Loving Your Community By Stephen ViarsSample

Day 7

Love Is Action

Please consider all the persons in your community who do not know Christ. And then remember this: Jesus prayed specifically that you and I would find ourselves “in the world” serving them.

At the end of His last meal, Jesus prayed for His disciples, saying, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word” (John 17:20). Finding ways to relate to your community with Christlike love could result in a harvest of amazing spiritual fruit.

Twenty years ago our church began asking if our tradition of being fairly separated from our community was effective or, more importantly, biblical? That began a journey of soul-searching, Bible study, and openness to new ways of thinking about life and ministry. What would it look like if we worked harder and more creatively at loving our neighbors? Looking for answers to that question has produced an incredible number of opportunities to serve. 

Not long after we constructed a new campus near an interstate, we let the Red Cross know that if they ever needed to use our facilities for disaster relief, we would be happy to help. One Saturday evening when a major snowstorm turned the interstate into a parking lot, the Red Cross mobilized their staff and we provided a team of volunteers to assist them. Our building began filling up with hundreds of stranded travelers who were stretched out on cots and blankets in our classrooms, offices, and gymnasium.

But the crowds kept coming and we were practically out of room. So the executive director of the Red Cross, our former senior pastor, Bill Goode, and I met just outside our brand-new auditorium to discuss whether we should stop letting people into the building. As we all looked over at an auditorium filled with freshly padded pews, I asked, “Could we just let people come in and sleep on the pews?” I will never forget Pastor Goode’s response: “Those pews sleep several hundred church members every Sunday morning, why not several dozen weary travelers on a Saturday night?” 

Though we had a tradition of being separated from our community, now community-based outreach ministry is our passion.

In Your Community

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rank yourself on the matter of loving your neighbor? How would you rank your congregation?