I wrote the following one evening recently but have been unsure whether to publish it… tell me what you think.
In the course of my studies I have been researching homelessness and poverty in Australia, and in particular, Melbourne, and recently I had the great pleasure to go meet a lovely woman who works for the Salvation Army at a Crisis center here in Melbourne. After a tour of the fantastic facilities and meeting the others staff, we sat for a coffee and chat. A great hour and I was extremely thankful for the chat.
But, it further fueled my righteous anger to understand that local churches weren’t offering to help this crisis centre — something that we have found at The Dining Room (TDR). However, before I rant, I must say that there are some churches and schools in the area who are helping TDR, but let me emphasize — some out of many. We have some churches in the local area that are perched on acres of land, some with schools on the property and some without, and some with empty buildings and some that have a handful of people meeting in them.
So what I find VERY frustrating is why the churches with so much — real estate, cash etc — give very little to the local community besides running an OpShop for example. Why do some feel that if they do overseas mission and interstate mission that they can forget about their neighbourhoods?
I have a dream, a passion, to see all the churches in the World sell their buildings and land! All of it! Yeah it’s a dream — but a wonderful one at that — imagine it with me! So, what can they do then? Meet in the park, or in the school halls, or sports halls or coffee shops or restaurants or nightclubs! But then use all of the money from the sales to feed the poor, clothe the orphans etc — in other words, LOVE the World! Imagine the Millennium Goals could be fulfilled! Imagine the ministries that do all this now could do without the stress of money! IMAGINE THE LOVE AND PEACE THAT COULD BE SPREAD!
It’s a dream yes! But, it fires me up when I see churches spend millions on buildings and technology to feed the pew warmers! Am I the only one that sees that we have the priorities wrong? No, I know that there are many others who feel the same and also speak out, so allow me my rant on my blog.
Added today.…
I was at the Summit for the Greenpaper on homelessness today — and what was the one of the central issues was the lack of funding to the organisations, both NGO and church based that are dependent and desperate for funding to meet the demands of the system. But, what again shocked me was that organisations such as Sacred Heart Mission here in Melbourne, a church based homeless case system — are desperate for funding when they too, like TDR are church birthed.
Why can we not be like the first century Christians who were very well known for the their ceaseless work and care for those society cast out — lepers etc. We, the Church, and I include all denominations here, have got the paradigm wrong when we care more about the building and meeting staff budgets than the society and neighbourhoods we live in.
I want to get a center for the homeless and poor going here in Croydon, and at the moment it is just an idea and dream that has supporters — and all I can throw at it is my passion and more powerfully, my prayers.
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