So many need help

20 Monday Aug 2018

Posted by laceduplutheran in Church, Theology

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I keep hearing how great our economy is. But I keep running into more and more people who are struggling to survive. I hear about how people have more money in their pockets, yet I find more people who have none.

Yesterday I was able to help a mother and her daughters have shelter for a night. They needed one night as they were working on their trailer to get it ready for tomorrow. I don’t know all the details, but I know this was a family in need. This was a time I could do something.

I also helped serve food to the homeless and poor in the nearby city. While there, I was approached by two individuals for help. One, a woman, was seeking transportation to Manhattan to “go home.” She was homeless and said that she had no money. There was no waiting until tomorrow – she had no where else to go. What was I to do? That kind of ticket is beyond my means. I gave her directions to a local shelter and prayed with her. I felt helpless.

The other gentleman approached me while he was in line getting food. He seemed upset. He inquired if I was the pastor at the church where the food was being given out. I wasn’t, I told him. He asked if the church would help him get a tent. He was currently sleeping under a tarp in the woods and it was starting to get a bit cold at night. While we talked, it seemed as though the church had let him down before – not necessarily this church, just the church in general. The snark in his voice gave it away. Would I be just another church person who would let him down?

Yesterday when I preached I talked about the child sex abuse scandal rocking the Catholic Church. I have struggled with this story all week-long. So many victims. So many abusers. So much cover up. And for what purpose? To protect an institution? When the truth comes out like it has, how has the institution been protected? And why is the institution more important that young boys and girls? This isn’t just a Catholic Church problem either. It’s a human problem.

So many in need. Yet I keep hearing about the great economy. As if that will make it all better. It won’t. Don’t bother telling me about how great the economy is. The economy of the people I have been with is crappy. It’s poor. It’s broken their trust. It’s let them down. It has left them homeless.

So many in need. And yesterday I got to participate in a different economy – the economy of salvation. I presided at our regular worship services and offered something with great savings – Jesus, the living bread of heaven. I also had the privilege of offering communion to the poor and homeless before the meal they would eat. Many took the bread and ate it. I have no idea how many understood what they were doing. But taking communion isn’t about understanding it – as if it’s really understandable when you get to the core of it. Instead, this bread was life-giving bread. It was a reminder of the promise of Jesus to be with us until the end of the age. It was a reminder of the forgiveness of sin. It was a reminder that Jesus offers true food that fills us beyond our stomachs. It is food for the journey for these men and women – the journey of living on the streets.

This is the economy I know. This economy far surpasses any human economy and what it has to offer. In the economy of salvation, there are no recessions or depressions. There is only an abundance of the Bread of Life. So many in need. And more than enough of Jesus to go around. Better than any economy this world could ever offer.

Street Evangelism in Finland

30 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by laceduplutheran in Church, Finland, Theology

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bread, brochure, Christianity, church, coffee, context, evangelism, expectation, Finland, free, information, language, Matinkylä, Olari

Something you don’t see a lot of in Finland is street evangelism. I got to participate in some creative street evangelism today. Before I go any further though, let me define what I’m talking about.

I’m not talking about yelling at people that they are going to hell unless they believe in Jesus. I’m not talking about jumping right to a conversation about church either. I have learned that those methods are rude, for one thing, counter productive and not seeing the people you talk with as, well, people.

I was with a couple of church workers in Olari today.

One of the church workers had the idea to drive around Matinkylä and offer people some free coffee, talk with people and hand out some information about the upcoming worship service and the offer of free bread on Tuesdays at the chapel. Pretty non-threatening actually.

We drove around, found a location and set up shop.

We didn’t know if anyone would walk by, if they would take the free coffee, if they wanted to talk, or anything else. We just made ourselves available and offered free coffee.

The result:

We had a pretty constant flow of people stopping to have free coffee. We’d talk with them about anything they wanted to talk about. We also handed out some fliers about worship on Sunday and the free bread the church is giving away on Tuesday. It was really quite a success.

And I learned several things from the experience.

1. Be open and available – We weren’t there to try to convert people, but to be available to talk with people. We were surprised by how many people would stay and talk while they drank their coffee. We let them lead the discussion so they would be comfortable in being open and feel welcome. What we found is that most of the people coming and stopping needed human contact. It was inevitable that church would come up in several conversations. For others, even mentioning church would have probably ended the conversation quickly. We saw this as one step towards connecting with people.

2. Language is important – I learned the Finnish way of asking people if they wanted free coffee – ilmaista kahvia, just in case you happen to be in Finland and want to offer some free coffee. Anyway, this was important – I was speaking the language of the people passing by. Now, of course, my Finnish is limited, so I could not carry on a full conversation with many people, but it was an opening and a welcoming for people. My friends did most of the talking. Although I was able to talk with a couple of people who were patient with my poor Finnish or who knew English.

3. Context is important – I’ve said this a bazillion times. We were dressed in jeans and winter coats – very common clothing. This fit the area where we were. We were not a threat to anyone and looked like we fit in. If you want to talk with people, speak with them on their terms and in a way they can connect with.

4. Information is important, but it is only supplemental. You can have the greatest looking handout in the world, but that can’t do what people can – create/start a relationship. Christianity is about relationships – people to people contact. We had a bunch of fliers and brochures about the church, but they kept blowing away with the wind, so we put them away. We handed the appropriate ones to people who seemed interested in either bread or the church service. It seemed as though only having the coffee out made us even more approachable – people could see we weren’t trying selling them something. This opened the space for conversation with people and they took the opportunity to do just that – talk.

5. Expectations are important – Not everyone stopped for coffee – some were in a hurry, some had just bought coffee, some ignored us altogether, some said no thank you as they walked by. That was ok. We didn’t expect everyone to stop – we didn’t expect anything. We were just thrilled by having anyone stop to talk, take a rest, drink some coffee on a cold day and share some information about the church.

Overall, it was a great experience – I can’t wait to do it again.