No More Kids Living In Cars

Photo by Banjo Emerson Mathew on Unsplash

Our guess is that for a good number of us the idea of a child living in their car is hard to comprehend. Personally, we've seen plenty of adults living in many different kinds of difficult situations but a child living out of a car is not something we see often.

In the late spring of this year we were invited to serve a large church outside of New England. We don't often travel out of the northeast because the costs become prohibitive but in this case we were able to work out the situation with a close friend who pastored the church. Our hope was that we'd be able to help clarify where God was leading this church. From any perspective, the church was doing quite well. They had recently paid off the debt on their building - which was a beautifully designed facility that honored the traditions of the past but was able to create space for the future. They even were able to build a replica of the original church inside their new building down to the stained glass windows. Attendance was strong even after the pandemic and they had a plan to help spiritually form people into the likeness of Jesus.

The leadership team was composed of people from a number of different sections of the church. There were staff members, elders, lay leaders, and even one gentleman who was named person of the year in the area for all the ways he'd served others. That's not to mention the number of people who had all those extra letters before and after their names! In every way one might think, this church was doing well. Which leads to a question. With so much going for them, why did they need an outsider like us to help? To be honest, that's a question that crossed our minds too.

But there was a moment when it became crystal clear why we were there.

The team was dreaming about the type of impact they wanted to have on the surrounding community. Essentially, we challenged them to answer the question: "Assume you make disciples who make disciples, what difference does that make in this community?" We ask questions like this because we believe making disciples can't be disconnected from transformation in the community.

Split into groups the team processed and reported back. While the ideas shared were good nothing seemed to be taking hold. Then, with one group left to share it happened. It was that kind of moment where everything freezes but in a good way. It was a moment that catalyzed the team's thinking and brought them together. The final group shared about the state of poverty in their county and how they discussed ways they might impact this particular problem given their wealth of resources. Then one of the group said something like this, "We don't want children to have to live in their cars anymore."

This is the kind of place where God is leading the Church. We couldn't be more blessed to be a part of the work.