A friend and I have decided to start a church. Well, to be more honest, a friend of mine wanted to start a church, and now there are about five of us involved. Either way, we want this to look like something completely fresh and new, like nothing ever done before.
So how do we do this? How on earth do we create some kind of multi-cultural community that does more than fill up a bunch of pews on a Sunday service? How do we create something that is real and authentic and messy? How do I become the kind of person that doesn't just show up to meetings, but does things in my own life to reach out to someone that really needs something?
John calls this our benevolence movement. A movement of giving, not just a bunch of people trying to do. We want to create a place where the homeless people in our city can come to just take a shower. I'd like to see this partnered with the place in town that helps them get jobs and food. I want to actually go out and do something with my life that would help someone else.
I was listening to a podcast by Shane Claiborne and he was talking about how he lives in community in this house in Philly. A house on the wrong side of the tracks in the bad part of town. A house that has seen its share of hurting people, drug addicts, homeless persons. And yet the purpose of this house is to build relationships with others in that neighborhood. He's not trying to start a new church, but he's working with the churches that are already in the area to try to make things work a little differently and a little better than they already were. He's working to get rid of some of the gun retailers in the city. Leaving this world a little cleaner than when he found it.
That is what my heart wants to do this morning. To get into the heart of this city I live in and do something more than just sit here. There are days when I just hate the way I live, not because it's bad, but because I haven't really helped anyone. I show up to my christian school job, go to my christian school classes, and then go to church on Sundays. There isn't any room to meet people outside of that. I want to be friends with people who don't love God like I do. I want to meet people that have real, deep hurts so I can learn to get the focus off of my own piddly little problems. I'm a firm believer that you don't really know what problems are until you can learn to understand someone else's.
What are you doing to make a difference in the world?
