03.31.07

What is the Gospel — Really?

Posted in Blogging, Ministry, Mission at 2:19 pm by Anthony

If you’re new to the Clay Pot Journal, you may be wondering what all those links are over in the side bar.  Those are blogs of friends of mine, some of whom I’ve only met in cyberspace.  One of those that I deeply cherish is Dee Andrews.  Dee is a remarkable woman and you can read some great stories on her Finding Directions blog.  Recently she celebrated the birth of a new granddaughter, one born into a loving and secure family.  But not all children are so blessed.  Dee tells the story of one of those and challenges us to greater discipleship.  What she says about her little town in southern Mississippi could easily have been written about “the coolest little town in Texas.”

For instance - just a couple of weeks ago in our Sunday school class one of our young ladies who works for the county social services system said that she’d had a sad and needy case come in that week.  A black lady who is a grandmother had come in with her brand new infant granddaughter who had no name.  The baby was born beside the road up a ways from here to the lady’s daughter, who is a crack addict.  So is the baby.

The woman hadn’t had any contact with her daughter in some time and didn’t have any idea where she was or that she was pregnant.  The mother of the baby was hauled off to jail, the county sought out the grandmother and brought this tiny baby to her and left.

When the grandmother showed up seeking help where she could she just had the baby lying in the back floorboard of her car because she had no infant seat and no one she’d contacted as yet had been willing to help her out at all!  The young woman in our class quickly remedied that situation by making a couple of calls to fellow church members and found a used car seat in excellent condition that they brought to the grandmother.

This young woman helped the grandmother all she could with county and state and federal aid (WIC program, etc), but asked us to help out, too, as individuals in the class and as a church.  The grandmother had no clothes or diapers or anything.  I wrote out a check for a sizable amount of money and gave it to them to go shopping for the baby.  What less could I do?

That was last week.  This week she said that the grandmother now calls the baby Lily.  Baby Lily, she is.  Here’s the clincher - the state has now brought the grandmother the three other children by the daughter - all boys - ages 11, 8 and 4.  The four year old the grandmother had never seen.

She - the grandmother - is without means of support herself and how can she care for these four hungry kids, including a small infant?  She still has a 16 year old son of her own who lives with her.

These are the people the church needs to be reaching out to around here in this small Mississippi town.  This grandmother should be at the top of our list when it comes to “missional” thinking.  I mean, this is a very religious town, over all.  There are dozens and dozens and dozens of churches of all varieties and all full of good people. 

They don’t necessarily need “converting.”  What would we be converting them too?  Showing up at a different building every Sunday morning because we sing accepella and they don’t?  Are we going to proselytize from other churches who may not agree with us in 100% of our theology but who worship with great faith as well as we do?

It is the poor and hurting people of this community - the unchurched, the neediest of needy people we should reach out to in Christian love.

Let us not grow weary in well doing, nor lose sight of who it is we should be doing well for.  

I’m happy for my new granddaughter and the life she is being born into.  Exceedingly happy.  But how can I not want as much for any other baby born into either my family or a family near by?  

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