A Mercy-Minded Church

Yesterday, I hopped onto Facebook, only to be surprised and linked to this photo and comment:

Want a t-shirt? We are selling them in the Welcome Center this Sunday and in the Fellowship Hall on Wednesday nights (you can pick the size and color)! The cost is $12 and all AVPC proceeds go to the Lumpkins’ foster care ministry, The Forgotten Initiative.

Over the last year, we've seen the heart of our church and its leadership long to embrace the great commission:

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. - Matthew 28

I heard a story yesterday of a hurting woman in our city, who had tried to walk through the doors of a church in town. She was mocked because of her smell. Her children we ridiculed because they were unclean. They were silently pushed out because they did not fit the mold of the church.

When did the church become about us?

GO... and make disciples.

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters 

of mine, you did for me." - Matthew 25

The Least of These...

If I've learned anything this last year, I've learned I'm the same as that Momma or that Daddy. I'm the same as that person with nothing but the clothes on their back. But, I hide my inward muck and dirt, content to not NEED anyone or anything. Perhaps their physical needs, put them in a closer place to be desperate for a savior. Perhaps, when we can comfortably distance ourselves from the darkness within and the pain around us, we have allowed ourselves to become blinded to our desperation for a redeemer, because we've believed the lie that we do not need to be restored.

But, as we do the hard but delicate dance of a mercy-driven great commission, we become exposed not simply to the needs of the world - but more greatly to our own. And when we discover how majestically we have been forgiven, we also discover how majestically we can love because of HIM who loves us.

If your interested in these little shirts that remind us to GO, simply visit Altadena Valley Presbyterian Church.