THE CHURCH LOVING OTHERS MORE THAN ITSELF
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Growing up in church, I have heard all my life that the greatest command is to love the Lord my God with all my heart and soul and mind and strength and my
neighbor as myself. And I accepted that and lived it to the point that it didn't really cause me to change too radically. In all honesty, I loved only to the extent that it didn't require too much sacrifice or pain on my behalf.
.
Then, as most of you know, I went to Swaziland last year and my world was abruptly turned upside down. God had started working on my heart the year before. He'd already told me that it was time to get out of my comfort zone and start fighting to free those oppressed by sin and poverty and abuse and disease and addiction. But seeing the stark reality of Swaziland...a nation literally dying from AIDS and starvation...well, it really made that command real for me. And then God used people and books to cement for me what He was calling me to do. Francis Chan's book CRAZY LOVE was a big nail in the coffin of my selfish living. He squarely hit me with the questions of "can I accept Jesus as Savior but not have him as LORD? And if He's my LORD then that means I'm following Him...doing the things He does? Am I living a life of sacrifice?"
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The answer was a big fat NO! And I'm still not. I'm still so selfish in many, many ways. But I want to change. I want my life to be lived as an offering to Him as I love others in practical and powerful ways. I've still got such a frightfully long way to go. But He's steadily working on me and though it hurts at times, it is also amazingly glorious.
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I found this at Shaun Groves blog. It's good.
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08.07.07 Chan and Change
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Francis Chan is just a guy who pastors a large church in California. He’s not the smartest, most famous, most respected, most anything...I’m guessing. He’s just a guy. But the direction he lead his church in, or so the legend goes, is remarkable and unheard of. Or perhaps it wasn’t lead as much as allowed. Anybody know?
.
The story is - correct me if I’m wrong - that his church was on track to spend 20 million dollars to build a new building. What happened, and I don’t know how, was that the decision was made to build an outdoor meeting place instead. Much cheaper. Much much cheaper. And the money that was saved would then go to the truly poor around the world. And, the story goes, meeting outside on rainy days or hot days would serve to remind folks in the church of the discomfort others live in every day.
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Spend less. Create empathy. Mobilize to show mercy. Sounds like church to me.
.
I’ve never met Francis Chan. I saw him in the hotel lobby in Austin a couple weeks ago and didn’t want to interrupt to say hey. But this weekend I’m looking forward to interrupting him just long enough to say thanks for the story and to get more details. Even if it’s not entirely true - what do I know? - it’s inspiring. What could church become? How does it become it? What is the pastor’s role in that becoming? Can it happen without him?
.
Here’s the video reportedly created by Chan’s church to explain why such a radical financial decision was made:
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To read more of Shaun's writing and to learn about his work with Compassion, visit his blog at: http://www.shaungroves.com/shlog/
.
Growing up in church, I have heard all my life that the greatest command is to love the Lord my God with all my heart and soul and mind and strength and my
neighbor as myself. And I accepted that and lived it to the point that it didn't really cause me to change too radically. In all honesty, I loved only to the extent that it didn't require too much sacrifice or pain on my behalf..
Then, as most of you know, I went to Swaziland last year and my world was abruptly turned upside down. God had started working on my heart the year before. He'd already told me that it was time to get out of my comfort zone and start fighting to free those oppressed by sin and poverty and abuse and disease and addiction. But seeing the stark reality of Swaziland...a nation literally dying from AIDS and starvation...well, it really made that command real for me. And then God used people and books to cement for me what He was calling me to do. Francis Chan's book CRAZY LOVE was a big nail in the coffin of my selfish living. He squarely hit me with the questions of "can I accept Jesus as Savior but not have him as LORD? And if He's my LORD then that means I'm following Him...doing the things He does? Am I living a life of sacrifice?"
.
The answer was a big fat NO! And I'm still not. I'm still so selfish in many, many ways. But I want to change. I want my life to be lived as an offering to Him as I love others in practical and powerful ways. I've still got such a frightfully long way to go. But He's steadily working on me and though it hurts at times, it is also amazingly glorious.
.
I found this at Shaun Groves blog. It's good.
.
08.07.07 Chan and Change
.
Francis Chan is just a guy who pastors a large church in California. He’s not the smartest, most famous, most respected, most anything...I’m guessing. He’s just a guy. But the direction he lead his church in, or so the legend goes, is remarkable and unheard of. Or perhaps it wasn’t lead as much as allowed. Anybody know?
.
The story is - correct me if I’m wrong - that his church was on track to spend 20 million dollars to build a new building. What happened, and I don’t know how, was that the decision was made to build an outdoor meeting place instead. Much cheaper. Much much cheaper. And the money that was saved would then go to the truly poor around the world. And, the story goes, meeting outside on rainy days or hot days would serve to remind folks in the church of the discomfort others live in every day.
.
Spend less. Create empathy. Mobilize to show mercy. Sounds like church to me.
.
I’ve never met Francis Chan. I saw him in the hotel lobby in Austin a couple weeks ago and didn’t want to interrupt to say hey. But this weekend I’m looking forward to interrupting him just long enough to say thanks for the story and to get more details. Even if it’s not entirely true - what do I know? - it’s inspiring. What could church become? How does it become it? What is the pastor’s role in that becoming? Can it happen without him?
.
Here’s the video reportedly created by Chan’s church to explain why such a radical financial decision was made:
.
To read more of Shaun's writing and to learn about his work with Compassion, visit his blog at: http://www.shaungroves.com/shlog/
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