Why Is This News or, Who Won’t You Serve?

An article by Matt    6 Comments

Out of Ur recently shared a video of an ABC news piece dealing with the relationship between the evangelical community in Portland, Oregon, and Portland’s openly gay mayor, Sam Adams.  I thought the piece was well done and it deeply resonates with me and how I believe the church needs to be functioning in the years to come.

While church planting in Baltimore we commonly worked with a broad range of groups on common ground project, many of which had serious issues with the evangelical faith tradition, and as a result made some wonderful relationships with the community we were serving.

Take the three minutes to check this out:

Watching this video, I get excited about what is going on in Portland… I got goosebumps with the amount of people who were being served by the church, and the way that the church is repairing its name after being damaged by campaigns based on what we are against, as opposed to what we are for.

But, through it all, there is a tinge of sadness.

I am left wondering, “why is this news?”  Why is this such a rare occurrence in this country that ABC News is doing a story on it?  Why is it that there is plenty of footage from around the country to define what the church is known as, but they need to go to Portland, Oregon to see where churches are doing something different…

Why isn’t this happening everywhere?
Why is the church not known for being peacemakers, bridge builders, and servants of the community?
Why are we known more for our protests, boycotts, and hatred?

In a recent post I referred to how the millennial generation sees the church as a leading cause of division and strife, and as a result is checking out.  The time for the church to be the church, to care for the sick, the poor, and the different with the same heart and compassion that Jesus had on me… and you, and each of us that calls ourselves a Christian.  In order to do this, we must put down our political platform, take a risk, and humbly commit to loving those with whom we disagree.  Are YOU willing to take that step?

Who are YOU unwilling to serve?