Going the 2nd Mile

"Go with him 2 miles," Matthew 5:41.

Let me start with a statement of faith. I believe that God has given us the land around Cape Nazarene Church (2601 Independence, Cape Girardeau, MO) as our Promised Land. We're placed here for a purpose. We're planted on a hill overlooking the city as a beacon of God's light in a town full of darkness.

Cape Girardeau hides it's needs well. It's a small, clean town. Driving around, you would have a hard time seeing the darkness. You won't be able to point out the people with addictions. You can't see the violence. You have to step through the white-picket fences to find the depression, grief, loneliness, hurt, hunger, oppression, poverty, racism, and more that are prevalent here.

Neighbors grow accustomed to looking the other way. Parents put up a facade in public. School kids hide it from their friends and teachers. The needs, though, of the people of Cape Girardeau are very real. As is the need for God.

Who is going to take God to them? Who is going to serve those needs? Who's going to pray for those people?

That's what going the 2nd mile means. Cape Naz Church is committed to pray for (1st mile) and serve (2nd mile) our community. We're going to get our hands dirty. We're going to get our knees dirty. We're going to win back the people that God has given us from the enemies that have taken them hostage. We're going to help God redeem Cape Girardeau!

We're starting small. This week, we're forming a partnership with the SEMO Safe House for Women. It's a shelter that takes in victims of domestic abuse and their kids. Chatting with the director of the Safe House last week, she told me that she doesn't get many pastors or churches willing to help them. I wasn't terribly surprised.

Most pastors and churches are unwilling to look beyond the facades that their town constructs and see the real needs hidden all around them. For those pastors and their people, "going" is really "targeting" the people that look like them -- the already saved, clean, collected families with nice SUV's and big bank accounts.

Sorry if that you're a pastor or a church member and that offends you. But, if you are offended by it, you should ask yourself why. There's nothing wrong at all with reaching out to the people in your sphere of influence (the people that largely look and act like you) -- that's our primary strategy for relational evangelism. It's important. It's fundamental.

But so is compassionate ministry to the lost, the hurting, the fatherless, the widow, the orphan, the addict, the grieving, the depressed, the oppressed, the underprivileged, the abused, the victims living among you.

Will you go the 2nd mile to reach them? Will you pray for them. Will you serve them? As I told the director of the SEMO Safe House, "Cape Naz will!"