A Thought

"I think each village was meant to feel pity for its own sick and poor whom it can help and I doubt if it is the duty of any private person to fix his mind on ills which he cannot help. This may even become an escape from the works of charity we really can do to those we know. God may call any one of us to respond to some far away problem or support those who have been so called. But we are finite and he will not call us everywhere or to support every worthy cause. And real needs are not far from us.”               - C. S. Lewis

Each individual church can only do so much, just as each individual Christian can only do so much – but “do” we must.  Even as the real strength of an individual church must be assessed, it must be done within a context not of what is practical but what is reasonable within its mission which is stated by Mr. Lewis: “real needs are not far from us”.  There are missions and missionaries to support as best we can, but we cannot overlook our own neighborhoods from which the next missionary may come!  It is the small things that make big differences in the life of the local church.  It is not about “marketing” or “market shares”; it is about the Gospel.  It is about giving others what we ourselves truly need and have been given by the local church.

The Lord will show us where He wants us to go but only if we ask with a heart truly devoted to His mission.  “Whom shall I send” is the perpetual and eternal question from Above.  This is the earnest invitation to the Church to step up and be all we are called to be.

Blessings,

Michael