Near and Far Faith

So if you didn't know, we took a group of 8 high schoolers to Baltimore this weekend to work with Charm City Church, a church in the heart of the worst neighborhood in Baltimore that is making a difference. I experienced the ministry 1st hand a few weeks ago and was pumped going into this weekend. But my expectations were too low. I want to share some of the funny and amazing things I learned over the past few days.

Lesson 1: It's not what you do it's why you do it. We're spoiled - no surprise there. But I looked at what Charm city had as a facility and I'm still amazed at how many lives they touch by being an example of Jesus' love. Their heart is focused on being THE church, not A church. They're surrounded by other small churches that make little or no impact on the immediate community, but they are with far less personnel and equipment than most of us would opt for. Let me give you some examples: Their worship experience consists of Mike Kemper's Preaching - He's the head pastor and his testimony about the history of the church is nothing less than moving - and prayer. No worship team. They have a video projector with built-in DVD player and they watch worship DVDs. One of the leader's wives plays the piano. One of the attenders has an amazing gospel voice. At any time throughout the service Mike might call on them to augment the experience. Their sound system is like a great car that has been sitting in a barn for ten years. I'm actually going back down for the day tomorrow with a few students to fix that.

Th point is that I believe that my heart is often off-target. My motivation is a combination of self-glory or comfort. Their focus is on feeding people that have no food, clothing people that are homeless, and praying for miracles for those that wrestle with multiple addictions. I know that some of you are thinking, as I would reading this, that "Well that's because of where they are. We can't do that stuff here." We can if we put more effort into loving people than we do into not changing ourselves. Why do you do what you do?