one of our all church events in the city called Love Portland
It was a great success as hundreds of people from Imago went out a served our city. You can see a promo video for it here as well.
I am reflecting on it tonight and wanted to share some insights from the event.
1. The church is perhaps the most untapped resource in the world for good.
It is amazing to see what power there is in hundreds of people serving the needs of others. The viral nature of just going out and doing good in the name of Jesus has unlimited potential. The spirit of God orchestrates the most amazing connections and relational pathways to share the Fathers love with those who need it. Story after story confirmed this. The brilliant design of Jesus in setting up the church amazes me. You don’t have to be big to have influence for the gospel, you just have to love your city. I started to wonder what would happen if every church in America just adopted a school that was economically depressed and loved the families in it in tangible ways. Or if every church took on a section of town that had great need and just tried to ask what would God have us do to demonstrate his love to this area.
2. Someone needs to lead.
It is so easy to sit around and read about someone else doing something. This article, that book, another great survey. Don’t you get sick of those stories. I do, because they are not our stories. We are too content to just dream about what someone else is doing. Pastors need to lead and quit waiting around. Or YOU need to lead. Pick a place, get some friends give yourself to it. We are suffering in the church not from persecution but from our own apathy towards the things God cares the most about. All that can change pretty quick if someone would simply lead. It takes hard work, lots of conversations and lots of prayer and faith but soon you find yourself in the middle of something that is so big and redemptive that you could not imagine giving your life to something else. But if no one leads nothing ever changes.
3. Doing what God loves changes us
I must have heard 20 people tell me how much it changed them to be involved with love Portland. They were able to risk relationally, give sacrificially, and let go of their preconceived notions of what THOSE people are like. The heart of God is always moving us toward the other, and often that is the very place our own hearts don’t want to go. But when the spirit breaks through and we do what God prompts us to we receive the most. It is one of those upside down paradoxes of the Kingdom of God. We give to get, we die to live, we become greatest by becoming least. If we really believe what Jesus is teaching us we should boldly lead our people into this mission with the confidence that their own spiritual formation will be incomplete until they love the other.
4. Join the city in what they are already doing
Too often we (the church) think we need to invent and brand everything that we do in the city. This just perpetuates the false shell of our own subculture. Instead look for opportunities that already exist in the city. There are tons of non profits in your town. They are dying for people who will join them in their work. We get to saddle up to people who share Kingdom passion. They may not know it is Kingdom passion because they may not know the King yet. But as you serve them and with them serve others you gain a voice into their lives and they into yours. You also build viability for the Gospel. They begin to trust that you are not going to try to Colonialise their organization and make t-shirts that say “we saved Bob’s aids hospice”.
5. No Logo, No Ego
We are guilty in the church for wanting to take credit for everything we do. That is quite different from not letting the right hand know what the left hand is doing. We call the press to come and see us put a blanket on a homeless guy. I think Jesus has some pretty stern words for that. Instead we are learning that in joining these others we don’t need to get our name on their letter head. In fact our name never needs to be mentioned. We just don’t even go down those roads. If the press never learns of what we do, who cares. The one who sent us sees it all and he is the one we are serving.
We are also learning to be humble. It is too easy to announce that the church has found the answers to someone else’s problems and then present our 7 step strategy to fix it. We don’t know thier needs. We don’t live in thier world so we are learning to listen. It is a lesson we keep learning. Instead of telling them what we are here to do, we begin by asking what would be the greatest benefit to them. What would they love for us to do. Then we adapt to that and serve their needs. The end result is at first they are astonished. This is not the kind of help most are used to. Then they begin to trust you. This is trust you need to earn without a word, let your actions speak first. Finally you get invited in for a long term sustainable mission.
After the event the other day one of the principles asked if we could come back throughout the year and lead their students in continuing to work on the garden and teach them principles of creation care. The theater we worked at has opened their doors for us to do events on faith and art. It doesn’t take much just humility.
Part of leading our people into the mission of God is leading them to do justice. We need to wed this piece tightly to the proclamation of the message of Jesus. The irony is that one without the other is like offering someone a pair of pants with only one leg. The message of a loving God who is bringing new life through Jesus’ death and resurrection is easy to hear after you have experienced that love through the justice of Gods people.
I could go on and on but those are some of the key things I am learning and I think they are essential for any church that wants to lead into mission. Love to hear your thoughts.
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