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This morning, I felt like I should pray to have an opportunity to help someone out financially.? We aren’t loaded with extra money, but we both have our jobs, can pay our bills, and have some left over at the end of the month which I know is more than a lot of people.? Within a few minutes, I checked my Facebook and there was an opportunity right there. BAM. Love it when that happens.

I know many of us in our churches pray that we will have opportunities to share grace and truth and hope with our communities.

I am thinking the biggest opportunity we’ve ever had is staring us right in the face and we don’t even realize it.

We are living in a financial crisis.? We all know our economy sucks right now.? I see a lot of emails about people losing their jobs, not being able to afford heat or food (food pantry/food stamp usage has gone up 32%).? People are living in cars.? On the street.? Wherever.

What are we doing about it?

Seth had a post today along the lines of thinking creatively in order to produce a different outcome.

Creativity changes the game, whatever game is being played. “We’re going to run out of cash by the end of the year,” is accurate unless you count creativity into the equation. Then the accurate statement is, “Under the current rules and assumptions, we’re going to run out of cash…” Big difference.

Let’s face it…churches tend to get stuck in ruts.? We do things because it’s the way either we’ve done them before or someone else has done them before.? We look for safety.? We want protection.? We want to be guaranteed success.? (Whatever that means.)

We ask for opportunities…WELL, HERE WE GO.

You want to “reach people?” What are some ways you’ve done this before? Sending out postcards? Investing in something fancy that will wow people when they arrive?? Sure…those things have merit.? They’ve “worked” before, so let’s stick with them!? That’s what we think.

RUT ALERT.

We, as the church, have a HUGE opportunity to help our communities.? What if you didn’t send out that mailer and instead, spent the thousands of dollars paying people’s heating bills or stocking up a food pantry?? What if we held off on an expensive purchase and threw a block party and got to know our neighbors?

The truth of what we communicate doesn’t change.? But how we communicate it SHOULD change, because part of how our message comes across is what we use to give that message!

We always talk about the televangelists who begged for money.? Oh, how they so desperately needed it…as they paid for premium airtime and wore fancy clothes.

That message? They don’t really need the money.

Our message is one of love.

One that puts others first.

But what are our mediums of communicating that message saying?

Does the way we do things line up with our message?

Are you willing to get out of the rut of safety and change it up?