For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ (Matthew 25:35-36)
What we measure is what we manage. What we manage becomes important. What is important defines us and our community.
This past week, I spent three days with leaders from around the globe. These friends spend their lives catalyzing unity movements in the largest cities on every continent, working to fix the biggest problems through the loving activity of unified influencers in churches, businesses, and government. The “big C” church is being unleashed as a healing force.
This gospel movement is focused on addressing hunger, mental health, crime, addiction, sex trafficking, greed, pollution, family restoration, anything that “hurts,” and is bringing healing and hope through the active gospel of Jesus.
The cities of the globe, including those in North America, suffer from increasingly similar issues and the answer is consistent: children, women, men, and young adults are all struggling to find healthy and healing belonging, basic provision and community, and Jesus is offering it to all through a unified Acts 2 church.
The problem is not insurmountable. However, followers of Jesus are measuring the wrong data and, consequently, we are trying to fix the wrong stuff. Church leadership is asking, “how many people attended and how much money came in?” We are not asking, “Are the people in our city hungry, unsafe, homeless, alone, fearful, depressed, in prison, or in conflict?”
The global leaders I was with are not accepting the statistic that over 70% of people in African cities are without water or sanitation. The Church is mobilizing to change that. They are righteously angry about 30% of all Zimbabweans dying by murder. The Church is unifying around a solution. Cape Town’s 1,600 murders already this year is not acceptable and the Church is mobilizing to reduce it.
What are the followers of Jesus doing in your city to restore the Kingdom of Heaven? Are you courageous enough to measure the effect of the Church of Jesus Christ on the experiences of the hungry, thirsty, alone, naked, sick, and in jail (see the verses above)? Personally, I want to measure what matters and see the hope-filled effects of God’s Kingdom coming to earth through the unified efforts of believers in Jesus.
Fixing what’s broken, Jim