What's the Point?

 I think one of the things that always discouraged me about church was how seemingly useless it was.  I know that might sound a bit blasphemous, but really now - how many sermons about hell and the Second Coming of Christ can one really find useful?  Then there's the totally polar opposite - that style of church that seems like an around the clock, week-after-week therapy session.  You know the ones I'm talking about- the sermons are all flowery and all the teaching is about how to overcome childhood fears, manage your money better, and so on.  Not much about God, or the Christ for that matter.  Understand this - it was never the people of the church that bothered me...it was the doing of the church that I found so anemic.


The traditions of the church are fine.  Lighting candles, singing, preaching, corporate prayer, the Liturgy - all fine.  Each of these things have meaning to us on a number of levels, from the cohesion of generations, to the security they can provide (and many, many more), but in my estimation they have little practical value.  By the same token, a church that focuses only on activist causes leaves the soul longing for more.  It seems a conundrum.  Really, I suppose what's ideal in a church is just like life - balance.


Here's the thing that keeps sticking in my mind:

Luke chapter 10 reads -

25 One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?”

27 The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

28 “Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!”

Anne Jackson over at FlowerDust.net recently posted this on her blog:

A couple of weeks ago, Atlanta was hit by serious flooding. As in, houses were submerged…completely devastated. In an area called Austell,thousands of families are displaced because of the damage.

People. Have. Lost. Their. Lives.

Last week, I met Pastor Shaun King for the first time, face to face. He shared with me a movement his church has started to help flood victims called Hope ATL.

Hope ATL is pulling together resources, financial and practical and human, to help these victims. Victims who have lost, literally, everything.

The thing that amazed me during my conversation with Shaun was that their church doesn’t have a lot of money. Or people. A couple hundred, at most. Instead of having meetings about how to help, or who to point people to in case they needed help, they simply stopped what they were doing…and helped.

Now, the thing that disturbed me during my conversation with Shaun was that he had made many calls to many churches in the area, and so many churches said…

No.

They couldn’t help.

I was shocked. Where is the Church when a city needs it the most?

That didn’t stop Shaun. He kept rallying the people he could and went into the most dangerous and most flooded places and they went to work. They even decided to NOT meet in their building on Sunday or in their offices during the week and instead they met at the largest Red Cross Shelter for flood victims in Marietta (near Austell), where the flooding was worst, so they could provide care and hope and a place for people to see Jesus. They didn’t take up an offering that Sunday either, as most of the people who came had nothing. 50% of Austell is now homeless. So they gave back to them instead.

And they’re still working.

For the rest of this story click here.  

So this seems useful.  That church saw neighbors in need - and DID something about it.  My question about those other churches that couldn't (or wouldn't) help is this:

WHY WOULDN'T THEY HELP??

Was it because they were already helping the community in a different fashion? (I really hope this is the answer)

Was it because their membership was dispersed because of the floods?

And let me say this here - I hope like hell it wasn't because Shaun King's church WASN'T FROM THE SAME DENOMINATION!!!!  Sounds silly, but I've seen that happen.  Sad.