More Missouri Ice Storm Thoughts

There is a pastor in town who proclaims things like, it is more important to help people than it is to witness to them. He's a works righteousness preacher who downplays the need for salvation and sometimes seems to be saying people do not need to be saved. His big thing is helping others and being loving people. I have no problem with being a loving person who helps others, but he's missing something when he neglects teaching about the need for salvation.

My point is, I was watching this church and this pastor to see what they would do during this crisis. Would they open their church for a shelter? What else would they do? Does he walk the talk or is it all just talk? The first few days, when I passed by the church, I saw no sign of outreach. My guess was they were out of power, just like everyone around them. Today's newspaper had an article written by this pastor about how his church opened a shelter as soon as their electricity came back on a few days ago. They had pictures and he described what they were doing. From all appearances, his words did match his actions this week.

Several churches with power opened their doors as shelters from the beginning and volunteers, mostly their own people, took care of those who were staying there. Restaurants donated food to some and others had meals cooked by their members at the church. The majority of churches had no power for at least a while. One guy was complaining to me on day 4 asking where the churches were. Mainly they were busy dealing with the same stuff everybody else was. I guess he thought Christians were tougher than others or that maybe God spared them so they didn't have to go without power. Throughout the week I heard of teams from various churches offering to help people, removed tree branches, cook meals for shelters, etc. The Christians who were able were busy.

The university, MSU, also had a shelter and took care of people. Their shelter was for people with health problems such as those on oxygen or other devices that require regular treatment daily and, often, power. It was staffed by volunteers which included university leadership. There are some good people in leadership at the university. Any time there is a crisis, they are among the first to step forward to help. After hurricane Katrina and Rita, for example, they offered free tuition for displaced students and free temporary housing for displaced victims. I think they helped them with their other needs as well such as food and practical stuff. There were even teams from the university that went to help with clean up (there still are). It's a great example for the students on how to make the world a little bit better place. The more who take responsibility to help, the better off everyone will be.

Some churches did not help. They claim their insurance will not allow it. What they do not tell anybody is that they had a choice of policies. They chose a cheaper policy that restricted their activities over one that would allow for more freedom in ministry. When they chose that policy, they chose not to do ministry just as a child who deliberately leaves their book at school might claim they can't do their homework because they don't have their book. Insurance is a tool they choose. To blame it for lack of ministry is dishonest and dishonesty has no place among Christians.

Still, the goobers aside, it is wonderful that so many people helped one another. Many homes with power were full of people who did not have power. There was a lot of togetherness.