An Evening of Gratitude
They walked the streets in Las Vegas handing out Bibles with a cover that said, “Jesus loves porn stars” and an invitation for a bite to eat and a listening ear. They were ordinary radicals bringing Jesus’ word in the red letters of the Bible to life on earth.
They were ordinary radicals who bought a house on Potter Street and moved into the neighborhood. They have been bringing the book of Acts to life, sharing all their possessions and giving to anyone in need amid gun violence, prostitution, and poverty, while sharing meals together.
Working in the largest pediatric clinic in Oklahoma for kids on Medicaid a mom needed a breast pump. The barriers in getting one from another agency was asinine, so she bought one for the mom and gave it to her. For 21 years easy access in meeting needs to reduce stress, no ID or proof of residence required, providing the tangible in order to build relationships and introduce people to Jesus. Ordinary radicals loving on our neighbors in ways that other nonprofits and churches won’t.
XXX Church, The Simple Way and Isaiah 58, In His Service have something in common. These ministries step outside the norm and in faith to witness lives transformed in sometimes very unorthodox ways. “Radical faith lies at the intersection of shocking honesty and glorious hope. We believe Jesus meant what He said in the red letters of the Bible.” Tony Campolo
Loving our neighbors as Jesus did, costs something.
Irresistible Revolution, The Gutter and Jesus Loves Me This I Know have been my social work guides to loving like Jesus for over a decade. “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.” Acts 4: 32-35
Travis
Taking care of orphans, widows, children, mentally ill, the working poor, was never supposed to be the responsibility of the government. It is clear in scripture that it was -and is - the responsibility of the church and to be honest we’ve failed. Christ followers as described in scripture are called to the uncomfortable, the hard, the messy and the dangerous. If you have any doubt just look at the lives of Jesus and His disciples – almost all tortured and murdered by “stiff neck pharisees” the ‘religious’ people. So why do we offer limited assistance to our neighbors in need only when it is convenient for the church?
It used to be that we made time for what was important but now we seem to make time for what makes us feel good. Part of that stems from a lulling of the church. Churches are staged like a realtor sets up a house to sell. Everything is designed to make the church goer as comfortable as possible, hot coffee, smiling greeters, fresh pastries, everything from cushy seats all the way to the music, sermon, and length of service – a perfect experience. The intent of corporate worship, however, is to equip followers of Jesus to go out and make disciples.
Jesus sent the 12 disciples out two by two and, “He charged them to take nothing for the journey except a staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belts.” Mark 6:8
There aren’t many of us who would make it around our block. No wonder so many pew sitters choose only to go on sanctioned mission trips to another country. Going overseas for a week, you get to go to another country, teach vacation Bible school, stay in a hotel and for the last couple of days you get to sight see and buy souvenirs before you fly back home to your comfortable pew.
Why is it that we’ll go overseas but we can’t cross the street? Because it’s easier to go on ‘mission’ overseas than it is to do ministry here. Walking with our neighbors here takes a lot of time, it is often exasperating and inconvenient. The outcomes aren’t always what we pray for so we can get disappointed and feel taken advantage of. For many, they call it quits and never help again. But if we have Jesus as our example for the way we live our lives then right there in the midst of suffering is where He called us to be.
We had An Evening of Gratitude at Isaiah’s last night. We didn’t offer sponsorship levels or charge thousands of dollars to attend. We didn’t have a silent auction, pay a venue and entertainment organizer hundreds of thousands of dollars to offer our guests a good time. Our delicious homecooked dinner, dessert and Isaiah’s merch were offered as gifts to say ‘thank you’ for our donor’s support for the last 15+ years. In fact, Isaiah’s Home Team, Travis, Alice and Craig cleaned the toilets, mopped, hung pictures and painted to get ready for our celebration last night AND Kathy and Jeff prepared a delicious and amazing meal, all out of the goodness of their hearts.
Our prayer every day is to be more like Jesus. Jesus doesn’t charge a fee for us to follow Him. No, He paid the price because He loves us and wants a relationship with us. He could have decreed us all Stepford wives without any choice in the matter. Instead, He gave us this amazing opportunity to live on earth and make our own decision of whether we live for Him or for ourselves.
If you say you have a relationship with Jesus but haven’t gotten out of the pew and into the neighborhoods of the poor, then you really don’t know Him at all. The system to lift people out of poverty wasn’t originally designed to become bureaucratic red tape mired in oppression. It was started because the church was neglecting, even ignoring its mandate by Jesus to care for our neighbors next door and across the street. Why are churches budgeting thousands of dollars for overseas mission trips and a very small budget for the neighbors in the church’s backyard? Isaiah 58, In His service is listed on a local church's website as a partner, but we've never received any support from them. But they have referred people in need to us.
State and federal governments, systems that have programs to aid the poor are not compassionate and knowledgeable of the people they were set up to help. Systems aren’t designed to be compassionate or caring or kind. But the church is.
Isaiah’s doesn’t have a budget. We can’t give you the numbers of how many of our neighbors we’ve served or how many pounds of groceries were delivered last month or how many miles we’ve driven taking people to pick up prescriptions, to doctor’s appointments or to church. The transformed lives who spoke last night, Travis, Cheryl, Alice, Craig and Charley – they are our testimony, our annual report if you will, to how we spend our time, tithes and talent.
I serve our neighbors in need pro bono. In fact, Isaiah’s doesn’t have anyone on payroll, we are all volunteers. There are Executive Directors of non-profits in Tulsa that receive over $500,000 a year in salary. We could pay off our building, build cottages, and completely finish Isaiah’s Neighborhood – A Place to Belong, AND pay rent and utilities to keep families in their homes with that amount of money!!
We walk with people for the long term. Loving the irritating, accident prone, sensitive, frustrating, dangerous, angry neighbor until they can see themselves as the person God created them to be. Discipleship is hard and honestly, more often than not, there is no happy ending. We have hundreds of photos hanging in Isaiah’s. Each one a life made in the image of God and most of them are not living the life God designed for them. Abuse, drugs, alcohol, mental illness, domestic violence, cognitive disabilities prevent them from seeing themselves as Jesus sees them. We continue our walk with them, through it all, because transformation can happen on a death bed.
Shane Claiborne said, “I grew tired of the version of Christianity that’s just about escaping this world. We can’t promise people heaven and then ignore the hells that they’re living through right now.” Now is not the time to cut the budget for those in need in our city. Now is the time for the Church to step out in faith, even when it’s uncomfortable, inconvenient, difficult, contrary to ‘the way we’ve always done it’ and apart from other churches. This is a call for action because we are in crisis.
We can do more. We can do better. Together.
LOVE GOES
