A Post about Poverty
Outreach Magazine recently posted an article I wrote about including those who struggle with poverty in the life of our congregations. Below is a snippet and you can see the article by clicking here.
A church concerned with the pleasures that come from obscuring the poor cannot truly thrive. It comes to an untimely ruin, choked by going its own way, thinking its own thoughts, going after its own comforts. How many churches worry about their rate of growth? Or their annual budget? Or the things that make them happy—music, coffee, aesthetics? These things we strive for may be the very things choking the life out of us . . . .
Shelley, no more a misfit than myself, did find a home at our church, though we dealt with naysayers and purity-hawks along the way. Right up until the end of her life she struggled with a plethora of problems, but the gospel always struck her to the marrow. It made her weep and revel in the joy that was hers in Christ. And for every Shelley who has found a …
A church concerned with the pleasures that come from obscuring the poor cannot truly thrive. It comes to an untimely ruin, choked by going its own way, thinking its own thoughts, going after its own comforts. How many churches worry about their rate of growth? Or their annual budget? Or the things that make them happy—music, coffee, aesthetics? These things we strive for may be the very things choking the life out of us . . . .
Shelley, no more a misfit than myself, did find a home at our church, though we dealt with naysayers and purity-hawks along the way. Right up until the end of her life she struggled with a plethora of problems, but the gospel always struck her to the marrow. It made her weep and revel in the joy that was hers in Christ. And for every Shelley who has found a …
