Last night a tornado tore through TN. The latest reports say that there are 25 confirmed dead. Besides the heart-wrenching loss of life, reports show numerous homes, apartment complexes, churches, schools, and businesses that have been demolished. Tennesseans in the tornado’s path are just starting to figure out how to work their way out of this stunning wreckage.
Like many others, Redemption City Church wants to do what it can to help. I’ve been in conversations with government and state relief leaders throughout the day. At this point, it seems that the best immediate course of action includes the following steps.
Pray – Because God can do more in a moment than we can do in a lifetime, we pray. No matter where you are, you can help by asking God to help everyone where they are. TN needs God’s help to move forward. Pray for those without water, food, electricity, and the disaster relief teams already on the ground.
Stay Out Of The Way – As tempting as it is to drive down to the areas most impacted by the tornado, Governor Lee and others have said that the most helpful thing non-essential personnel can do to help the disaster relief effort is to avoid those areas. With trees and wires laying on the roads, the ability to get around is greatly hindered. This doesn’t just impact the commute of those who live in those areas, it also impacts the ability of disaster relief teams to get their equipment to needed areas. That’s why staying out of the way is a great help.
Sign Up To Serve – There are a lot of ways that people will be able to sign up to serve immediately and for the foreseeable future. Whether it’s with our TN Baptist Disaster Relief teams, Hands On Nashville, or some other organization, sign up to serve in some way. To serve with some Redemption City folks this weekend, email us at info@redemptioncity.com. We are still exploring various possibilities, but it looks like there will be great ways we can help this weekend.
Give Financially – Because God generously gave his Son to meet our eternal need, we give generously in his name to meet the needs of those around us. Practically speaking, we all know that it’s going to take a lot of money to make things better. 100% of the designated financial gifts we receive will go to help the disaster relief work.
Jesus came to meet needs. He’s still doing that through his Spirit-empowered church. Let’s be available and engaged in this unique time to show the love of Christ to our fellow Tennesseans.
Around 1 out of 6 Tennesseans are hungry. 1 out of 6! That means over 1 million of our fellow Tennesseans have stomachs that are growling each week and can’t make it stop the way many of us can. And hunger, of course, doesn’t just impact your stomach, it impacts your ability to focus, listen, relate, your inner sense of well-being, and more. These problems are particularly felt developmentally by the 1 out of 4 children that make up Tennessee’s hungry population. If we reduce hunger, we reduce so many other problems that plague our neighbors.
That’s why, starting this year, Redemption City Church will be using a portion of our 30.9 acres to grow thousands of pounds of food that we’re going to give away in the name of Jesus. No, we’re not growing food because we want to be farmers. We’re farming because we want to be like Jesus who both SHARED God’s love verbally and SHOWED God’s love practically.
We know this is true because Matthew summarized Jesus’
ministry by saying, “23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching
in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every
disease and every affliction among the people” (Matt. 4:23).
Jesus drove this point home when he said that at the end of time we will answer for how we treated the most vulnerable around us. He said, “35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,[f] you did it to me’ (Matt. 25:35-40).
Later, Jesus’ brother, James, emphasized that saving faith
is a working faith or it’s a dead faith. He wrote, “So also
faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17).
There are, of course, many other passages in the Bible that tell us that Christians who have a saving belief in the gospel should make a practical difference in the lives of those around them. Christianity is compassionate or it’s counterfeit.
From the very beginning of Redemption City Church in 2013,
we have sought to be a people that SHARE God’s love verbally and SHOW God’s
love practically. We’ve seen God do amazing things as we’ve built houses for
people in need, fed the hungry, provided clothing and education to those who
desperately needed it, and supported missionaries who do the same.
But we feel like God is calling us to something more,
something unusual.
That sense of leading started in 2018, when God gave Redemption City Church over 23 acres of Williamson County farmland through the generosity of Frank and Francis Ingraham. Immediately, we started asking God to make clear how we could best use this gift—farmland that I grew up working on—to advance his kingdom purposes. About 8 months later God led us into conversations with a local non-profit doing amazing work called Cul2vate.
Over the past 5 years, Cul2vate has been growing food to feed the hungry and using the chronically employed to do it, helping equip them to get back to the life God created them for. Cul2vate was founded by and is led by a childhood friend of mine, Joey Lankford, who also worked on the Ingraham farm with me.
Just when we were praying for a partner that could help provide the needed expertise to grow food on this kind of scale and help people along the way, Cul2vate was looking for an opportunity to multiply what they’re doing somewhere else. The timing was perfect!
After agreeing to work together, this past December we launched our “Hope for the Hungry” initiative, asking you to give $15,000 to get it started. This money would cover costs like putting in a small gravel parking pad, purchasing needed tools, seeds, and more. And you responded by giving over $27,000!!! Yes!
Then, this past Sunday, I spent half of my normal preaching time to interviewing Joey at Redemption City Church. I thought it was so important for everyone to hear his powerful story of walking away from everything the world could offer to give his life away through this ministry. You can listen to it here.
This past Sunday we also began asking for 250 people to commit to work 1 hour a month for 7 months, starting mid-March, to provide hope for the hungry. You don’t, of course, have to be a farmer, just willing to provide hope for the hungry in practical ways. You’ll plant seeds, pull weeds, harvest food, and deliver food, just to name a few of the key jobs. Families, groups, and anyone else, can do this together. It’s going to be something you’ll never forget.
Will you pray that God would use our efforts to provide physical and spiritual hope to the hungry this year? We believe that we need God’s help to advance God’s purposes, so we pray.
Will you be one of the 250 people who sign up to help 1 hour a month for 7 months? If so, let us know here. Signing up in this way will enable us to get the needed information to you as easy as possible.
God is going to do amazing things through this new ministry effort. I’d love for you to be a part of it. Check out the Cul2vate’s video below to learn more about this awesome ministry (btw, Dr. Coffey, who you will meet in this video, will be volunteering full-time at RCC’s property!).
I remember exactly where I was when it happened. I was standing just outside the front door of one of my favorite Mexican restaurants. When it happened, I stopped my conversation, turned to it, and took it in. The “it” that happened was the rare appearance of the sun in January in Mid-TN.
You see, here in Mid-TN we have winters filled with gray, cloudy, energy depleting skies. We don’t get much snow or ice. Just gray skies.
Everything just seems worse in this kind of situation. Sure, we still get around and do all that needs to be done. But it just isn’t as fun, easy, or energizing as it is in the Spring or Summer when the sun is shining about everyday.
The sun, of course, still shines in the winter. It doesn’t take winters off. It’s just not visible, except for those rare moments when it’s energizing, life-giving beams break through the clouds like it did for me that day.
That’s what this prayer is all about. It’s about praying that the glory of God’s awesome, life-giving, energizing holiness would shine through the “gray skies” that have covered our hearts since sin entered the world. We aren’t praying that God would become awesome and able to shine. No, he always has been, is, and will be awesome. We’re praying that we could see and experience more of the awesome holiness that is always true of him. We’re praying that his glorious “beams” would break through all of the “grayness”of our sin that has covered our hearts, lives, and world. We’re praying for more of the one Being we actually need. We want to see more of him. We want increased capacities to love him, enjoy him, and serve him.
Why do atheists pray? Sure, not all atheists pray. But 34% of atheists said they’ve prayed. 34%! Isn’t that amazing?! I think it is. But I don’t think it’s that surprising. After all, there is something unusually beautiful about the idea that you could see miracles take place simply because you asked. There’s something incredibly attractive about the notion that your problems and plans could be handled by an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving, and all-present God!
Yet, for many Christians, prayer is almost non-existent. For most Christians, prayer plays practically no role in their lives. Why is this the case? Some Christians probably haven’t been taught how to pray. Others, perhaps, have never tried to learn anything about prayer. Most, probably, are just too busy to pray. Whatever the reasons are for the lack of prayerfulness amongst us, I think we’d all agree they don’t justify our silence. I think we’d all agree, perhaps, that it makes no sense for the church to fail to ask our infinite God with his infinite resources to help us with our overwhelming problems and ambitious aspirations.
That’s why we’ve spent the last month reflecting on “5 Life-Changing Prayers” and will spend the next few weeks on a #30DaysOfPrayer journey! But in order to get started on this journey rightly, I think there are at least three truths that we need to take to heart.
First, prayer happens when we realize that God’s a Father who can help with anything and we’re childlike enough to need that help in everything. Prayer starts when we have a low enough view of ourselves that we realize that we need help and have a high enough view of God that we think he can help us. Ultimately, prayer is about identity. It’s about how we view ourselves and God. If you don’t think God can help you, you won’t ask him for help. If you don’t think you need help, you won’t ask for help. Often times then, our doctrine of God—our understanding of God—is our prayer problem. Other times, our doctrine of humanity—our understanding of ourselves—is our prayer problem. Recover a biblical view of God and humanity by realizing that we need God’s help enough to ask and he’s competent enough to make a difference. We need to realize that God’s a Father who can help with anything and we’re childlike enough to need it in everything.
Second, prayer happens when we use our desperation as a starting point for our prayers. When you face problems, ask God to solve them. As you feel pressures, ask God to relieve them. God intends for your problems to ignite your prayer life. Paul Miller rightfully and insightfully said, “prayer isn’t for the disciplined, it’s for the desperate.” That’s exactly what we see in Scripture as the Israelites “cry out” to God by the Red Sea, at Jericho, in the face of giants, and more. That’s what we read as the church “cries out” for Peter before he is executed. It’s what we’re told the Spirit enables us to do as we “cry, Abba, Father.” When you cry out, you are desperate. Let your desperation ignite your prayer life.
Third, prayer happens when we use our aspirations as a starting point for our prayers. When you dream about your life, ask God to cause those dreams to come true. When you make plans and set goals for your life, ask God to do the heavy lifting. Our aspirations are designed to ignite our prayer life. In Acts 1, the people of God pleaded with God to advance his kingdom purposes in the world. They asked God to move in their midst. And in Acts 2, God moved in ways they had never seen, could never bring about, and never could have imagined. Without the prayer in Acts 1 there would be no Pentecost in Acts 2. When you think about your plans, ask God to bring them to life. Ask him to enable you to have an impact that goes above and beyond your competencies.
Everybody can grow in their prayer life. We’re praying that kids, students, and adults ask more of God and see Him work in miraculous ways. Let’s prepare our hearts for this Saturday’s launch of #30DaysOfPrayer!
