Purpose?

Winterfest was incredible this year! I encourage you to talk to our teens about The Mission. They were challenged to: Know, Be, See, and Share…Jesus. Sounds familiar really…and I’m ecstatic about the excitement that our teens will bring to The Mission here at Northview. I’ve even heard from one of our teens who has already talked to a neighbor about God. “It was easy…I just did it,” was a part of the phone call I got. I’ve also talked to Dudley and they are getting all kinds of stories from all over the country of teens doing the same thing!! What an incredible challenge for us who sometimes find ourselves calling them the “Church of tomorrow.”

An interesting thing happened this morning before I sat down to write this blog. I regularly have breakfast with a mentor of mine…almost every Friday morning. Today was about the same as always…we had a variety of discussion because that is what good friends do. Because most people end up talking about that they are passionate about…we found ourselves talking about the Church. We don’t bog ourselves down in debating…most of the time we’re just simply talking about ministry…about purpose of the Church.

While sitting and talking, I noticed a young girl slowly walk in. Very timid. Probably no older than 18. She got her cup of coffee. Never said anything. Then slowly walked out and on down the street. You’re probably thinking she stole the coffee but the reality is…this coffee shop has kind of taken her in. They will often hand her a bag of food which one of them will slip a $5 bill in the bag because of the compassion they have for her. Neither of us knew her story but found out later by the workers at the coffee shop.

Why is this so interesting? It didn’t hit me till later. At Northview, we do a lot of good for a lot of people. I am amazed at the workers we have in our family here. There are a ton of people who work so hard without being seen by others. I had to wonder though, how many times we…the Churches scattered around the World…sit around and debate, talk about ministry, dwelling on what the purpose is for the Church, and looking for God’s guidance for what we should be doing with our lives…when there are people in need all around us.

Not all of us get to sit in a coffee shop on a Friday morning and watch something like this take place. The reality is that there a lots of hurting people in our lives that all we have to do is open our eyes to see. Take some time to think of the people you come into contact with daily. Where are they hurting? Do you look at them and SEE Jesus? What could you do to BE Jesus to them?

For all of you who are already working so hard in this world to help the hurting…I applaud you. One of the reasons I love working with teens is because of the way I am challenged by them to get up and do something that has purpose. Though they can scare us sometimes…sometimes we don’t understand their thought processes…or their language…they are a group of people that are filled with passion and desire to have purpose. I hope to extend this challenge to you from the passion and purpose of our teens. Let’s stop letting the world lead the way in helping the hurting when we are the ones who are called to do “Whatever we do for the least of these.”