Location Location Location!

Anybody in trouble for this?

Certain statements leave little wiggle room. “It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God” appears to be in that category. “We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ” is another that leaves little work for the interpreters. These things are either completely true or completely false. So somber and final are they that believers would do well to assume they mean exactly what they say and that a day of reckoning before a righteous Judge is not optional.

Will church boards and pastors one day have to answer for their shabby treatment of the poor?

Another of those no wiggle room statements is from Jesus: “The poor you always have with you.” Examined closely, this is instruction about where to plant churches. If a body of believers looks around and sees no poor, they are in the wrong place. It’s not that neatly clipped lawns, raked, litter free flower beds, washed off driveways and sharp, attractive, well furnished buildings set on suburban lots aren’t attractive to the poor. It’s not even that a poor person wandering in would not be welcomed. In many cases good hearts would be open to them.

The problem is that many churches are planted far from the poor – maybe even with intention. Cities have suffered white flight and business flight but they have also suffered church flight as many by design have moved up and out and abandoned the poor and hurting for more upscale locations with visibility that draws a more upscale membership. Distance from the poor brings insulation and simple distance allows churches to ignore the layers of problems that are part of poverty and hurt that Jesus says is still out there – “always with you”.

Sending a skeleton crew ministry team to the rescue mission once a month or passing out peanut butter sandwiches downtown is no substitute for being surrounded by poor folks. Wonder why the Holy Spirit hasn’t told any prosperous churches in my city to relocate to a nastier area? Just a question. The poor you always have with you, but not if you can help it.