An Important Question...Let's Go One Step Further

In her article yesterday in the Washington Post, Dale Hansen Bourke wrote, "When I interviewed people of faith for a book I was writing on poverty, most agreed that poverty was a faith issue, but few could name specific ways their own faith community engaged with the poor, except in foreign missions." (Full article)

Poverty emerges as an important issue for me as well on the faith and political fronts. As I have traveled the country and the world leading mission experiences for young adults, and more recently as I have taken a very personal role in helping a homeless woman in my area, I have come to understand that mission is not about helping people "somewhere else." While it is crucial to be in mission in places far distant from one's own zip code, it is just as crucial to be in mission in our own neighborhoods. It is no surprise to me that many people of faith have no personal experience with helping those poor in assets and in spirit right in their midst.

Book after book about church rejuvenation reflects the notion that many houses of faith are very good at 17th and 18th century forms of worship and are stuck into the 1950's and 1960's notions of mission and poverty.

As church leaders (speaking as one of them) we have been fearful to change "traditional ways" thinking that we would lose membership and money. But we've behaved like the Pharisees of Jesus' day in some respects. Rather than reaching the "least, the last and the lost" we either gotten stuck or hidden behind committees and failed to trust God to provide all we needed in order to do what God is calling us to do.

So my questions for you to consider today are these. What is your community of faith doing to engage with the poor in your area? What are you doing to learn about and help the needful people in your neighborhood? What are you doing to see the sacred in all people? What are you doing to help others see the sacred in all people?

May you find joy in the challenge, and may God comfort you as you provide comfort for others!