Month: January 2020

He Will Sustain You

Tomorrow morning, I’ll receive back the minivan I’ve loaned out for several days to a church family without a car. We’ll discuss ways to help the under-employment in their family. Where can they find better jobs, higher paying jobs with more dependable hours?

Later tomorrow morning, I’ll meet with someone else who’s been struggling with multiple health problems, joblessness, and a temptation to return to Addiction. I’ll brainstorm with this person how they can find a job with their current health problems. Until they find work, they want to help around our church building.

Pastor Work

It’s hard to adequately explain the work I do most days. It’s definitely not the traditional “pastor” work I imagined years ago. Our church serves many who struggle to make ends meet, who don’t have good health, or healthy bank accounts, degrees to their name, or proper transportation. And many don’t even attend our church’s Sunday service. In fact, the Sunday service is just a tiny part of Renovation Community.

During a church service a couple weeks ago, I told our church family how vital Generosity is for one’s spiritual health. But I also repeated a phrase I’ve said often…”we don’t need your money because God will provide all we need.”

Not sustainable

It’s not unusual for well-meaning people to warn me such a ministry is not sustainable if we don’t change our funding model. “We need to seek grants, request support, and build a donor base.”
But God can sustain what He chooses, in whatever ways He chooses, for however long He chooses. If I heard God correctly (there’s always a chance I didn’t), I heard Him call us down a different path. He wasn’t calling us to financial sustainability, but to faithfulness.

$2000 in the mail today from dear friends I haven’t seen in a long time.

“Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you” Psalm 55:22

He is faithful.

Obedience

A surprise guest stopped by. God saved this person from a dark and dangerous life, forgave them of all their sins, and radically changed them. I prayed for the visitor and they prayed for me. When leaving, they gave this $220 check for Renovation Community. In the memo line, they wrote the word “obedience.”

I’m thankful for God’s generous people.

“The best measure of a spiritual life is not its ecstasies but its obedience.” —Oswald Chambers

He is faithful.

Opening Our Doors

Friday night I loaned my van for a few days to someone formerly homeless in our church family. Her family lived in our building this summer until finding a new place.

Yesterday, another church member learned their housing with family may end at any moment. For years, this person has tirelessly worked two jobs to make ends meet. Could we help if they suddenly become homeless?

Today, I helped the funeral director (also part of our church family) prepare for a service. He and his wife are running the funeral today without any paid staff, keeping costs down for the grieving family.

Before returning home, we discussed more plans for renovating our aging facility. Always trying to steward the money God gives, we’ll buy material at a Construction Surplus and do the work ourselves. [Ok, associate Pastor Jordan Buchner will work and I’ll watch 😜]

At the same time this morning, a Haitian church was meeting in our gym chapel. Immigrants from the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere gather each week for worship in our building, and pay a nominal rent compared to anywhere else. Tonight they asked about using a room for ESL classes because, as one member put it, “a lot of our people can’t speak English very well.” They’ll meet in the room that serves as a computer lab for our summer day camp and feeding program.

A Unique Call

God has called Renovation Community to a unique work- serving our neighborhood’s poor, marginalized, and overlooked…and opening our doors when others have closed them.

As we follow God on this path, He provides all we need for the journey…often through His generous people.

The three pictures show the unrequested checks that arrived in today’s mail…

“What a serene and quiet life might you lead if you would leave providing to the God of providence! With a little oil in the cruse, and a handful of meal in the barrel, Elijah outlived the famine, and you will do the same. If God cares for you, why need you care too? Can you trust Him for your soul, and not for your body? He has never refused to bear your burdens, He has never fainted under their weight. Come, then, soul! have done with fretful care, and leave all thy concerns in the hand of a gracious God.” —Charles Spurgeon

He is faithful.

You Are Not Alone Friend

As a pastor, people call me for many reasons. Sometimes, people struggling with Addiction call me when they’re especially feeling tempted to relapse.
Never has a caller said, “my Program recommends I reach out when I’m feeling tempted, so that’s what I’m doing now.” But with some combination of experience and insight from God, I can usually figure it out in the first few seconds.

Contributing factors in today’s phone call were: Joblessness and Health Problems (the latter directly caused the former). Idle time and feeling hopeless can create a dangerous situation.

Listen

I listened to my friend’s pain.
I’ve personally met with Godly licensed therapists for many years. I’ve seen Healing in my own heart when I share with a good listener.
After listening, we spent some time brainstorming jobs his health could still handle [I now have a new mental list as I look for “Hiring” signs].
Next, I prayed for my friend. Then I asked him to pray for me. There’s a reason we call our church Renovation Community. This pastor needs God’s renovating work in my life as much as my friend on the phone—so we pray for each other.

Learn

Our friends in the 12-Step Community have much to teach us if we have ears to hear. Of course, the deepest truths they share come from a much older source….

Galatians 6:2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

You’re not alone, friend.

A Very Safe Thing

I’m continually humbled how God provides for Renovation Community through his generous people.

“we have proved that it is a very safe thing to trust in the Lord our God.” -Missionary Amy Carmichael

He is faithful.