Becoming a Wise Church

There’s a big difference between smart and wise. You can be the smartest guy in the room. You can get a 1600 on your SATs. You can memorize the encyclopedia! But if you don’t know how to use what you learn, you’ll never be wise.

It’s obvious wherever you look that society needs wise people more than they need smart people. We have enough experts. What we really lack are people willing to roll up their sleeves and say, “Okay, where do we start?”

At Northbrook, I have a firm conviction and desire to be a wise church. That means we aren’t just simply a church in the community, but we exist for the good of the community. We don’t just think we have the answers, we put them into action. We don’t just tell people about Jesus, we show them. I hope that after a while, no matter what anyone says about our church, they will say that our community is better because we’re in it.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been in a series called Operation: Love My Neighbor. But it’s not just been information, it’s been action. If all we did was read the book of James, study the text, and then talk about what it means, we’d fall way, way short of the high demand that Jesus is asking of us. “Faith without works is dead,” after all. So instead, we got together and looked at how we can make an impact. How can we love our neighbor in the best way possible?

First, we encouraged you to do it by making it a rhythm of your life. Day in and day out, as you work, go to school, or just live in your neighborhood, how can you show Jesus’ love in real, practical ways? And how can you make it nearly automatic – a rhythm of life?

And then, we decided on two major projects. The first was to partner with Feed My Starving Children, a Christian organization committed to providing meals to the hungry all over the world. They work with local groups to hand-pack meals that are specially formulated to help malnourished children, then they ship them to distribution partners around the world, like Convoy of Hope. To date, they’ve fed nearly 2 billion children!

We had 417 volunteers on hand as we packed boxes, prayed over them, and provide 108,864 meals for starving kids in Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. That’s what you did, Northbrook! That represents 834 total hours. There’s not a single person who could do that by themselves. But together, we were able to accomplish so much.

The next major project had a huge impact on our community. We served up lunch and handed out gift bags to local school teachers. Altogether, we were able to touch 1,700 school staff. If you know a teacher or are a teacher yourself, you know the long hours and dedication it takes. This was just one way we could say thank you to our educators for helping our community.

I hear a lot of things about our church. I hear about how friendly we are, how welcoming and fun we are, or even how big we are. But I really want to hear that we are a wise church, that we put what we believe into action. A wise church is a group of people who use their knowledge of God, the scriptures, and their applied life experience to make a difference in the world.

And as a believer, you can do that on your own anytime you like. It means you live a life that is praiseworthy because of your deep concern for people expressed in action. Living well, according to Jesus, is to give your life away so others can also live this vibrant, beautiful life of faith.

Operation: Love My Neighbor the series may be over, but it’s really just begun. I hope that you’re making a commitment to create a rhythm of life that includes giving of yourself every day so that others can know Jesus more.