When Times Get Tough

Photo by Josh Eckstein on Unsplash

It seems like forever ago that we began working with a small church in one of the most diversified cities in Massachusetts. We felt a sense of progress as we moved into January 2020. Then, COVID happened and we all know how that went. The team pivoted to video sessions but progress slowed, like it did for many churches.

Then the team experienced a number of hurdles forcing us to postpone the process to a later date.

Then came the pay cut. With COVID deeply impacting their population dense city the church had to cut the pastor's salary to make ends meet. And it wasn't a small cut either.

Then came the questions.

How will the church continue to serve the homeless population through the winter like normal? How will the church continue to build a culture where many different cultures can come together as one? How will they pay their electric bill and keep the lights on? So many questions.

These questions left us with one big decision to make. If this church struggled to pay their electric bill, how would they pay our team for the time spent serving their church?

The short answer is they couldn’t. So we told them to forget about the bill. Which like the pay cut wasn’t small.

Before we catch you up on where this church is now we wanted to take a moment to share something that’s important to us. There’s a risk we sound like we’re patting ourselves on the back but we hope that’s the last thing you’ll think. In reality, we want you to know our team at Vision Partners created this ministry to serve churches just like this one.

This is why we have donors. Because like you we believe God has a purpose for each local church and we’re intent on removing the barriers that keep churches from getting the help they need. So, it’s not really about us at all as much as it’s about helping churches and leaders go where God is leading.

Back to the story.

Over two years later our friends are still working hard. We just saw the other day that their ministry to the homeless population in their city will continue this winter! Our pastor friend continues to lead his church using the values we helped them craft as a means of creating a place where many cultures can follow Jesus together. On a side note, there are 6 languages spoken in their church alone and an estimated 60+ languages spoken in the local schools.

When times get tough, it’s our plan to keep serving. It’s the generosity of others that makes that happen.