Monthly Archives: May 2011

Taking the Church to the Streets

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So often when we say the word church we immediately think of a building instead of people. We ask questions like, “what church do you go to?” and “where is your church?”. Without realizing it, we have confined the church to a building we attend once or twice a week instead of the truth that we as believers in Jesus Christ are the church. We must never forget that we may be the only church anyone ever attends when we go to work or school and they see our faith in action.

Each week we have Bible studies in BonTon with small groups of men and women in our ministry houses while the children meet at Velma’s house. These Bible studies are a tremendous example of the body of Christ as we pray, study the Word, fellowship and help meet the needs of each member of our study.

This past weekend a member of our group was so thankful that we were meeting for bible study in our ministry house where he lives since he cannot leave the house on Sunday as a part of his probation. He actually wears an ankle bracelet that constantly tracks his location. He is now a devoted follower of Christ and just completed our machine shop training and needed a place to live.

We have all witnessed the faith and faithfulness of our new friend and brother so we offered for him to live in our BridgeBuilder ministry house. He shared that he tried for 17 months to get into our ministry job training and kept running into road blocks until this last class. He said he kept praying and persevering and the Lord answered his prayers.

When he said he couldn’t leave the house on Sundays and that he was so grateful that we came to him to meet every Saturday I rejoiced at the joy of the blessing of being the church to our new brother in Christ.

Each day we discover more people in our community that are praying for someone to come and share the love of Christ with them and be a part of the body of Christ, the Church. Pray about joining us each Saturday at 11:00 in BonTon as we develop these house churches with Christians from across the city that join together to bring glory to God and advance His Kingdom.

Be Radical

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This past week we were thrilled to be able to host Brian Fikkert, the author of When Helping Hurts. Last month we were grateful to be able to spend the day with David Platt, author of Radical and Radical Together. It is amazing to see how the Lord is speaking the same word through so many in this season to the church in America.

Prayerfully we will wake up to the word the Lord is speaking to us regarding the least here and around the world. Every day we are seeing men and women who were once hopeless receiving Hope In Salvation. Recently a young Pastor said, “I was always talking about the poor and never satisfied with what the church in America was doing.” That’s because there are only 2000 scriptures regarding the ministry to the poor and I believe there is no greater witness to the lost world than seeing our love for the least. The world will know we are Christians by our love and not just our words.

I am grateful for the authors and pastors and teachers who are a part of this great movement to bring balance back to the church in America. One pastor told me recently that “most churches just give the crumbs to helping the needy and the least, while they should be giving a greater portion of the loaf of bread to those who need it the most.” The missed opportunity will not only impact the declining church in America but the next generation who longs to see the church be the church of Jesus Christ and not the church of America consumed with ourselves and the American dream.

Just read the Bible and see where Jesus was, where he spent his time, what he did, and we will all know how far we have drifted into a faith of our own making that is really more about ourselves than Jesus and others. Prayerful that as you read these books you will go to the word and pray and hear from God his heart for the lost and the least here and around the world. What a joy it would be for all of us to be considered RADICAL for the Lord!

David Platt tours BridgeBuilders