Written by Cafe 1040’s CEO and Founder
Our world changed very quickly. We lost friends and family. We lost jobs. We lost our ability to express our love for others as social beings. We could not attend church. We could not attend our sacred sporting events.
Through it all, we spoke words of comfort to ourselves and to others: "Jesus wasn't surprised by this." "Jesus will be glorified by this." "Jesus is constant when everything else is changing." And even as our friends and family were buried, we took comfort that they were with Jesus, and we would see them again soon. This is what we should preach to ourselves and to our friends. These are the right thoughts and prayers of God's people in a time of crisis. Living through this crisis has been, in many ways, like living through a war. How hopeless would this be without the hope in Christ!
When I look at the churches of the world, I see many opening their doors as food pantries, and others serving the unemployed and newly widowed. When I look at the armies of this world, the actual military of our political nations, I see men and women who are focused on their mission and who also, simultaneously, are caring for the wounded and the dead, feeding the troops, washing the laundry and providing rest and rehabilitation. They are maintaining their vehicles, with their sidearms on their hip. They focus their thoughts, training, and activity on their mission, while also compassionately caring for their fellow soldiers and their fellow citizens.
As believers, we must focus on the mission of the Church and compassionately care for the world around us as we do that. We must do both at the same time, and we can! We have a well-trained army and all the resources needed. How hopeless would this crisis be without the hope in Christ? But in the midst of comforting ourselves with the faithfulness of our Lord, did we remember that four billion people do not even know Jesus? What hope do they have in storms like this? Their gods are stone or paper and do not care about their suffering. But our Saviour cares about each one of them. He knows them by name. He cares that they have no eternal hope.
The mission of the Church is "A Church for every ethnic nation!" which is storied from Genesis to Revelation. God is and always has been gathering worshippers to himself from every tribe, tongue, and nation. This has always been His mission. When Israel forgot God's plan, God did not. When the Church forgets God's plan, God does not. We must refocus our thoughts, training, and activities on our mission. We must bring the hope of Jesus to those who are hopeless.
I am not speaking of your next-door neighbor in this mission of the Church. But surely, while we plan and prepare to take the Gospel of Jesus to the places it has never been proclaimed, we must invite our neighbor into the fight! But he needs to know that the same peace and joy Jesus is offering him is not for his selfish gain - it is for all nations. We must do both, compassionately care for our neighbor and strategically offer hope to the hopeless, and guess what? We know where they live!
