The hope of the world.
Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, is known for saying “The local church is the hope of the world.” In the Old Testament we see that God chose to do His work through the Hebrew people. However, as we continue to read God’s Word we see that the Jewish people did not accept Jesus as the Messiah and therefore, God chose to use Gentiles (non-Jews) to accomplish His will. Today, God’s chosen instrument to spread His message of Truth and love is the local church. We, the body of Christ, are the vessel that in God’s sovereign knowledge He has chosen as the way to demonstrate who He is to a hopeless world.
I have never seen this displayed in such a pure form than I did while in Haiti. Everywhere we looked - literally everywhere- people were in need. There we men sitting on the side of the road because they didn’t have a job. Women were along every street corner trying to sell items they had made or food they had just prepared. Kids were running up and down the streets with torn clothes and either no shoes or shoes that looked to be 3-4 sizes too small. This doesn’t even account for the children in the orphanages.
All of that changed when we arrived to church on Sunday morning. We saw grown men weeping as we sang to our Lord. Women were dressed in their nicest as they raise their hands in worship. Children did not make a sound during the entire service and their eyes were glued to what was happening in front of them. The people clung to God’s Word and treated it as if it were the greatest treasure they had ever received. It was evident that people did not just go to church in Haiti for a social gathering or because they were expected to go. They went because it was their ONLY hope. In the midst of the heartache, the poverty, and the hopelessness of their surroundings, they found hope in the only One who can bring hope: Jesus Christ. The churches in Haiti are living and active and they are doing God’s work in an incredibly difficult environment. The Church is providing education for children, training men so they can have jobs, teaching mothers how to raise their children according to God’s Word. The local Haitian church is the one providing care for the 500,000 orphans in Haiti.
No longer is excited about partnering with a local church in Haiti to help them accomplish what God has called everyone to do! God didn’t call nonprofits to go and provide for orphans. He called His Church to provide care. When God partners us with a local church, we will not just be providing orphan care- we will be helping a local church advance the gospel in their community. A lot of times when we think of missions, we think about Americans doing the work of the Lord for others. However, the beautiful thing about what we are hoping to accomplish is that we want to enable the local Haitian church to do missions in their own country! This partnership between our community and their community, both doing missions, is what I believe Jesus envisioned of the Church as a whole: working together to care for the least of these. The local church truly is the hope of the world. It’s time for the body of Christ to reach beyond ourselves and help the local church in Haiti as they continue to be the salt of the earth.
