no under-resourced church

Last month at the end of Orchard Hill's leadership retreat, I caught up with George Marshall, our partner from Harvest/Walnut.  I asked him if he heard any language or comments through the morning that might cause him to cringe.  Sometimes we struggle to know what language to use around Orchard.  We want to talk about God's call for us to care for the poor, but we don't want to perpetuate paternalism and our own poverty in our own thinking and talking.

How did George respond?  He told me that there were no cringe factors, and then he went on to say, "I think it's fine if you want to talk about our partnership working to reach out in an under-resourced neighborhood.  Just don't ever call Harvest an under-resourced church.  There is no such thing.  God resources his Church and is all-sufficient as He leads His Church.  The only time a church is under-resourced is when people in the church are under-utilizing their gifts for the Kingdom."

I love that.  It goes along with a teaching I heard not too long ago.  The teacher spoke about leading in the things that matter to God.  We can lead in things that seem hard, scary, hopeless, because if God is passionate about it, then He is also responsible in getting it done.  He just wants us to offer Him what we have for the work.