We’re doing some more thinking about the church and the vision and direction of the journey to which God has called us. As we look to the future that is unfolding in front us, our deepest desire is to follow God along the journey rather than try to set the pace ourselves. But how do you know if you’re following appropriately?
Assuming we’re praying and listening to what he is saying, there’s a degree of wisdom that come into play. Wisdom is the sense that we probably already know quite a lot about what Jesus wants us to do, we just need to put it into practice.
Take for instance the way he announces his ministry: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me … to preach good news to the poor, freedom to the prisoners, relief to the oppressed etc.
How can we inculcate these ideas into the life of the church? Perhaps one way is redefine how we give. As a church we set our budget annually in November for the coming year. As part of our budget we set aside 10% of our income to be given away.
As a symbol of our commitment to the mission of Jesus perhaps we ought to give a portion of that money directly to the relief of poverty and oppression in the world. The plan might look something like this: One third of our giving goes to support mission at home in the UK, one third to support mission overseas and one third to address poverty and oppression wherever it exists.
If Jesus meant what he said, then maybe we ought to mean it too.
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