Pastoral - Generous Church

Generous Church: Providence Serves the City

            Bluetree, a worship band from Belfast, took an invitation from their Missions Pastor that would not only change their lives, but the lives of millions across the globe.

            In the early 2000’s, they went to Bangkok on a mission trip to play worship music in hopes of reaching a city that was (and still is) severely overrun by sexuality. Given a 2-hour gig by a friend, they ended up playing in a brothel called Climax Bar. After singing worship music for about an hour, the lead singer, Aaron Boyd, looked over his shoulder and saw that he had a crowd of people outside the brothel looking in, listening to and singing along to their worship music. The only thing that Boyd could think when he saw this was to ask himself who these people were and why were they singing along to these Christian songs? In that moment, Boyd began to sing what he believed God was saying over the city of Bangkok:

You’re the God of this city

You’re the King of these people

You’re the Lord of this nation

You are

You’re the Light in the darkness

You’re the Hope to the hopeless

You’re the Peace to the restless

You are

There is no one like our God

There is no one like our God

Greater things have yet to come

Greater things are still to be done in this city

Greater things have yet to come

Greater things are still to be done in here

            Bluetree went on to say that when this song was born was the moment that changed them forever. Chris Tomlin, having heard this song while he was in Ireland, added it to his album and made it famous for its declarative, anthem-like sound from his global stage. While Tomlin didn’t originate it, the passion to see God completely change a city remained.

            In the Bible, we see this very same passion in Jesus in Matthew 9:35–38:

 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Jesus, having gone from city to city began to notice a common thread between them all: there were a lot of people that didn’t know God and were clearly broken. The Scripture said that in that moment Jesus began to have compassion on them. What we do know is that Jesus obviously had the power to change the hearts of both the harassers and the victims in that moment. He had already been healing people before this Scripture. Also, Jesus, in Luke 8:24, calmed a borderline hurricane with his words! Needless to say, power was not the issue. Although Jesus had the power in that moment to completely change the hearts of everyone that was there, he didn’t. Rather, he linked change to serving. He said that there are millions of people that need to know Jesus and the way that God has chosen to accomplish His mission is through laborers. God willed that cities will be overturn by those that have already tasted and seen that the Lord is good, and are willing to serve the city they live in in such a way that turns their eyes away from themselves and onto Jesus.

            As we wrap up this series on serving, let us remember the reason why Providence was started to begin with: To make the Gospel unignorable in the city of Atascocita. Providence was started in an effort to see the people of Atascocita come to know Jesus in a powerful way. Our prayer is that we would be a church that doesn’t implode in on itself, but rather turns its eyes to our city and looks upon the people with compassion. We are moving into a big season for the life of the church and our prayer is the same prayer that Jesus pleaded with his disciples: The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest”. Providence let us be marked in our city as a group of people that were relentless in serving those around us with unquenching compassion!

Reflection:

In the next year, how can you serve the people around you (inside and outside the church) in a way that makes the Gospel unignorable?