Resource Rich

One of the powerful blessings of being connected to a church is the availability of resources. A church family should be ready to support one another through any difficult season AND celebrate with one another in victories! Now, because a church is filled with people, it is always going to be messy! However, as each one of us rests back into the love and faithfulness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the local church can easily become the most powerful entity in your area.  

I am writing this three days into a power outage caused by Hurricane Beryl. I am sitting in my home being cooled by a fan during a heat advisory. My family is dispersed, refugees for air conditioning! Even though we are without power, we are resource rich because of our church family. People we have come to love and people who have come to love us. Relationships built through the years of intentionally engaging with one another…looking for others running God’s race with whom we can connect.  

And the results are powerful! 

Church life is supposed to resource rich. Whether the need is love, truth, strength, healing…or electricity(!) being a part of a church is supposed to bring you into a community of sharing.  

Consider what Jesus says about His people… 

One day the Apostle Peter made a comment to Jesus about how much he and the other disciples had sacrificed to follow Jesus. Jesus replied in Mark 10:29-31,  

Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; an in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last, first. 

First, Jesus acknowledges the cost many pay to walk with Him. People can lose their families when they convert to Christianity. People can lose their farms! In all the times I have read this I have glossed over “farms.” There is a high cost to follow Jesus. 

But, second, Jesus describes the blessing of being in His Father’s family.  Notice the degree of love Jesus expects people in the church to give and receive. We are truly to be brothers and sisters! We should receive, and give, love, protection, provision, security, and strength to one another as our lives are weaved together in God’s family.  

Every one of us who is in Christ has been adopted.  

None of us have any right to be called sons and daughters of God.  

You and I are saved by grace, and by grace alone.  

We are to care for, strengthen, empower, pray, and run God’s race with one another.  

The Apostle Paul started a church in a city called Colossae in what is modern Turkey. The church was an outpost of our Father’s kingdom. The church became a home for those Jews and Gentiles who converted to Christianity. Whatever your background was you are now in Christ and in His church. In Colossians 3:12-13, Paul describes the behaviors and attitudes that form the culture of this new family, 

So, as those who have been chosen of God (to be in His family), holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.  

Notice that Paul puts the responsibility of creating culture on each member of the church. He charges each member to put on a heart of compassion. Every one of us has the power to influence the culture of our church. Can you imagine a church with a Colossians 3:12-13 culture?  

If your reaction is to race through your mental rolodex and point out people that fall short of Paul’s culture, then you are already part of the problem. People are messy. Church is messy. You have to feel the weight of Paul’s words, “…whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.” Whoa. Do you think Paul wrote that because he has spent a lot of time with people? Remember, this was 2,000 years ago. People were super-charged to complain then just like they are today! 

Don’t be a complainer.  

For those of us who have suffered significant church hurt, you are not alone. While your pain is real and can get really deep, there are many fantastic people in great churches that will love you and be a part of your journey. 

Each one of us has been given the power to affect the culture of our church! A healthy, Mark 10/Colossians 3, church, can be a life giving source of abundance for all its people!  

Because we have been made brothers and sisters in Christ, we should be, more than any others, resource rich…This is one of the great benefits of living TOGETHER in the Overflow!