There are times when I read the news and watch current events unfold, that it can get a bit dismal. I know lots of people who just don't watch it at all. There is a certain amount of wisdom in that. I however, have not taken to that extreme quite yet. For all sorts of reasons, especially that I am a pastor, I feel somewhat obligated to pay attention. But it can be tough work sometimes, especially the times when it feels like I can't make a difference.
I will confess that when it comes to some of the biggest concerns in this world right now I will not substantively make any difference whatsoever. Curiously, (at least from my perspective) no one has asked me to be part of the Bilderberg group, the Counsel on Foreign Relations, the Federal Reserve, State Department, Illuminati, Michele Obama's School Lunch Commission, or any of the other movers and shakers in world events. No one has called me up and asked me to give them any counsel on environmental concerns, sustainable farming, healthcare, or taxes. If I am honest with myself, I admit will not have any significant or lasting impact on any of these things. It would be easy to allow fatalism to rule, but that is not what we are called to do. Instead we are called to make a difference.
You see on the really big stuff we probably won't make much of a difference, but that is not the shape of the tool we are anyway. We are a church. That is to say we are a local embodiment of Jesus Christ. We are His hands, His feet, and His mouthpiece. It follows that if we are an embodiment of Jesus that the nature of our ministry too would look like Jesus' did. Jesus did not transform his culture or the government when and where He lived. Rather through His redemption He created a new way of being and a new way of being in community. While these transformed people and communities, eventually rose to the place of the majority, one might question how that really worked out: mixed reviews at best.
So if we are not going to have this big impact on the really big stuff, what is the point in trying? We try because we will have an impact on individuals. That is the tool we have been shaped as. To make a difference on one person and even possibly, one family at a time!
This week I want to encourage you and our church to make a difference! Come find out how!
Hope to see you at church.
Pastor Chris
