A Place for Ministry
March 1, 2005
We live and minister in a community that is being gentrified – I think that is the word. Old structures are being replaced with new. Poverty is being replaced with affluence. At a rapid pace the community is being changed. Although this seems good at first glance, it produces some unique challenges for our work.
The changes mean that property in this community is increasingly expensive. Yet, there are many hidden people – addicts, street kids, parentless children, the homeless – who invisibly live here. They live in the structures that haven’t yet been torn down – in abandoned houses – in halfway houses. You don’t see them as you drive down the streets where $300,000 town homes are being built. Yet, they are here and in need of the life giving power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is to those that we are called.
We purposely chose a strategy that did not involve building a big church building. But, even in a house church strategy, we must have places – homes, apartments, meeting spaces – to do our work ….. in a community that is increasingly affluent.
For some time now, we have been asking God to set aside some space for this ministry. We’ve particularly had an apartment complex in mind – a place where we can live in community with those we are reaching…a place that allows for daily interaction in the discipleship process…a place where our growing corporate gatherings could take place.
As we dream we realize that God will have to make provision for us. We don’t have the financial capacity to purchase even a small place. Ours is a ministry built around people who come to us in poverty. As we dream about God making provision, we remember the story in Acts where the people of God experienced a unity that was so profound that the Scripture say that no one had need. That occurred in part because “from time to time those who owned lands or house 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 4:34)
We are not the apostles. We are followers of Jesus who are seeking to obey His call in our life. You may or may not own lands or houses that could be sold for the sake of ministry to the poor in this community. If you do, would you ask the Lord today if and how you might participate in this ministry? Whether you do or not own lands or houses, as our friends and family in Christ, would you join us in asking God to provide what we need? We believe that if God did this back then, he can do it now. And as he provides, we’ll keep you posted.