There are many encouraging trends in the church today, but one of the biggest ones is often unseen. In this video, Senior Vice President of Theology and Communications for Lifeway, Trevin Wax, shares how he’s encouraged by the volunteer work and work done in communities by churches that often goes unnoticed.
The entire video is above, and the complete transcript is below.
One of the most encouraging trends I see in the local church today is actually paradoxical, because it’s something that you don’t tend to see. And that’s just the amazing amount of good work that churches do behind the scenes in their communities, the way that church members take care of each other when there are tragedies, illnesses, deaths, grief, all sorts of things, and the way that churches reach out and respond in the community.
I’m just thinking about the kinds of things that churches do when they’re collecting shoeboxes around Christmastime or when they’re donating toys or when they’re involved with Feed America, and all sorts of different things that you just don’t know that so many Christian are involved in.
A lot of it is just volunteer work, churches that have inspired their people to go out and to do ministry in the name of Jesus. I think it’s one of the most amazing things.
Now, when you see it is generally when disaster strikes and suddenly the church is there on the frontlines oftentimes before even some of the national relief agencies or the government can be involved. You tend to see it in times of tragedy, but you tend to not see how much of that is just going on all the time.
So that’s one of the things that most encourages me. Jesus said that to His disciples, “You are the salt of the earth.” The thing about salt is you don’t tend to see it all the time. Now there are times when Jesus also said, “We’re light” and our light ought to shine, our good works ought to shine before others so that people will see our good works and then give glory to God.
So there is that sense in which a lot of what the church does is seen, but what I love is the kind of untold stories and unsung heroes of Christians all around the world, all through their local churches, volunteering of their time, their money, their efforts, and doing amazing things to show and share the love of Jesus.
I think one of the most encouraging things to me is just seeing the local church in action even when most people don’t even realize what’s happening.