Community – The Will to Wake Up

Encouragement Thursday Devotionals

Join us every Thursday for the next 4 weeks for encouragement from Acts!

Hey everyone! 🙂

I hope you are doing well. As I’ve been discerning how to reengage with this blog, I remembered “Encouragement Thursdays,” which I created because Thursdays have always felt like a “blah” day to me that could use a little encouragement. So I would intentionally post every Thursday to encourage all of you (and myself 🙂 ).

In a chaotic world, what we need most is rest and reconnection with the Lord. When we take the time to rest, we can turn back to Him and remember that He is faithful, so we should be faithful to Him.

For the next month, I will be sharing Encouragement Thursdays again, going through a few sections of Acts to explore how the early church was able to survive despite persecution, differences of opinion, leadership issues, and temptations — essentially the human brokenness we still experience today.

I hope you will join me in prayer that together, we can grow closer to God and deepen our understanding of His character, as well as learn how we are to live a life of faith and love to all those in our communities.

What Should Our First Priority Be in Ministry?

Though there should be many goals in ministry, one aspect must come first.

Though I’ve only recently become an “official” person in ministry (with a job title), I have volunteered for years and participated in and witnessed others’ ministry. And through that, as different pastors or directors have come and go, each with different missions and ideas, one key aspect has remained crucial. If it was there, it caused the church to flourish; if it was lacking, it was painfully missed.

There are many goals and values people in ministry need to have in mind, but I believe there is one thing that must come before everything else.

Our first priority in ministry is to make others feel cared about.

No fancy ways around this, no complicated language to confuse the main goal. Just simply, make others feel cared about.

Now, you might be thinking, “Caring about others is all fine and good, but what about Church doctrine and the scriptures and equipping others?”

Here is where I must clarify: We aren’t supposed to start and end with making people feel cared about, but it must be our starting place if we want any of the other elements of being in a church community to exist.

I’ve heard many stories of people who have left the Church because they didn’t feel noticed or respected or valued. I had my own experiences in youth group, where I dreaded going for fear of feeling isolated or out of place among people who were supposed to be like family.

You can be a nice person while still missing the mark on this quest for being loving. It takes intentional effort, a pure heart, and thoughtfulness to make people truly realize they belong.

Ultimately, it means embodying (in our own humanly way) the love of Christ.

Regarding the concept that our first priority of the Church should be preaching the gospel, I believe we are preaching the gospel when we demonstrate the key characteristics of the one we serve–Jesus, and giving Him all the glory. Furthermore, Christianity is based on obeying God, but the only reason we want to obey God is because of His love for us. What motive would we have for submission to His will if we didn’t have His love?

The only way to get the Church to go out into all the world and preach the good news is to infuse its members with the kind of love and compassion Jesus brought us.

This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t hold people accountable or sugarcoat the truth of God’s word. Rather, the truth is better received when coming from a loving, caring heart. When we take the time to understand God’s word for ourselves, we’ll be better at bringing its attributes into our lives.

Today, whether you serve in a church or not, you have the opportunity to show God’s love to the people in your community. This doesn’t have to be as complicated as it seems. Allow yourself to soak in Jesus’ unfailing love for you and extend that patience, forgiveness, and understanding to others. Simple acts of kindness, remembrance, and grace make all the difference.

This won’t be easy or natural at first, but over time, it will become a part of who you are. And in doing so, you become more like Jesus, which is the most wonderful thing you can ever do. ❤

Show them what you’re made of, the love I’ve been talking up in the churches. Let them see it for themselves!
2 Corinthians 8:24 (MSG)

United in Christ

How do our presumptions about others hinder our witness for Christ?

Let me describe someone for you.

There’s a person here on Earth who has faced many trials, yet also many joys. This person breathes the same air as you, watches the sun come up each morning, and the stars as they dot the night sky. They have been created in the image of God and have a divine purpose.

You probably like this person, right? Or at least feel indifferent about them?

That’s because I haven’t really told you anything about this person. You don’t know what they look like, what their beliefs are, or even where they come from. All you can see is this person’s humanity.

Now, what if I told you a few basics about this person? Perhaps if I told you their age or gender, it would elicit a few new perceptions about them. If I said they are five, you might smile. If I said this person is a man, you might picture someone who has either hurt you or brought you great joy.

With only a few basic characteristics, not even about the person itself, you already have assumptions about who they are.

Let’s dive even further. Say this person has spiky pink hair and several visible tattoos. Or maybe they wear torn, dirty clothes and no shoes. Maybe they have on a crisp business suit and sparkling blue eyes. Your mind is swirling with opinions about person, perhaps even an imaginary backstory.

And I haven’t given you a single detail of their personality or lifestyle or beliefs.

Imagine if I told you this person has the opposite political beliefs as you? Or maybe that they disagree with your faith or have a career you don’t respect?

Chances are, at least one of the qualities I’ve listed above would be a turn-off for you. And I don’t blame you, it’s part of our human nature to judge others.

But does that make it right?

Every single human being, regardless of their appearance, personality, or beliefs, has one thing in common: they are made in the image of God.

Going further, within the body of Christ, we have even more in common. We are united through the Holy Spirit. But what does that mean going forward?

First of all, it means that we don’t have an excuse to judge others, especially other Christians, without knowing the full story. Sure, we can’t help our subconscious thoughts, but we can take those thoughts captive and not allow them to influence our care and concern for others.

What if we saw everyone–regardless of their beliefs, the issues we disagree with them on, or anything that normally defines a person for us–as a fellow human being? What if we thought of everyone the way we did in my first description?

Think back to how you imagined that person. Another person like you with an extraordinary purpose too.

And what if that mindset influences the way you treat the people around you? That can only bring about beauty, I’m sure of it.

That is what it takes to foster intentional, compassionate community, and bring the love of Jesus on Earth. It takes seeing people as real, honest human beings.

I’ll leave you with one final story.

Last year, I asked a friend to pray for someone in my Bible study dealing with a difficult diagnosis. Unknown to either of them, they held the opposite political views as each other. All my friend knew about the person she was praying for was that she had pressing needs, also believed in Jesus, and deserved prayer.

I can’t help but wonder if her prayers wouldn’t have been as earnest and her concern so genuine if she knew of their differences. Would the person in need be any less deserving of prayer?

How often do we allow our disagreements and differences come before our call as followers of Christ? Our call to love everyone–yes, even the haters, the unjust, the ungodly–and present the truth of the gospel to the world. We all have the capability of being that way, even if we don’t want to admit it.

Yet Jesus saw us all as deserving of salvation and more importantly, His love. The least we can do is treat others as deserving too.

And trust me, this new mindset can make all the difference in the world. ❤

My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Colossians 2:2-3