Faith in Action

            The other day I was reading about the history of pastors in Derek Tidball’s Skillful Shepherds. Tidball writes about Cyprian who was bishop of Carthage in the third century. Cyprian led an interesting response to the Carthaginian plague of 252. He called the believers together to “urge on them the duty of prayer and then organize them into a practical care scheme which covered the whole city. They raised funds, nursed victims, and buried the dead whether they were members of the church or not.”

            It reminded me of the Grande Prairie ministerial meeting I went to last week. They were talking about a community clean-up day called ‘Faith in Action’ hosted by area churches. Westpointe Community Church and North Country Community Church went into a somewhat run-down neighbourhood on a Sunday morning and volunteered to mow lawns, trim trees and remove garbage from people’s yards. They brought a big dumpster and filled it up with everything from old couches to mattresses to… other junk. Afterwards they had a big bar-b-que. The reaction of those who were served was striking. One guy who rarely went to church said that these were the kinds of churches he wanted to go to. A number of others were shocked that the churches cared so much about the community, which I think is a little sad. I would like to think that people ‘out there’ know that we care for them, but often they see us only as a group that spouts socially conservative rhetoric. It is great to see Christians on Youtube for reasons other than some crazy rant. I am sure that Cyprian did a bunch of other cool things but 1800 years later he is remembered for his act of kindness. It is just hard to argue with good deeds.