This blog entry is an adaptation of an ECHO post from last year entitled, "Walk of Love", it seems rather appropriate for us to consider it and be reminded of it again...People often email us at ECHO or ask me in person a similar question, "How does ECHO love others? Give me an example?" Well that's a valid question...and rather nebulous at times...but worth answering none-the-less. At ECHO we choose to intentionally live out a "relational" approach in all we do. God desires a genuine relationship with us, and He's asked us to walk with each other on our journey of life, in authentic loving relationships as well. Now by "relational" we're not talking about a surfacey "hi...bye" type of thing. We're not talking about a smile & a pat on the back and an "I'll pray for ya..." We're not talking about a "let's have coffee" relationship. The bible makes it clear, that what God intends His people to do, is to live a life that is shared with others, sacrificially. The bible commands us to "love others as much as we love ourselves". That's a whole lotta love! That's not just a "love others-pretty good-most of the time-when I feel like it-kind of love"...it's a love others...care for others...have concern for others...take action for others...protect others...like you do for "yourself"!!! We are to serve others...both believers and those still searching. We are to "do life" with those inside & outside the church walls. It's a doing life with people even through the messiness of people's lives. It's a loving people even when they are covered in their own crap, so to speak. It's a loving the unlovely, type of relationship. At ECHO we do that most intentionally in trying to "be" who God asks us to "be". We take Jesus' teachings on taking care of orphans & widows for real. We take Jesus' teachings on mourning with those who mourn seriously. We take Jesus' teachings to heart, that we are to comfort one another...sacrifice for one another...serve the downtrodden... bring hope to the hopeless...love the alone ones...bring compassion to the hurting...point the guilt ridden towards mercy. These things are best done in the context of relationship...person to person...as God orchestrates. As someone recently reminded me, "in God's Kingdom relationships are not an accident". With this attitude & spirit we also serve people relationally each month with a portion of our monthly offerings. We call it our monthly "community love gifts". These "love gifts" are a constant reminder of why we are here as a church, to serve the people of our community, motivated by the love of God. These tangible expressions of God's love are where we get to come along side and encourage, meet a need, or simply love on people by serving them. It can be as simple as delivering a pizza to the home of a sick mom, so she doesn't have to make dinner for her family that night. It may be providing a week's worth of prepared meals for a family dealing with the death of a parent. It may be raising some funds for a family with a mom/wife in the midst of chemo for breast cancer, to help offset the expense of losing one income for several months. It may be helping a separated couple on the edge of divorce get to a "marriage intensive" therapy session, in another state, at one of the best places in the country, in the hope it may aim them in the right direction and equip them a bit to better to deal with life's challenges in their relationship and family. It may be helping a single mom with 4 kids, who is recovering from serious brain surgery, get a bunch of groceries to stock up her shelves. While also getting a chance to be loved on by a few other women who care, letting her know she's not alone in the midst of her struggle. It may be spending a Saturday at a families home sprucing up their yard...mowing the lawns...trimming the hedges and trees...pulling weeds...planting flowers...bringing in new bark o mulch...and taking over 1/2 a ton of stuff to the dump. This, in fact, was done for a young lady with 3 young children who suddenly lost her husband a few months ago to a medical complication. The yard probably was his responsibility each Spring...this year it was ours. Or perhaps, it may look like a man having a BBQ for 20+ homeless people at Alton Baker Park one Sunday. All this cost money, as relationships that matter often do, they cost... money...time...energy... emotion...prayer. But God always seems to show up when we show up. Funny how He chooses to use people like you & me, isn't it? "Love others as you love yourself" in action... or at least at ECHO we're trying to let Him teach us what that really means. We don't share these things here to brag, but to show by example how easy it can be to "love others". It's pretty simple really, as God has intended all along...it's religion that makes things complicated and hard to live out. That's why Jesus hates religion and embraces relationship instead. All these may seem like "doing" things...but they really flow out of who we are...who God wants us to "be". They really are an "out flow" of our relationship with Him. He wants us to become people who journey with people, walk with them, in a spirit of authentic love, care & compassion...you know, Jesus like stuff. At ECHO we recognize the need for our community to see more of this "Jesus likeness" in the people who call Jesus Lord. Far too often the church can seem self serving...pre-occupied with other things...even turning a blind eye to the multiple needs around us every day. Yet we don't see that in Jesus do we? He met the needs of those He was near and those He came in contact with. At ECHO we also try to meet the needs we come in contact with, within our spheres of relationship...at work, in our neighborhood, friends, family, at school etc... We call it relational giving. We don't just write checks to various agency's (though that can be a valid thing). We choose to give relationally, so that after the need is met, the relationship can continue, the conversations can live on, the people involved have continued reinforcement that God loves them & so do we! You see all the examples shared in this post were through relationships at ECHO, but none of those we served were "technically part of ECHO". Some were from other churches in town, others don't go to church at all...the point is, we loved & encouraged them cause God asked us to through someone connected with ECHO, and that's enough for us. Every month we gather the needs we hear of, pray about what we may be able to do, and take a percentage of our monthly offerings to pay for any costs involved. We may not be able to meet every need...but our heart wants to. We believe God's heart wants to as well. God is giving us bigger hearts, as we see the needs around us.
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To be honest, this is one of the funnest things we do at ECHO...loving people...spending time, energy & money on others...as God directs. It's pretty cool...and quite an adventure! We're discovering it's easy to say "God loves you" or to say "you love people"...but it's quite another thing to "show" people God loves them... through you...that is much harder...it requires more of us, doesn't it?! The more we invest of ourselves, personally...the more God seems to do "in us"...and "in those we reach out to". In that discovery, we are confident, the ECHO of God's love lives on...in us and through us...
be God's!
Brian O
Lead Pastor dude, ECHO
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