Do you care?

A few years ago, a church had a growing youth group. They started small, but over the years more and more students began to attend. The church started a bus ministry, and the youth group nearly doubled in size.

However, much of the work was done by the youth pastor and a few committed youth volunteers. They made contacts with the parents and formed relationships. They earned trust by showing that they cared for the teens and the teens' family. Much of the growth came as a result of those relationships.

Then something happened. The youth pastor left. He moved on to another church out of the area. The youth who had relationships with him soon stopped coming. This committed group of students, just a few weeks after the youth pastor's departure, stopped coming to youth and stopped going to church.

The problem was they had no relationship with the church. They had a relationship with the youth pastor. They had a relationship with the youth volunteers. But they had no relationship to the wider church body. Why should they continue to come to a church filled with people they didn't know and who never communicated that they cared?

In Daniel 4, King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that comes true. He dreams that he will go crazy and lose the throne for a period of seven years. As Daniel interprets this dream, he communicates clearly to the king that he cares for him. He hopes the dream would be for the king's enemies, and he later begs the king to stop his arrogant ways so he won't experience the punishment of insanity.

Too often, in our churches, we don't communicate that we care. We tell the stories of the Bible. We warn about the judgments of the Bible. We may even invite people to attend our services or special events. Yet, the most effective evangelism strategy we possess, and the Biblical mandate we often ignore, is to care. We have to care and we have to show that we care through our actions and our words.

The church I described earlier, they didn't care. They hired a youth pastor to bring in students with the hopes the students would bring in parents. They never invested in the family of the student and expected the youth pastor to do that work. When he left, so did the kids. He was the only one who showed he cared.

To be effective for the Gospel, we must show that we care. We have to get outside the walls of the church and get into the messiness of life. We can invest in people and share their burdens and comfort them in grief. We can get to know them and care for them, and then build a bridge to sharing about Jesus Christ.

In fact, Jesus cared. He cared enough to come to Earth. He cared enough to pour into his 12 disciples. He cared enough to heal the sick and the lame. He cared enough to die on a cross. Jesus communicated he cared. He expects us to do the same.

So, do you care? Because it means more than words. Do you care enough to get out into your community? Do you care enough to involve yourself in the lives of others? Do you care enough to get out of your comfort zone?

The world is watching. The community is watching. Your classmates and teammates and co-workers and family members are watching. So, do you care?