This is an important question in general for any Christian but it’s essential for church revitalization. As a church faces the challenges of becoming a more missional church that is reaching and making disciples of non-believers, it takes much trust in God. Do you trust that the God who created the entire universe from nothing, who so loved you and the people in your community who don’t know him that he sent his only son that you all might not perish but have eternal life, who has given believers his Spirit to establish his kingdom in the world, will actually come through for you?

I was struck recently by the profound truth in the first line of the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father, who art in Heaven…” God is our loving Father who cares deeply for us. And he is in Heaven which tells us of his awesome power. He is both a loving and powerful God. He is for us and has the power to help us. He wants our congregations to thrive more than we want them to. He is trustworthy. But do you trust him enough?

I remember when the church I pastored identified that the people God wanted us to focus on reaching in our area were, primarily, people with lower incomes whose lives were visibly broken. We were excited about the mission God had given us. It seemed very Jesus-like! Remember in Mark’s Gospel where Jesus was intentionally reaching out to visibly broken people, “Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.)  But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with such scum?’ When Jesus heard this, he told them, ‘Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.’”  Mark 2:15-17 (NLT) We were committed to reaching and making disciples of just such people because that’s who lived around our church.

Well, that’s all great until questions about how we’re going to pay for everything start coming in. Some church members started voicing fearful things like, “Maybe we should focus on reaching people with money because, you know, we have bills to pay.” Or, “This is good to bring in these hurting people Father, but the existing members are going to have to carry the financial burden and we don’t have any wealthy people.” There were other, similar concerns raised.

I admit that I too was fearful at times. I can remember a membership class I led where one of the people joining that day was formerly a homeless crack addict who used to pimp out his girlfriend for drug money. He had been invited to our church for months by that same girlfriend who had already been coming to church. She kept telling him to try it because this church is different. He doubted, but finally came one Sunday morning when the lectionary readings happened to included Matthew 8:20 which says, “Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.’” Well, he heard that Jesus knew what it meant to be homeless and could identify with him. That was all it took for him to commit his life to Jesus and join our church.

At the end of the membership class he approached me and said that he had forgotten to put his offering in the plate that morning during worship and asked if he could just give it to me now. I said he could. He then proceeded to reach in his pocket and pull out a handful of change. I cupped my hands for him to dump in the change and thought, “This is so awesome that this man’s life is being changed but how in the world are we going to pay the bills with this!”

Did we trust God enough? Did I trust God enough? Somewhere right around that time my Dad, who was a member of the church, shared with me something that he believed the Lord gave to him to share with me. He said, “If you go after the ones nobody wants, God will give you the ones everybody wants.” I believed that was from the Lord and hung onto to that statement, trusting that our loving, powerful Father in Heaven would provide. He did provide, every time.

I would love to write about all the ways God proved to be trustworthy as we continued to reach out to the people he called us to in the Jacksonville, Florida area. We never “got the one’s everybody wants” in the sense that we didn’t have wealthy people join the church, but it didn’t matter. God always provided in big and small ways. Every time.

It is worth sharing how the formerly homeless, crack addict turned church member who gave his pocket change also taught himself to read using the Bible and got a job at a printing shop. Because of his story, his employer gave us a huge discount that saved us thousands of dollars in printing costs! I couldn’t even make that up! God is so creative and good, all the time.

Our all-powerful, all-loving God is for you and your church. He wants your church to make a difference for his Kingdom in your community. He wants lives to be transformed through the ministry of your church. It is challenging to become a more missional church. But God is trustworthy. Do you trust him enough?

The Rev. Canon Mark Eldredge is Director of Church Revitalization at the American Anglican Council.