Are churches ready to help the needy?

This morning over breakfast I was reading "I", the stripped down version of the British newspaper "The Independent". Two lines jumped out at me:

- "More than one in seven retail stores across the UK are empty and in some small towns the number of boarded-up shops is nearly as high as two in five."

- "The number of people contacting a debt advice charity for help online doubled during January as growing numbers of people struggled to keep up with their borrowings."

People are increasingly in need. Local authorities are planning to lay off up to 20% of their staff. Companies are downsizing as the economy struggles. 

And for once the government isn't offering to step in and fix it all. In fact in the UK they are calling for charities like churches to step forward and help! But are we, as Christians, ready to help? 

I have a friend who isn't working so that she can have the time to set up a food bank for the town she lives in. She wants to involve churches, but also local food stores, social services, schools, etc. She is a Christian and she wants to be ready to help by the time it gets worse.

Will you be ready? What will you do?

Image: Mantas Ruzveltas / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A snapshot of Spain

I am just back from Spain and thought I would share a glimpse of what it is like there with you. Enjoy!

It's really not about buildings

I love churches. I love the windows, the light, the shadows, the pointy bits, the carvings... All the architectural cool details. And when I visit anywhere I try and get into them and take a few pictures. I did that a few weeks ago in Linz, Austria. That is where this picture is from.

From my travels, cities and towns across Europe are FULL of cool church buildings.



What they are NOT full of is people. Certainly not people that know Jesus. Country after country that I go to has an evangelical population of under 3%.

But I will admit -- it is a strange world when it is hard to get a photo of a European skyline that doesn't have a church spire in it and yet my job is to see more churches planted in Europe...