Something most of us share as human beings is a sense of responsibility to be involved in the things around us. Rick Warren touches on this topic in his book, The Purpose Driven Life.
The other day my friend Ouida Bradford and I were talking about the recent popularity of different social movements like Rosa Loves, Junky Car Club, and Invisible Children.
The big picture behind these movements is that they are not only bringing awareness to the social injustices that are occurring in our neighborhoods and around the globe, but they are connecting people to other people.
As the church body we are involved in social projects around our community, our country, and our world. As a church we are interested in meeting the needs we see around us and whether redeemed or not, there is a chance our neighbors, co-workers, employers and city governments are interested in meeting those needs too.
There has never been a better time in history for the church to begin to do life with the community around it. What will that look like?
3 comments:
I'm with you Mike.
This reminds me of the Nooma video 'Rhythm.' Thinking about ways the church can act it's love out in social settings, attracting the world. Ways to not just do a bbq - but be a movement that impacts it's community and world. People, regardless of faith, would connect with that.
It's funny because back in my working-for-a-church days, anything that looked or seemed like humanitarian was frowned upon - like it wasn't a credible means of evangelism. I think, like all things, it is how you use them.
Leveraging some of the ideas around being a missional community, this idea plays into thinking like a missionary, identifying needs in the community and then building a response to them.
i'll have to check out that video.
I know what you mean about doing humanitarian work and it being looked down on. I understand why though because often there is not an emphasis on church planting. There should be a balance of both though. I personally believe that there should be humanitarian work done with church connections. Once God's love is shown through Christians, God will draw a people for His name, and then those church connections can be used.
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