Serving the Community at Christmastime (Part 2)
Yesterday's post provided two questions to help us think through helpful service during Christmastime and described three ways Restoration is corporately serving this season.
Our guiding questions to sustainable and effective service and giving are:
- Does this opportunity respect the dignity of the poor by empowering them to be a part of their own development?
- Does it address not just material poverty, but also social, spiritual, and/or psychological poverty?
These questions are a good start in helping us think through how to serve the less fortunate this Christmas season. With one-off service events, often the best way to get involved is to donate to or partner with organizations that are already doing good, sustainable work in your community.
Let's look at a what a few local organizations do and how you can serve them during Christmastime.
What they do: Little Lights, similar to the Porch is an excellent Christian nonprofit that serves underprivileged youth and families in DC. Through after-school and summer programs, mentoring, and arts-based programs, Little Lights empowers the children they are serving and works to meet not just their material need but also help them understand what it looks like to walk with Jesus. Further, Little Lights has programs for families, such as on-the-job training, and economic empowerment resources.
What you can do: One of the ways they get the community involved during the Christmas season is by asking for donations to their Christmas Store. You can donate using this Amazon wish list. Each family who is connected with Little Lights can “shop” at the Christmas Store. The Store gives the opportunity for parents to pick out gifts for their children and allows for children to receive gifts from their parents (rather than strangers) who otherwise may not be able to afford gifts. And, it gives the Little Lights staff an opportunity to get to know the parents of the kids who are in their programs.
What they do: Mission Muffins is a ministry of the Central Union Mission. Men from the shelter are hired as bakers and are taught hard skills (baking, marketing, sales) as well as soft skills to prepare them to enter the workforce. Mission Muffins cultivates the gifts of homeless men to enable them to pull themselves out of poverty through access to a steady income. The men also spend time in Bible studies through the Mission.
What you can do: Consider buying some muffins, coffee, scones, or handheld pies for your next party or get-together. Or, buy some Mission Mud (their coffee brand) as a Christmas gift. By purchasing these goods, you are supporting an effective homeless ministry.
What they do: Compassion “is a child-advocacy ministry…that releases children from spiritual, economic, social, and physical poverty. The goal is for each child to become a responsible and fulfilled adult.” They have a variety of programs to help empower these children and their communities from after school programs to aid during crises.
What you can do: They have a gift catalog that allows you to choose the way your donations are used. Keep in mind aid and handouts are essential for emergencies, but hurtful for development. Aid in place of development can cause reliance, dependence, and take away from their own self-initiative. In Toxic Charity, Robert D. Lupton writes, “When we do for those in need what they have the capacity to do for themselves, we disempower them...Giving to those in need what they could be gaining from their own initiative may well be the kindest way to destroy people.”
With this in mind, donate aid to the emergency needs, but not for development. For example, for non-crisis situations, donate to academic scholarships or baking classes rather than a playground. Donate to hygiene training rather than a water well. It is not to say that playgrounds or water wells are not good investments. However, without knowing exactly how they go about giving aid in non-crisis situations, it is possible that donations could cause more harm than good in the long-run.
What they do: Serving meals, while important in crisis situations, isn’t always the most helpful way to serve the poor in the long-run. However, DC Central Kitchen has a far broader impact on the community. From culinary job training to providing access to healthy options in DC’s food desserts, DC Central Kitchen “fights hunger differently.”
What you can do: They are always looking for volunteers to help chop, slice, and peel. Volunteers help turn wasted food into healthy options for those who don’t typically have access to them.
Tomorrow's blog will provide a list of ten other excellent local nonprofits that don’t have specific Christmas opportunities, but would certainly benefit from a Christmas donation. Or, consider committing to consistent volunteering with one of the orgs on the list (or one of the ones above!) as a Christmas gift.
Serving the Community at Christmastime (Part 1)
Christmas is fast approaching! During the Advent season, we are simultaneously reminded of all we have to be thankful for and all the ways we can serve the poor in our communities. With so many opportunities to serve, dozens of philanthropic gift catalogs, and a plethora of organizations to donate to, how do we decide how to serve the community this Christmas season?
We want to be able to serve in a way that is sustainable and effective. Often this requires consistency, fully entering into the messiness of people’s lives, and coming alongside them as you both work towards a goal. With one-off Christmas service opportunities, we need to be intentional in finding ways to serve that are more helpful than hurtful.
In general, when deciding how to invest time or money into serving the community, ask two questions:
- Does this opportunity respect the dignity of the poor by empowering them to be a part of their own development?
- Does it address not just material poverty, but also social, spiritual, and/or psychological poverty?
These questions are a good start in helping us think through how to serve the less fortunate this Christmas season. With one-off service events, often the best way to get involved is to donate to or partner with organizations that are already doing good, sustainable work in your community.
With these guiding thoughts, let’s look at some specific opportunities. (This is by no means a comprehensive list!) First, we’ll look at ways we can serve as a corporate body. In the next two blogs, we’ll look at ways to serve individually.
Corporately, Restoration is partnering with the Porch and DC127/FAPAC this Christmas season. You can learn more about that here.
- The Porch’s mission is “to make disciples of Jesus Christ by creating safe and welcoming space for youth in DC to experience God's love, hope and healing.” They do this through small and large Bible studies, working with the youth to develop life and leadership skills, assisting the youth and families with practical needs, and the list goes on.
- DC127 fights poverty by supporting strong families. They strive to “unite churches with organizations, government agencies, and businesses in DC around recruiting and supporting foster and adoptive families so that no child is waiting for a home.” They are helping the Foster & Adoptive Parent Advocacy Center gather toys for a Christmas party that unites and celebrates both foster and birth parents and their kids.
Both of these organizations target not only material but also social and spiritual poverty while empowering and equipping those they serve. While you may not be able to volunteer regularly with either of these organizations, helping by buying a food basket or donating toys is a great way to get involved. Because Restoration’s donations will go through these organizations, it will serve to further the mission of the Porch and DC127/FAPAC and continue to develop the relationships they are pouring into week in and week out. It makes donating a meal or toys much more significant and effective, and is a way that we can corporately serve our brother and sister laborers at these organizations.
Rather donate your time? Sing Christmas carols with the Wiesners at Friendship Terrace. One way Restoration serves our community is by caring for the elderly at Friendship Terrace. To continue developing relationships and to visit with men and women who may not be able to see family during the Christmas season, Restoration is going caroling on December 23. Contact Jeremy for more info.
Look for blog #2 tomorrow, which will describe a variety of other excellent local organizations and ways you can get involved individually!
Worship through Prayer
Father,
How amazing it is to think of your greatness.
Father you are MIGHTY and WISE! You created the universe, you gave it laws that we study and marvel in!
You are ALIVE! You are not the figment of our imagination, nor a man-made construct whose sole purpose is to alleviate your fears.
Father, you are GOOD! You are not a tyrant, nor are you indifferent. You care about your creation even as your creation is so much smaller than you.
And how AMAZING are your works Father! You keep the world going! You made the world good and enjoyable. You selected a people for yourself and showed faithfulness over the ages! You are not a distant God, but one who sent prophets to reveal Himself. And when the prophets were rejected, you sent your very Son!
Father, you are LOVING! We can imagine a powerful and mighty God. We can even imagine, unwillingly, an angry God. But a loving one? Who really, sacrificially, personally, deeply loves somebody else in this world?
Father, you are not a God who doesn’t know our weaknesses or looks upon them with contempt. Your Son, Jesus Christ, became man, lived our lives, suffered our pain, took away our punishment. In our sin, we rejected you and we cursed you and we killed your son. But you didn’t let that stop you. You kept loving your rebellious people.
Father, we confess we don’t worship you the way you want to be worshipped. Your glory, your might, your love are many times too condemning for us. We don’t love our neighbors. We envy them and hate them because they have more and better stuff than we do. We hate them because they seem happy and we are miserable. We confess we come to you to be served by you, to be delivered by you and the moment we are we reach out for our past idols because they are the work of our hands and they are tame, they don’t make big demands of us. We confess that we don’t read your word and don’t meditate on it in our hearts. We dwell on our emotions and our human thoughts as the guiding light of our lives.
Father forgive us our sins, our rebellion. In the name of Jesus, your Son, forgive us our sins and help us hope in you.
Father, we are thankful for the Lord Jesus. It is by His sacrifice alone that we can be forgiven, that we can have peace with you. Our good deeds are not enough to wipe away our transgressions, but Jesus’ righteousness is sufficient because He is your Son and because he lived the perfect life we should have lived. We thank you that you opened our eyes to who you are and who he is and that you did not leave us in our sins.
We are also very grateful that we get to participate in your love for your people. We are grateful that our church could serve R and E in NQ this week. We pray that you bless them and encourage them. We pray they would be able to learn the language quickly. We also pray for W and C that they would be able to get there soon and that W would be able to preach your Word well and feed R and E with your word. We pray that both the B and the Y would hear the Gospel in their own languages and repent and believe.
Lord, we thank you that you work all over the world. We thank you also for the fact that your word is being preached in N in spite of so many physical and spiritual obstacles. We thank you for the work of the NGC and that at least 120 people that were baptized this year. We thank you for the discipleship classes and pastoral training that they do. We pray, Lord, that you would empower your people there to love their neighbors, to keep preaching and proclaiming your mercies and we pray that you would save a great number of souls.
Father, we pray that in this season of Advent, as we go towards Christmas, we would rejoice and proclaim the Gospel to our neighbors. We pray that we would not focus on ourselves but on our neighbors. We pray that we would not think about the many things we don’t have and would like to have, but about the fact that you gave us your very own son. We pray that we hope in you and that our joy would grow in this season.
In Jesus’ name
Amen
Worship through Prayer
Father, we come to you this morning in the name of Jesus Christ, our heavenly priest who intercedes for us. We praise you for who you are. We praise you for your inexhaustible love and lavish grace. You have acted toward us not as we deserve, but according to your compassion and the abundance of your steadfast love. We rest this morning knowing what we do does not define us. We rest this morning knowing our failures do not determine our worth. Remind us Lord, remind us of your graciousness shown to us in Christ Jesus. Holy Spirit, awaken our souls that we might taste and see the Lord is good and all together desirable.
We praise you that you are a God who hears our prayers; we praise you that you, though you are sovereign, you choose to use the prayers of your people to bring about your plans. So we pray. We pray for Christians around the world suffering persecution simply because they take the name of Jesus. We pray for the new believers in Liberia facing persecution from family members. We pray for pastor Yuri Park as he sits in prison for false charges. Bring justice, Lord. We pray for the underground church in China – make it flourish all the more.
Lord, we praise you that we find ourselves in a country with religious freedom. Cause us to realize the preciousness of this liberty. Do not allow us to become complacent and presumptive. By your grace, cause us to use this freedom to boldly live for Christ Jesus in every part of our lives faithfully proclaiming the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.
We praise you Lord that we live in a country that has a democratic process. We praise you that citizens in this country get to vote and voice their opinions. We pray for Venezuela – restore democracy there Lord. We pray for stability and peace in Syria and Somalia. We pray for justice to flourish in North Korea and Sudan. We pray for the government of this country, the United States. In these last days, we pray that you would grant President Barrack Obama much wisdom. We ask as newly elected officials transition in at local, state and national levels they would be mindful of their call to govern justly, upholding the God-given dignity of all people. We pray this for President-elect Donald Trump. That he would surround himself with those who will help him lead with justice and wisdom, that he would govern and advocate for laws that allow all people, all races, all socioeconomic statuses, all genders to flourish as your image bearers.
Father, above all, by your Spirit, fix our gaze on Jesus, and fuel our trust in you. Keep us perpetually aware of the warm-seated throne of heaven. We praise you that Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of lord - and no earthly election can or ever will change that reality.
We thank you this day for the veterans of this country and those around the world who have served on the front lines to promote justice and peace. We thank you for J who served decades in the military and now serves those still enlisted. We thank you for Pillar Church that has a specific ministry to those in the Marines striving to bring the hope and peace for the gospel to marines around the world. We thank you for the Southern Baptist Convention and their ministry to resource all branches of the military with chaplains.
Father, your word tells us our main fight is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. So we pray for our brothers and sisters on the frontlines battling this darkness in unreached places. We pray for A as she labors to bring the gospel to refugees in the Middle East. We pray for R and E as they seek to bring the light of Jesus to the Middle East. We pray for the International Mission Board as they seek to resource missionaries all over this world. Raise up men and women from this congregation Lord, to take the hope of the gospel to the ends of the earth.
We praise you for this message of hope that forgives and frees sinners, of whom we are the foremost. As we pray for others, we confess our own sins. Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have been angry and greedy. We have pursued romantic immorality and been self-righteous. We have gossiped and slandered. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent, for the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in the supremacy of Christ to the glory of your holy Name.
Refresh those of us who are weary. Comfort those of us who hurting this morning. Draw near to those of us who feel you are far off. Grant wisdom to the confused. Spur on the faithful. Stir the affections of those who find you dull and boring. Work in this place this morning. Do it for the glory of your name and the eternal joy of your people.
Amen.
Worship through Prayer
Father,
We praise your name because you are GOOD, you are RIGHTEOUS and you are LOVING! And, Lord, you SAVE!
Father, so much around us is changing that we don’t quite understand the world we live in. There is so much conflict around the world and in our own nation. There is so much hurt and destruction. There are wars, there are civil wars, there is terrorism, there are illnesses and epidemics and so many economic problems.
Our country is divided and it seems most of us feel that our values are eroding. We feel like our living standard is decreasing and that a lot of what we hold dear is under threat. And it is not only impersonal forces that seem to be driving this, but it feels like our neighbors have different interests than us and sometimes seem to be taking advantage of us. No matter what political or economic preferences we stand for, there seems to be somebody who wants something from us.
Lord, all of these challenges seem to produce sinful patterns in our own hearts. We long for justice and so we point the finger. We long for truth, but when we hear something we don’t like we lash out. We long for security and seek it in our degrees, our work, our skills and our friends.
We live in fear and in worry, working hard at securing for ourselves and for our families the future we desire. Lord, the fear is strong and the pain doesn’t seem to go away. It is the pain of not being who we would like to be, not having what we would like to have, not going in the direction we would like to go in.
We are hurting and we don’t want to be hurting so we try to manufacture a salvation for ourselves. Many times we don’t cling to you, but we try to be safe independently of you. You are just too slow for us. Your salvation and your promises seem far off and too abstract. We have real problems and you talk too much about sin and repentance.
So we rationalize our sins. We shut off from our neighbor, in stead of openly loving them. We come to church and we read our Bibles and fast, but we do so with an expectation of quick deliverance, hoping, just hoping, that somehow we would escape the difficulties of our situation without having to change.
We hope for light, but behold there is darkness, for brightness, but we walk in gloom. We grope along the wall like blind men, we grope like those who have no eyes. We stumble at midday as in the twilight. All of us growl like bears and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but there is none, for salvation, but it is far from us.
Your arm is not too short that it cannot save, neither your ear that it cannot hear. It is our iniquities that have made a separation between you and us.
Lord, forgive us our pride and our desire to be independent of you, a desire manifested in such subtle ways that sometimes we are not even fully aware. Lord, forgive us our self-centeredness. Forgive us the fact that many times we go through the motions and we forget that you are a real God, wanting to engage with us in a real relationship.
Lord, forgive the fact that we forget your promises in the pursuit of short-term security and absence of pain.
Lord, we thank you, that by your servant, the perfect Servant Jesus Christ, you provided salvation for us from our sins. We thank you that our Lord is committed to restoration of your kingdom. Lord, we thank you that you provide the promises and the Holy Sprit for your people to grasp and believe them.
Father, we pray we would live in faith that you will, one day, on THAT GLORIOUS DAY, complete your deliverance us. We pray that we would patiently pray and watch that you would fulfill your promises. We pray that we would not despair in fear and worry or try to escape the pain we feel by lying to ourselves or to you. Rather, Father, we pray we would cry out to you in submission and prayer.
Father, have mercy on our country. We pray that you give wisdom to our officials and you give peace to the country. We pray that, whichever way this election goes, you would pour out your grace and help the people live together in a just way.
Father, we pray you provide righteous reconciliation between democrats and republicans, blacks and whites, liberals and conservatives, rich and poor, young and old, majority and minority. We pray that nobody would take justice in their own hands, nor attempt to define the truth, but that both justice and truth would be revealed from you.
Father, use these current events to call this country to spiritual reformation. We pray for repentance and for faith in you. We pray that we, your people, would be salt and light. We pray we would proclaim and live out the Gospel at all times, in front of all people. We pray we would love our neighbors.
Father, help us live in the pursuit of the future justice, glory and restoration.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.