Contributed by Laura Walls in Ideas for your Ministry This past May, I had the chance to travel to my hometown of Hastings, MN to serve Christ's Family Church with their Matthew 25 Experience. It wasn't my home church, but I'd grown to truly love this church's heart for God and felt as though they were an extension of my own church family. After two years of meetings and emails, the Lord brought everything together and Christ's Family Church hosted the very first Matthew 25 Experience in the nation! The way that God laid the groundwork for all involved was breathtaking and the materials provided by World Vision for this experience were perfect! The Matthew 25 Experience is so loving and compassionate to the church hosting it and I was proud to share it with them! Following are five reasons why I think the Matthew 25 Experience is ideal for YOUR church, as well! I couldn't see her face but my mom's voice carried a smile through the phone, "Do you have a minute? There's just something I have to share with you!"
She went on to read a letter from her new sponsored child, Vanessa, in Rwanda. She laughed in delight at how Vanessa called this letter "a golden opportunity" to thank my mom for choosing her. As I listened to the letter, I smiled and was reminded of the moment when Vanessa's picture folder lay on a table at Christ's Family Church in Minnesota following their Matthew 25 Weekend Experience. It had been a powerful weekend, one that impacted many hearts in a lasting way! Pastors Joe Hannah and Paris Pasch along with the missions team had planned this event for many weeks with great anticipation. But the end result was greater than anyone expected! Ultimately their loving preparations along with World Vision's Matthew 25 resources, were used by the Holy Spirit to produce an exciting weekend that enabled the congregation to join together in following Christ's call to care for the "least of these!" But what Christ's Family Church experienced isn't limited to them. In fact, the Matthew 25 Experience would work well for ANY church and here are five reasons why! 1) It makes love its aim. (1 Corinthians 14:1) The Matthew 25 Experience doesn't simply inspire us to show love to the poor, rather this experience is about loving the church, as well. Its goal is to see the church come closer to God through this event. Its focus is love, pure and simple, and that comes across in every aspect of this resource - from the beautiful, eight minute video that shares the many ways a family in the United States seeks to live out their faith; to the interactive story cards that invite people to step outside their normal lives and into the shoes of a child on the other side of the world - every moment is designed to show love to those listening. 2) It gently communicates something that we all long for - deeper meaning and connection. In our hurried lives here in the United States, we often lack real connectedness with God and others. We quickly move from distraction to distraction, missing out on the real meaning and purpose that Christ longs for us to enjoy. The Matthew 25 Experience is a gentle invitation to remember that in loving the thirsty, the hungry, and the stranger, we are loving Christ. And in doing that, we experience joy as the Holy Spirit moves in our hearts to make us fruitful. 3) It moves us from knowledge of God to action through Him. There is a difference between knowing a lot information about God and living a life that is compelled by a desire to live out that faith, rooted in Christ's love. I say this because I have lived it. I attended nearly 12 years of Christian school, and was part of countless Bible studies and Sunday School classes. But eight years ago, I realized that I had very nearly missed the whole point. You see, I knew a lot about God but I was still living as though the purpose of my life was about me. At that time, after going through many years of struggling with depression, I realized that the purpose of my life wasn't about me at all. I realized that the purpose of my life was to bring glory to God and to align myself with His purpose and through that rotation of focus, God brought about the joy and fulfillment that I'd been longing for. The Matthew 25 Experience can be used by God to revitalize the life of your church in a similar way. It gives us opportunity to live out our faith in a tangible way aligning our hearts with His global purpose. It moves us from knowledge of God to action through Him, and as we do so, God uses it to breathe into us His life and hope! 4) It gives us a way to live out Matthew 25 in our own lives. Reading Matthew 25, we see that acting to meet the needs of the thirsty, the hungry, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the prisoner matters to God. In fact, it matters so much that His followers will be divided into two groups based on whether or not they did those things. We are told that the King will say, "in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me." We may be an ocean removed from people who lack access to clean water. We may not personally know the children who are dying from the food crisis in East Africa or those who are sick and without access to medicine. We may not know of a way to help the displaced refugee who is a stranger or those who are detained in a refugee camp but through this opportunity, we can be part of changing their lives in a real way. By hosting a Matthew 25 Sunday, we are giving an opportunity to love Christ by loving "the least of these." 5) It awakens our spirit, provoking a desire for something more. I have served as a volunteer child ambassador for seven years, sharing about child sponsorship through World Vision with many, many churches. And through the years, I've been surprised by how often times I've had people come to sponsor a child with their eyes full of tears. I've heard many of them say, "I just don't know why I'm crying!" Not long ago, I heard an explanation for this reaction that really rings true to me. Tim Dearborn, Director of Faith and Development at World Vision International described it in terms of hunger. He wrote, "In cases of severe malnutrition, the aid worker seeks to provoke hunger in the starving child. Mercifully, after weeks without food, a child's digestive system shuts down, gastric juices cease to flow and hunger pangs disappear. Aid workers dip their fingers in sugar water and gently place them in the child's mouth, rubbing the child's chapped lips. If a child starts crying, the aid worker knows he or she has probably won the battle against death, for crying means the appetite has been reawakened." I truly believe that the cries of a child as their stomach awakens to their deep hunger corresponds in a spiritual way to the tears of so many new child sponsors I've met. They cry because their spirit is awakening to the deep hunger within them to experience God. And in welcoming a little child, they are welcoming him. I believe that all believers want to have an active faith that lives out Matthew 25. I think we long to experience something of significance, to live lives of meaning and purpose, and to see the face of our Savior but we don't always know how to take those steps to live out a more active faith. The Matthew 25 Experience can be used by God in our churches to give us that opportunity and to awaken us spiritually to cry out for more of him! As child ambassadors, we have the privilege of stewarding these moments of transformation. We have the honor of introducing our friends, families, and churches to deepen their walks with God through obedience and faithfulness to his leading. Through this ministry, we serve the Lord not only by helping the poor and oppressed but also by inviting our family in Christ, the church, to experience the blessing of a glimpse of the face of God as they receive a child in the name of Jesus (Mt 18:5). Are you interested in hosting a Matthew 25 Experience at your church? If so, you can find out more information here! How about the Matthew 25 Challenge? The Matthew 25 Challenge is a week-long, message-based experience rooted in God's word. It includes daily sacrificial challenges, powerful stories, and prayer points. It's a glimpse into the lives of those whom Jesus calls, "the least of these," and a chance for us to walk with the children and families we serve in this ministry. It's also an opportunity for us to preview this resource so we can more effectively reach out to individuals and churches in our area! Are you in? Text M25CA to 44888 to take on the Matthew 25 Challenge with the CA team on August 14-19! (But let's keep this preview between our Child Ambassador team and immediate family members for now! We'll have an experience you can share coming soon!)
Rob Lebby
8/11/2017 07:36:27 am
A beautiful article, Laura. I'm in, signed up, and ready!
Cheryl Tedder
8/14/2017 09:15:32 am
Laura, thank you for these beautiful words! What a great explanation to use when recruiting churches.
Jim Naugle
9/19/2018 03:45:24 am
I'm preparing for conference and was led to this page. Don't know how I missed it! I will be sharing this with my team! It's wonderful! 8/1/2022 11:45:32 pm
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