What If ???

Musings about a Great Commandment "Vision" in a Great Commission people.

By Mike O’Dell

North Rock Hill Church recently launched a “What If?” emphasis asking their members to consider what could happen if they got serious about allowing God to use them to meet the needs of their community. That got me to thinking, “What If” all 70 of our churches began asking that same question of their church?

 I attended the “Faith Based summit on Homelessness” last week and listened to the director of a program in Raleigh share how they had gathered the churches in Raleigh together to address the Homeless problem in that city. She said they had a homeless count of just over 1000 families in Raleigh. So they have asked each church in the city to adopt just one family and provide a support network ( a ministry team from that church) to assist them with finding a place to live, food, clothes, a job, child care, tutoring, etc. for 12 months. The result has been astounding! She was able to give several examples of families whose lives have been changed because a church adopted them, loved them and assisted them with the “Hand Up” they needed. In the process those families heard the Gospel! She also shared a video of testimonials from one of the churches concerning the incredible blessing the church had received by participating in this program.

 She ended by telling us that there are just over 1000 churches in Raleigh so their goal is to ask the churches, (not the government) to end homelessness in Raleigh by adopting a homeless family. She pointed out that, coincidentally, guess what, there are 435 homeless families in York County and about 400 churches! What if each church adopted just one family? The “Church” in York County could eliminate homelessness in York County immediately!!! We could do what no government stimulus package could ever do!

 Yeah, yeah, I know the argument. Some homeless people don’t want help! Most are either on drugs or they are mentally ill! You know what, that may or may not be true. Even if it is, isn’t that all the more reason they need a church family to come around them and love them and assist them as much as we can so they can become stabilized and safe and available to the Good News?

 James reminds us, What good is it if we say to a homeless person, “ go in peace, be warmed and be filled, and yet we do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead. Being by itself!”  In the same way, Jesus commands us to follow the example of “the Good Samaritan”. His question to the man who asked him “who is my neighbor” haunts us; “Which of these three was neighbor to the man who had been left for dead?” How many homeless do we overlook, or avoid, or ignore on our way to Zion?

 Homelessness is just one need in our community that our churches could address if they just ask God to use them. What would it say to a skeptical community if they saw the "Church" do such a thing? How would the younger generation respond to your church? What opportunities for sharing the Gospel might such an action open up?

 What if we really do it?