“Going Where the People Are”

Michelle, our oldest daughter, 24, just entered Police Academy training in Charlotte, NC. She has been calling us daily giving us updates about the physical training she’s enduring and the classes she is taking. By this summer, she will be trained in car safety, the care and use of firearms, basic martial arts, and how to engage people in difficult and traumatic situations. No matter what happens, she told me she’s excited about learning these new skills and meeting some great people in her 80 member class.

During one of Michelle’s orientation classes this week, her instructor told a story of how he was at ground zero in New York immediately following the planes crashing into the Twin Towers on 9/11. As he walked through the rubble, he saw a tent with a cross on it. Inside the tent were two military chaplains sitting at a table. The teacher asked them, “So, how are people coping with this crisis?” The chaplains answered, “We don’t know, no one has stopped in.”

The instructor said his immediate reaction was: “You’re a few feet from a horrible tragedy and you’re waiting for people to come to you? You should go out and look for them.” It’s very possible that these chaplains were instructed to man the chaplain’s tent while other chaplains went out to the front lines but the teacher’s point was that people like chaplains and police officers and pastors should not just sit back and wait for hurting people to come to them, their job is go out and be present in the streets and neighborhoods looking for people who are hurting and in crisis.

Our example of this “engagement” attitude is Jesus. Jesus didn’t set up a Counseling Booth in the temple with a sign above it: “Counseling: 5 cents.” Jesus did not wait for the blind and the lame, the hungry and the demon possessed to come to him, he went out to them. He even tells a story in Matthew 18 about a man who had 100 sheep and one of them wandered away and got lost. In Jesus’ story, he asks the question, “…Would the shepherd not leave the 99 on the hills and go and look for the one that wandered off?” Jesus didn’t wait in the temple for the hurting to come to him, he went out where the people were and wherever he went he brought healing and hope.

Someone has well said: “The emphasis of religion is man looking for God whereas the power of the Christian faith comes from the truth that God is looking for you and me.” “For God so loved the world, that he gave us his only Son…” Jesus was called “Emmanuel”: “God with us.”

My prayer for Emmanuel in 2010 is that we will find creative ways to go out and engage hurting people, sharing in their hurts and struggles, so that we can also share the good news about Jesus that can set them free.


Every Sunday we ask people to put a star in the Red Attendance book if they have invited someone to church or shared their faith with someone. Why not plan now to invite someone to church in February as we begin a powerful series called, “Life’s Healing Choices.” The series will study the Beattitudes of Jesus (Matthew 5) with a focus on how we can deal with and find healing for our hurts, hang-up and bad habits.

We will learn together how to heal from painful relationships, work through forgiveness, understand and be able to release past hurts, build a healthy foundation for lasting change, and create goals that foster positive habits for the future. Together we will find real answers, real hope and a real future, one healing choice at a time.

A four week "Healing Choices" Lifegroup will begin Sunday, February 21, at 9:40 a.m., in the church parlor. We will take some time to look at the Healing Choices lessons, Scriptures and discussion points. Hope you'll consider joining us.

Two theme verses for this study are:

Joshua 1:9, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go;" and…

2 Corinthians 5: 17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

Serving with you, Pastor Kurt Busiek

Emmanuel is a diverse, family church of around 300 that includes a variety of ages and backgrounds, gifts and interests. We worship in a blended style that includes both sacred hymns and contemporary choruses. Our services are both traditional and informal.