So often we see in the Church today, that when members of the Body need assitance as issues or concerns occur in our lives, that we tend to only approach the Pastor or Elders of the Church, and then the leadership, with the guidance of the Lord typically respond to meet the need. We also see Helps and Service Ministries where members sign up as volunteers, and then these volunteers try and help out as many as they can when they are called upon. We believe that this places a huge burden on the leadership and the few volunteers of these Ministries. We felt the Lord was reveiling to us that serving and helping each other was something that should not just be carried out by the leadership and a few volunteers, but that it was every member's privilege and duty. We felt that the Church Body as a whole was seldom called upon or afforded the opportunity to stand by one another in prayer, service, and/or provision. We believed that the Lord was showing us that the Body could use a ministry that would help us to share our needs, our prayers, our provisions, and our gifts with one another. We were confident that if this ministry was available, that by the Spirit, members would pray for one another and come alongside each other in times of need.
Early in our walk with the Lord we were studying the book of Acts and we were amazed by the depth of love and compassion that the early Church members had for one another. The early believers described had a very intimate involvement in one anothers lives and demonstrated Christ's love in their fellowship by carrying each others burdens and laying down all that they had for one another. We asked ourselves and the Lord why it seemed like the Body had lost this intimacy and commitment to one another. However, we were confident that this was not the case. The Lord revealed to us that two things were hindering the many blessings to be had in serving and coming alongside one another.
The first issue was the pride of man. Some find it hard to let others know when they are down and we are either afraid or ashamed to let people know when we could use assistance. My wife and I say this from experience. Shortly after we had come to the Lord I had lost my job due to a fire at the plant I worked for. My wife was the only one working and we had used up all of our savings and my unemployment. We were finding it very difficult to make ends meet, yet we were too ashamed to let the leadership know of our troubles and especially to let the Body, "in", on our condition. We would always tell ourselves that surely there was someone more needy than us, and we definitly didn't want to look needy or like a failure in the eyes of the Body. Glory be to God and by His Grace we came through that trial, but, had we been willing to lay aside our pride, our burdens would have been much easier to bear. We began to ask ourselves how many other members of the body would do the same thing when they encountered difficulties in their lives.
The second thing that we felt that was hindering the body from helping one another was simple.The Body simply would not respond because it was not aware of the need. We were confident that if believers knew of the needs of their fellow Brothers and Sisters, that they, by the Spirit, would respond. We also believed that through this response to one another's needs, that friendships and deeper fellowship would emerge. The Lord was telling us that through the body's prayers, selfless service, and provision for one another, that the walls that seperated each of us would come down and the body as a whole would be blessed and edified. We were confident that the love of Christ would be clearly visible in the Body that served and loved one another.
The vision the Lord gave us was that One Heart would be a way to allow for members of the body to reach out to the rest of the Body with various needs or requests, so that the Body would have the opportunity to pray for, to serve, and/or provide for those needs. Members simply inform One Heart, anonymously if need be, of their need or request or of someone that they know that could use some assistance, and then One Heart Ministries, through ether email, telephone, Church announcements, or by word of mouth, would inform the Body so that it is afforded the opportunity to prayerfully respond. One Heart Ministires would also help to organize and facilitate the response of the body to fulfill the request.
We have been blessed to be a part of this Ministry and we are so greatful and humbled by the faithfulness we have seen from the Lord, through His people, for His Church and the surrounding community. We have seen love and edification abound in our fellowship and our prayer is that it will continue to abound even more and more as we continue to come alongside one another and share the love bestowed to us from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
May God Bless us all, Lori and Jeremy
"THERE WERE NONE NEEDY AMONG THEM".
May God bless you for having a great tolerance for reading this website in it's entirety! My name is Matt - that's me in the picture playing my guitar. I'm the one to blame if there's something majorly wrong with this webpage. Please email [email protected] if you find something on this web page that needs to be fixed.
