Dollars by Teddy James on Flickr. Some rights reserved.
Your church might not be big enough to start the large-scale medical ministry that Southland Christian Church in Kentucky did, but surely any church can embrace the principle that led to its beginning.
As their pastor Jon Weece says,
“We decided we needed to take a season, read through the gospels and the book of Acts, look at the pattern of Jesus and the first church and pray and say, ‘God, what are we uniquely created to do in the Kingdom?’”
The process took a year and a half, and Weece admits it was a difficult season, fraught with layoffs and some disillusioned families. But the church’s mission became clearer for it.
“We started focusing on people outside our four walls, and we found our niche. It was a catalytic season for us in that we determined we’re here in central Kentucky to love people that no one else in our church community was paying attention to.”
Weece is candid about this identity, to the point of drawing lines in the sand.
“People come in and we just tell them, ‘You know, we don’t offer a lot internally for Christians. We’re focusing on the people Jesus would want us to go after,’” he says.
The whole story is here.