I picked up a new book, UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity and why it matters by David Kinnamen, and I was overwhelmed within the first page:
…they reject Jesus because they feel rejected by Christians.
Church, what are we doing? How have we missed the message of grace? “Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” John 1:17
We (and I mean Christians as a whole group, not just one church or denomination) have spent a lot of time making sure we are RIGHT that we’ve missed the message that we are to LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
Just a couple of days ago I wrote a post about Defying Gravity — about leaping into the unknown on faith. I am still there — in mid leap, defying gravity.
I’m the director of a nonprofit that advocates for abused & neglected children. We don’t take the children into our homes, we don’t even allow our volunteer advocates to transport the kids, we just ask people to invest in a child’s life and to advocate for that child, just like you would your own.
When I speak to most people — both in the church and beyond — I hear “Oh, I could never do that. I just couldn’t handle it.” And I want to SCREAM. If not you, then who? Who church? Who is to do this?
500,000 children are in foster care — where’s the church?
25,000 will grow up and age out of foster care with NO WHERE to go — where’s the church?
Methamphetamines are overwhelming my county and many others. Drug abusers need help — where’s the church?
People go hungry in America? Children are hungry in America — where’s the church?
Women are beaten by the spouses and where’s the church?
Church — just because you refuse to look doesn’t mean it’s not there. All the building fund projects in the world won’t save the life of ONE CHILD.
All the new family life centers and beautiful landscaping won’t help ONE BEATEN WOMAN.
There’s a multi-million dollar church being built in may area and I ask:
When will you use it? And who will use it?
Will you open your doors to the beaten, the addict, the drunk and the prostitute?
Will you use the rooms for the homeless or for the woman seeking refuge from another beating? Will you?
Or will you just open your doors on Wed night for a few hours and again on Sunday?
Who will help these people if not us, Church?
Who are we waiting on? The government? It’s not their job. The families? They are too broken to help.
Are we waiting on someone else? And who is that?
And so with that I step into the Unknown.
For seven years I’ve worked in this field and I’ve long wondered WHERE’S the Church?
Today, I begin to put these questions into a book. I want to show the church what the need is and I am challenging all of us to meet that need.
Get out of the pew and reach out. There is a world beyond that door that desperately needs our help.
Most don’t believe in Jesus because they believe that Jesus doesn’t believe in them … if His kids are more concerned with protocol than hearts I can see your authors’ point.
If we reduce Christ to a marketable product, a fan club, a ‘have to’ or entertainment, we miss HIS heart. Overflow to another from relationship with HIM is going to be genuine and compels others to want what we have. If we are hanging with him and He is rubbing off onto us, His heart, His compassions, His motives, we automatically become a signpost pointing to Who He is. Guess we just have to hang our ‘sign’ by interupting lies with the truth, where others can see ..
… ‘this little light of mine; I’m gonna let it shine’.
Amen, Mary! That is why we are His hands, feet, voices.
These are the kind of blog entries that I LOVE. I hear you and I too want to scream. Something’s gotta change and it starts in the hearts of us. I want to be one of those people that loves the one no one seems to notice.
Thank you for the powerful shout out! I’m with you. And scream away please, don’t stop speaking this kind of message. It’s SOOO needed.
I could cry if I sat here one moment longer. You are expressing the inexpressible burdens of my heart. Thank you Mary. If you have a platform, please use it as a humble voice and teach others!
Oh MARY!!!
You have way hit the nail on the head! Go forth and preach what you know, and see everyday!
I’m with you! THIS IS A MESSAGE THAT YOU COULD PREACH at the NEXT RETREAT!
I have an answer to your question, “Where’s the Church?” They are involved in their own lives and are living in selfishness. That is where the Church is and it’s sad. Jesus commands each of us to care for His children and to bear one another’s burdens. How does God’s love shine through to others? By shining through us as we reach out without prejudice or judgement.
I give you a big AMEN on this post. It’s something I cry out to God about on a regular basis. It’s something He has been teaching me and I am with you 100% on this mission to call the Church to start doing God’s work and not our own.