Faith Venture

Jesus started a mission. He called disciples to do the work.

We have sort of screwed things up. We started calling ourselves Christians instead of Disciples. Then we sort of made it like a club.

But for three centuries, the Jesus movement grew because people saw how the disciples of Jesus lived and they wanted to be part of that.

Jesus said, you’ll know who my followers are by their love. Can we honestly say that about ourselves? About our churches? If yes, fantastic. If no, than as Desi used to say to Lucy, God will say to us, “You’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do.”

Willow Creek Community Church has begun its Celebration of Hope campaign featuring compassion and justice missions of the church. The first message was from Dr. Soong-Chan Rah. His description of how those early Christians lived is one of the best I’ve ever heard. You can click the link to listen for yourself.

In the 19th Century, Christians changed the world–women’s rights, ending child labor, ending slavery in many places, sending missionaries to carry Jesus’ story. By the middle of the 20th Century, Christians had changed and those of us who wanted to be both Christian and pursue justice were seen to be radical, or just weird.

Things are changing again. Disciples of Jesus are once again out in huge numbers carrying Jesus’ message along with our service and passion for justice. I wish this one sticks around for a longer time.

This entry was posted on April 23, 2013 at 7:08 am and is filed under Service. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.