"LOOK FOR THE HELPERS, FRED!"

When John the Baptist – during a discouraging time while he was in prison – sent a message to Jesus asking, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”, here is the message that Jesus sent back to John:

“Go back and report to John what you hear and see:  The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor…”

The proof of Jesus’ messiahship was actual changed lives! 

This is quite different from the annual reports of many churches today.  I compiled those annual reports for over forty years.  Sometimes I had to be creative to try to show that we’d made any impact at all on our community.

[They often sounded something like this:]

We averaged 78 in Morning Worship which was a slight increase over last year.  We had an average attendance of 39 in Sunday School.  We had a weekly prayer meeting that was attended by 7-12 people.  We held a Vacation Bible School for a week in the summer with 25 children attending.  We published a monthly newsletter and mailed it to our constituency.  We had several men’s gatherings.  We participated in the community Thanksgiving service.  We took our turn serving the community food bank twice during the year.  We had one conversion, no new members and no baptisms.

Do you hear the difference between that report and the one Jesus sent to John?

How can we make the kind of difference that Jesus made?  After all, we ARE His representatives – as though He was making His appeal through us!  (II Corinthians 5:20)

I mentioned that this wake-up call changed the way I led the church.  I was determined to challenge the church to be relevant and to make a difference in our community.  By God’s grace – and with His help – I believe we made some significant strides in that direction! 

We must believe that we are here for a purpose!  We are in the precise location where He can use us for His purposes.  We must also understand that our impact will sometimes be united and sometimes individual. 

Listen to Luke’s report from Acts 9:36-43,

In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!”

Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive. This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord…

Now the first thing we notice is that Tabitha had a ministry all her own!  She made clothes for the poor!  This wasn’t apparently a ministry of her church.  She simply had a gift of sewing and dedicated it to the Lord!  She came up with this idea on her own – possibly under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit! 

We also notice that Peter was clearly moved by Tabitha’s death.  But he didn’t join the mourners, he spoke to her and raised her up to added years of service!  Peter exercised the apostolic gifts that God had bestowed on him.  Like His Master, Jesus, Peter spoke with authority and Tabitha came back to life! 

And finally we notice that the community was impacted!  This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord…

Because this incident is recorded for us in the book of Acts, it is clearly a picture of what Christ expects of His people and His church! 

It seems to me that a much larger portion of our time and energy should be directed toward those around us who are facing trials, challenges, fears, need, desperation and despair.  We should be seeking them out!  We should be applying our creativity toward finding them, helping them and serving them!  If we did this, perhaps our annual reports would be a bit more exciting…

Children’s television personality Fred Rogers said that when he was a little boy and heard about an accident or natural disaster, his mother would tell him, “Look for the helpers, Fred.  Whenever something terrible happens there are always people who hurry to help.”

Here is the challenge for the church in laymen’s terms!  As a community of believers in Christ, we must ask ourselves if we are among those “helpers” who rush in at times of crisis. 

Listen, every community faces crises from time to time!  People are displaced by fires or floods.  Storms damage homes and people’s lives are disrupted.  Acts of violence occur and families are plunged into grief.  Plants shut down causing massive unemployment and families are forced to redefine themselves and even caused to relocate to continue their lives.  These kinds of dilemmas are unending.  They’re happening frequently to varying degrees in most of our communities.  And when they happen, we – the church, the people of God – need to be among those who are running in with assistance! 

It seems to me that we should be far more willing to cooperate with other churches, other helping agencies, and even local government to address these kinds of critical times. 

If this were more true, then our churches would be considered an invaluable asset to our communities.  People would see us as valuable contributors to the general well-being of our community! 

I read a book that analyzed the responses to several major crises, including the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and the 2011 tsunami that hit Tohoku, Japan on March 11, 2011. 

These two tragedies – though greatly different in type and circumference – reveal incredible pictures of those that Fred Roger’s Mom referred to! 

On that horrible day in 2011, a 9.0 earthquake shook the east coast of Japan for three to five minutes.  Roads buckled, bridges cracked, bookcases toppled and some buildings collapsed.  The earthquake had such force that it jolted Japan’s largest island eight feet closer to North America.  The earthquake hit with such force that it caused the earth to shift on its axis, reducing daylight by a few microseconds, upsetting GPS monitoring stations around the world, and releasing six hundred million times the energy of the atomic bombs that fell on Japan in 1945. 

After that violent five minutes, all was still for forty-five minutes as residents picked themselves up and surveyed the damage.  Then came the wave.

A wall of water, first taking shape out in the ocean by the quake’s epicenter, accelerated to 500 mph as it sped toward land.  The coastal region of Tohoku had subsided two feet during the quake, opening wide the gate for the onrushing wave, so that the tsunami crashed over protective sea walls like a giant stepping over a curb.  Videos shot on iphones by eyewitnesses (some retrieved from corpses) resemble the special effects scenes from a horror movie:  ships, houses, and trucks tossed around like toys;  a modern airport suddenly submerged under water;  a nuclear reactor tower exploding in a thick black cloud. 

When people in the region began to realize their peril, they began rushing to upper levels in buildings or trying to run up mountains to safety.  Over the next hours the water rolled in and washed back out seventeen times!  All the while, frantic cries for help could be heard. 

When it finally ended, a dense forest was gone.  Over twenty thousand were dead – many washed out to sea and never recovered.  150,000 evacuees lost their homes; 50,000 of them are still living in temporary housing. More than 120,000 buildings were destroyed, 278,000 were half-destroyed and 726,000 were partially destroyed.  Please understand that the devastation is truly indescribable!

A Christian author visited Tohoku exactly a year later.  As he toured the area he couldn’t help but notice the many cars among the debris.  He wondered out loud:  “I wonder how many automobiles were destroyed…”  Immediately, a Japanese colleague pulled out his smart phone and googled the answer:  410,000. 

During the same visit he saw a huge ocean freighter – nearly the size of a football field – sitting in a residential area.   No one has any idea how to get it back to the ocean a half-mile away.

But then, the “helpers” began to rush in!  Teams arrived quickly from the Philippines, Germany, Singapore, and the United States.  Organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and Samaritan’s Purse mobilized immediately after the earthquake and were still sending crews a year later!    

Samaritan’s Purse crews were living in cramped communal housing and working long hours without pay.  One such worker said:

“We don’t proselytize.  We don’t need to – the people know why we’re here.  We’re simply followers of Jesus trying to live out His commands.  Just before handing owners the key to their new homes, we ask if we can pray a blessing on the house.  So far, no one has turned us down.” 

Although the church in Japan represents only one per cent of the population, Christian organizations took a lead in rebuilding efforts, and some Japanese churches became distribution centers for food and supplies.  One church sheltered more than a thousand evacuees the first few months after the tsunami. 

What wonderful models of Christian love these examples were and are. 

John Marks, a producer for television’s 60 Minutes, went on a two-year quest to investigate evangelicals, a group he had grown up in and later rejected.  He wrote a book about his quest called Reasons to Believe:  One Man’s Journey Among the Evangelicals and the Faith He Left Behind.  The church’s response to Hurricane Katrina turned the corner for him and became a key reason to believe.  One Baptist church in Baton Rouge fed 16,000 people a day for weeks;  another housed 700 homeless evacuees.  Years after the hurricane, and long after federal assistance had dried up, a network of churches in surrounding states was still sending regular teams to help rebuild houses. 

Most impressively to Marks, all these church efforts crossed racial lines and barriers in the Deep South.  One worker told him, “We had whites, blacks, Hispanics, Vietnamese, and a good old Cajun (working together)…we just tried to say, ‘Hey, let’s help people.  This is our state.  We’ll let everybody else sort out that other stuff.  We’ve got to cook some rice.’”

In other words, people are desperate and have massive needs – let’s get her done!  In most cases, these people and agencies didn’t clamor for attention or pimp for the cameras.  As a matter of fact, much of what I’m sharing with you today – you have never heard before!  The news covers a story for a few days and then moves on.  The onrush of “helpers” rarely catches any camera time.  Besides, they don’t do it for public recognition.  They do it out of obedience to their Master! 

In my humble opinion, every church needs to continually ask itself,

·      “Why does God have us here in this precise location?”

·      “What does He want us doing to impact hurting people in our area?”

·      “How can we use the resources and connections within our congregation to make a difference in our community?”

As a church leader for four decades, I can tell you that you have to be intentional about asking these questions over and over and over…   There is a strong, natural tendency for us to drift back to services and programs that serve ourselves.  It takes intention to maintain an outward focus!  After all, we’re not in this for what we can get out of it;  we’re in this for what we can give through it! 

We must push ourselves to get past the good intentions phase.  Good intentions salve our consciences and relieve our guilt without actually doing anything.  I recently contacted Samaritan’s Purse to inquire about being part of one of their clean-up teams.  I have talked with nearly a dozen people since who told me they’ve always wanted to do that – but I know of no one who actually has. 

All of us are moved with compassion!  People want to make a difference.  They need examples!  They need leaders who will sign them up and organize the work.  If churches would be better organized to be first-responders, I think they’d see two results:

1.   They’d be surprised to see how many people would be willing to help;  and

2.  They’d soon find that their sanctuary didn’t have enough seating capacity!

People expect us to help!  It’s what Jesus would do! 

At the Sandy Hook shooting - which was not a natural disaster but one of human making – the stories of response are amazingly encouraging (although most of us have never heard them). 

·      The state patrol assigned an officer to each family to protect them from intrusion.

·      Freezers full of food were delivered within days.

·      There are lots of Italians in the northeast, and one family with a full freezer begged, “Please – no more pasta!”

·      Christmas presents beyond counting arrived from around the country and world.

·      60,000 teddy bears and stuffed animals were given;  it took months to deliver them to homeless shelters.

·      People came from all across our country with their juggling acts, free pies, pets, and counseling booths.

One touching gesture came from other school children.  At the suggestion of a Sandy Hook parent, the president of Connecticut’s PTA sent out an email asking them to cut out snowflakes to help decorate the new school where Sandy Hook students would attend.  The request went viral.  Within two days the snowflakes started to arrive on UPS trucks and even semi-trailers.  Thousands and thousands of snowflakes arrived from every state and fifty foreign countries.  It was an avalanche of snow!  Many included handwritten notes by children. And the underlying message was clear:  YOU ARE NOT ALONE! 

Let me return to John Marks one more time. 

“I would argue that [Hurricane Katrina] was a watershed moment in the history of American Christianity…nothing spoke more eloquently to believers, and to unbelievers who were paying attention, than the success of a population of believing volunteers measured against the massive and near-collapse of secular government efforts. The storm laid bare an unmistakable truth.  More and more Christians have decided that the only way to reconquer America is through service.  The faith no longer travels by the word.  It moves by the deed.”

Would you like to be part of this movement to reclaim America for Christ? 

Would you like to be part of a church that truly desires and plans to make a difference in its community?

Would you like to turn your faith into action?

Remember Tabitha!  It’s not always a church-driven momentum.  Sometimes it simply means assessing our own skills, resources, interests and connections to discover a way that we can personally make a difference. 

Remember too, that your church has only one Head – and that’s Jesus Christ!  Continually evaluate your potential as His Body and then seek to please Him!