Often people just need some...
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Often people just need some sense of awareness that with faith comes authority as well as a charge. It seems that many Christians can articulate the charge but only a few recognize that Jesus gives them authority, too. So instead of heading out with power to change the world, the majority of Christians sit home and feel guilty for not making the difference that they sense God hopes they will.
When Dave Nelson came to Bethel Lutheran Church in Chicago in the mid-1960s, he found a congregation that was struggling in the midst of a rapidly changing world. A neighborhood that had been almost all white in 1960 had become almost all black by 1965. Weekly worship attendance was under 50. Few, including the bishop, believed that Bethel could survive.
But Pastor Nelson and his sister Mary saw incredible work to be done and the power to do it. Taking one risk after another, they started making a real difference in their neighborhood. Eventually Bethel New Life Corporation was formed and housing, human services, a school and a variety of community ministries flourished. Thousands of lives were touched each week and continue to be touched to this day. Oddly, nothing had changed about Bethel when this all started. They just recognized the power and the authority that God had given them when Christ had charged them with changing their world.
When Dave Nelson came to Bethel Lutheran Church in Chicago in the mid-1960s, he found a congregation that was struggling in the midst of a rapidly changing world. A neighborhood that had been almost all white in 1960 had become almost all black by 1965. Weekly worship attendance was under 50. Few, including the bishop, believed that Bethel could survive.
But Pastor Nelson and his sister Mary saw incredible work to be done and the power to do it. Taking one risk after another, they started making a real difference in their neighborhood. Eventually Bethel New Life Corporation was formed and housing, human services, a school and a variety of community ministries flourished. Thousands of lives were touched each week and continue to be touched to this day. Oddly, nothing had changed about Bethel when this all started. They just recognized the power and the authority that God had given them when Christ had charged them with changing their world.
