Wednesday, July 08, 2009
A Message from the Pastor:
"Crisis" = Danger + Opportunity
Dear Precious, Loving, and Caring Church Family,
The past month's news has, of course, been dominated by the economic crisis facing this nation. You may have heard in the past that the Chinese character for "crisis" is "danger plus opportunity."
Over the past month, politicians around the world have focused upon the danger portion of the crisis. This has created a wave of fear and anxiety across the globe. As stock markets have plummeted, people have asked, "What is going to happen to our retirement savings? Are our bank accounts safe? What about those of us who are nearing retirement or are retired?" Many people are asking, "Will we be able to pay our bills or sell our homes? Will we be able to find work?"
The basic message of the past month is "the sky is falling." As I said, the Chinese character for crisis is danger plus opportunity. As Christians, those of us who have built our lives on something more solid than even the American economy-we've built our lives on Jesus Christ-we always want to look for the opportunity for God in any crisis. Where is the opportunity for God in all of this?
There is, very obviously, an opportunity for the gospel.
Any challenge to our self-sufficiency, any blow to our plans to secure our place in this world apart from God, any crack in our armor where we falsely believe that we are well-defended against life's uncertainties, is an opportunity for us to look beyond ourselves and our own resources. This crisis is an opportunity for the promotion of the gospel. Most of us reach out for Christ only when our own resources fail.
And there is an enormous opportunity for the church.
If the bottom truly drops out, we Americans are going to need to be cared for spiritually. People will not be able to handle life by themselves. Going it alone works when you are doing well. But when times are tough - when you get cancer, when you go through a divorce, when you lose your job, when your plans for a happy, prosperous life and retirement are shattered - most of us realize that we need to be connected to other people. There is one institution that has been here for the last 2000 years through wars and depressions, through earthquakes and fires, through plagues and invasions and persecution. It is not Lehman Brothers. It is not AIG. It is not Wall Street. It is not the Federal Reserve. It is not even the U.S. Government. The one institution that has been through fires and floods and plagues and persecution for 2000 years and stood is the Christian church. Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, "and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it."
This crisis is an opportunity for the church to say to this country: You do not have to go through this alone. We can go through this together. We are here and we're not going anywhere.
There is a third opportunity in this crisis, an opportunity for each of us to re-evaluate our own priorities and to declare what we really value.
When you feel nervous financially, when your income goes down, or you fear it might go down, what is the first thing that you cut out of your budget? Do you cut your lifestyle? Do you cut back on eating out or getting your daily latte at Starbucks? Do you cut back on cable TV or your vacation plans, or your clothes budget? Or do you first cut back on your giving?
Let me speak honestly to you. As pastor here at the ChillNaz, I've looked at our church budget over the last 3 months and have watched our income fall by 10% or more. When I saw that, I thought to myself, "We still have a lot of work to do in discipling the people at Chillicothe First." Other churches are experiencing the same downturn and they also have a lot of work to do in discipling their church members. During a crisis, you must say, "I will cut my budget elsewhere, but I will not cut back on my giving to the Lord."
If you have cut your giving in the last few months, I want to encourage you during this crisis to step up to the plate and declare what you believe in by restarting your giving. If you have not given, do not use this current crisis as an excuse for why you can't begin to give. This is an opportunity for us to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask, "What do I really believe about Jesus and about the promotion of the gospel? I am going to support my church with my money. I say "Christ is in first place in my life" but what am I doing with my money?"
Finally, this crisis is an opportunity for us as Americans to ‘rethink the place of material in our lives.’ Over 40% of Harvard seniors said that their career track was investment banking, more than double any other career path. We have taken our best and brightest young adults and have communicated to them that our greatest value is not creating art, writing music or plays, or the great American novel. It is not discovering new drugs to cure disease, or promoting justice in the courtroom. It is investment banking - helping companies and governments issue securities and manage financial assets. If we Americans continue to say that the purpose of life is to accumulate as many possessions as possible and we neglect other more fundamental purposes - to love, to create, to serve, to discover - then $750 billion is not nearly enough to bail us out as a country. There are opportunities in this crisis.
| The question is will we have the wisdom to seize these opportunities?! |
Let’s seize this opportunity to glorify God and His standards. Let’s lovingly do this together. I know we can and will make a difference. Thanks so much for your help in continuing the ChillNaz Family Legacy of encountering, experiencing and engaging the All-Sufficient God of Creation.
| Respectfully Yours, |
| Rev. Jason Everidge |
| Lead Pastor |
