A challenge to us all

I just read an article about a church that has stopped doing traditional charity work, and I was so excited that I had to run over here and post some thoughts immediately.

For a long time we have tried at BCC to adjust the charitable giving we do according to a few principles.  We want to affirm human dignity wherever we find it.  We want to give people a hand up as opposed to hand out.

The author makes their points by citing from two series’ that I deeply appreciate, they are For the life of the World and Poverty Cure.  These are excellent truths, but this article made me realize something I had not thought of before.

The church featured has intentionally begun searching out the gifts of the people in their community and connecting those gifts to needs in their community.

We are a group of people who I think are incredibly passionate about bringing truth, justice, and goodness to the world around us.  But how many gifts inside our community are we completely ignoring?  What if we starting asking our neighbors, our co-workers, and our acquaintances two simple questions?

What are you passionate about doing?  

What disturbs you?  

This will help us to see a hint of their gifting, their “calling.”

Suppose we meet someone that says they are passionate about making sure that every kid has a chance to feel loved.  Maybe they will tell us that they really love to bake brownies.  Maybe what disturbs them is the thought that there are children in our community who never get homemade treats.

What if we could make a simple call to a local school and say “hey, I know a person who would love to bake brownies for your third grade class?”  Sure some vetting might need to happen, but that’s why we have relational connections.

We would be creating relationships.  We would be connecting people with passions to people with needs.  We would be bringing light, hope and community into the world around us.

And it’s easy.

Try it!  Let’s see how we can make small steps to make our world better, and I bet God will surprise us with what happens.