You know how sometimes you hear something that really makes you stop and think?
Here is something that Pastor Steve Herring from Tarboro, North Carolina, recently shared. He said that the church is called to do more than just believe. He said it’s about doing. It’s about making a switch to action. It’s about pragmatic, practical problem solving that starts with us, here and now.
Think about it. Well, let’s not just think about it, let’s talk about it.
What he says is that we need to step up and accept responsibility as active Peacemakers. We’ve been hearing about peacemakers over the past few weeks; and how through our gifts to the Peace & Global Witness Offering, we join with them to make a difference. We join with those like Maina Talia in Tuvalu in the South Pacific, who is helping those whose lives have been dramatically uprooted by the consequences of catastrophic climate change.
We join with the Rev. Helivao Poget, who rescues young women who have become trapped in human trafficking in Madagascar.
We join with Pastor Steve as he starts hard conversations and does the work of battling structural racism in North Carolina, in the heart of the area that is home to the oldest town founded by free African Americans in the United States.
Devastation from climate change. Human trafficking. Structural and environmental racism. These are issues we’ve heard about. Issues we know hurt people around the world, including places not so far from here. But this we also know … God’s presence empowers us to bring peace to all around us.
“Even though we walk through the uncertainty of life, we fear no evil; for we proclaim, you are with us.”
Through our gifts to the Peace & Global Witness Offering, congregations participate in this larger work that they would not be able to do on their own. A gift to this Offering enables the church to promote the Peace of Christ by addressing systems of conflict and injustice across the world, including those arising from climate change, systematic and structural racism and human trafficking. But because this is a shared Offering, we can help those whose challenges are very present to us. Twenty-five percent of the Offering receipts will stay with congregations to pursue our their peacemaking and reconciliation ministries, and an additional 25% stays with their mid council for similar work at the regional level.
Peace is active, not passive. Peace is doing, not waiting. It’s about making a switch to action. Please give generously to the Peace & Global Witness Offering; for when we all do a little, it adds up to a lot.
Let us pray ~
Help us, O God, to be more than hearers of peace. Help us to become advocates and agents of your Shalom in the world today. Through Christ, the Peacemaker, we pray. Amen.