When the Church Gets it Right
I often focus on the times and instances the church gets it wrong. I cringe when Christians are too pushy, too loud, too legalistic, too obsessed with being right. But today I want to share a story of a small church in the Dominican Republic getting it right.
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| Teodora |
Over the last couple of weeks on the Plant With Purpose blog, we’ve shared the incredible story of Teodora Sánchez, an inspiring woman from the small village of Loma Verde in the Dominican Republic. Teodora is a mother, grandmother, pastor, and empowerer.
Teodora has partnered with Plant With Purpose to engage her community in environmental restoration and economic empowerment. The stories of economic and environmental transformation are powerful on their own, but, as a traditional Jesus-cube-and-revival-evangelism evader, I was more struck by the story of SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION taking place in Teodora’s community.
Plant With Purpose has this really cool discipleship philosophy that focuses first and foremost on equipping local churches to meet the needs of their communities. We’ve started a rad project in the Dominican Republic called, “Church, Community, and Change,” where we partner with churches directly and empower them to be an agent of positive change for those around them.
As a pastor, Teodora is constantly looking for new ways to engage both the physical and spiritual needs of those around her. One issue that has plagued Teodora’s community is illiteracy. When Teodora heard about Plant With Purpose's new project, her eyes sparkled with joy at the opportunity to fight illiteracy.
And then she got right to work organizing an entire literacy campaign for her community. Teodora provided the vision; Plant With Purpose helped turn the dream into a reality.
Teodora says, “The Church, Community, and Change pilot was a great blessing from God. More than 30 people attended the literacy classes in January 2012 and more are expected to register throughout the year. Church members serve as the literacy facilitators.”
What a cool idea—church members who can read teaching other members who can’t read. Awesome.
As the church serves, hope swells: community members build confidence, families become less vulnerable, economic opportunities emerge, and families gain hope for a brighter future.
Could there be a better picture of the church sharing the love of Christ with their community in word and deed?
I know it’s a little shameless self-promoting for Plant With Purpose, but I was touched by this story of the church getting it right and I hope you’ll be encouraged too.
Heard any good stories of the church getting it right lately?
Also, check out the Plant With Purpose blog or website to learn more about how you can get involved in the incredible work of the church around the world.
*Photo credits: Plant With Purpose
A Time to Weed
I've planted too many bad days. The weeds of cynicism, disengagement, and discontent spring up, choke out.
Yes, the field is teeming with flowers, but it’s also teeming with weeds.
Sometimes I can’t tell the difference.
Cynicism shoots up around me, engulfing me. It strangles the good days, the good seeds, the good hope.
You won’t move.
You aren’t there.
I am trapped trapped trapped.
But I know that is my voice, not Yours.
Yours is the voice of hope, the voice of kindness. Yours is the voice that said to me,
“Relinquish cynicism and WATCH ME MOVE.”
My eyes are peeled.
I pluck the weeds. I replace them with truth.
You will move.
You are there.
I am free free free.
Saying the "F" Word at Work
It’s my favorite subject when I’m talking about anyone other than myself: failure.
It’s named different things: Sarcasm. Snark. Wit. Criticism. Pure comedic genius (maybe I’m only one who calls it that).
But the truth is, as much as I like to nit and pick and parody for a few chuckles and snickers, I have a hard time talking about failure in any way that’s actually productive.
I’m not the only one with this problem.
At work yesterday we watched a fascinating Ted Talk by David Damberger of Canadian-based Engineers without Borders. From the just title, “What happens when an NGO admits failure,” you can get a pretty good idea of where he’s headed.
In a sweep of boldness and vulnerability, he shares failures, and lots of them. How Engineers without Borders has failed. How the aid world has failed. Even how he personally has failed to make the impact he had hoped.
It’s tough stuff.
But it’s also refreshing. Even hopeful.
If we don’t acknowledge our failures, how will we move past them? How can we expect to not repeat our mistakes if we don’t know our mistakes?
I work in marketing and development for a similar type of NGO. I can’t imagine sending out a Failure Report instead of a Progress Report to a donor. But I think we do a pretty good job of admitting our failures internally. And it’s the times we talk about failure that we actually learn. That we actually grow. That we actually embody our desire to innovate and improve lives.
It’s not much different than confessing our sins. We admit our mistakes and failings. We ask forgiveness. We move forward. We learn. We grow. We move a bit closer to becoming who God created us to be.
If that’s the case, I need to wrap up this post and sign off. I’ve got a lot more failing to do.
And whether you’re an aid criticism junkie (like me) or just someone who generally fears failure (like most of us), I highly recommend taking the 13 minutes to watch the video below.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGiHU-agsGY]
What about you? Do you have trouble talking about failure? What did you think of the video? Do you think it will benefit aid organizations to be more open about failure?