Restoration

I find this word on my mind often when I think about outreach. To me, it represents everything good that outreach stands for: restore a soul that is lost with the Creator, restore a healthy and stable environment for children and families, restore hope for those who have none, restore community with those who are isolated and lonely, restore lives through discipleship and mentoring. In outreach, restoration means to see the instrinsic value that goes beyond the ravages of sin or circumstances - it seeks to come along side, to teach, and to partner, but does not simply carry.

It guards against the kind of outreach I want to avoid - the transactional, one way kind. The kind that assumes the only thing I can do for someone else is give them something. At first glance this seems charitable and caring, but not far below the surface it exposes the truth: I devalue someone (made in the image of God) by assuming they have nothing they can contribute. If I assume someone is only capable of receiving, I have robbed them of a God-given blessing - the ability to give.

Granted this is a messier way of doing outreach. It means you may have to challenge someone to do something they may think you should do for them. It means getting to know someone well enough to understand the heart of their need, not just the symptom of it. It means operating under true humility as we learn to see the image of God in people who may look, act and believe very differently than us. And above all it means speaking the truth in love. Compassion and grace are essential, but will only bring real restoration when coupled with the saving truth that God has provided a way back into the life He created us for.