What can your church fix?

There are many people in our communities who started out having dreams - but life has crushed them and they’ve had to settle for plan B. As a consequence, some have very low self esteem; others succumb to depression.

Wouldn’t it be great if the church was known not just as a place of last resort? What if, instead of it being the place you go when you’re desperate and have run out of options, it was known as a first port of call? The place you go if you want your dreams to become reality, if you want to rise above your circumstance and realise your true potential …

Remember “Jim’ll Fix It”? People wrote in to Jimmy Saville, sharing their dreams, and he made some of them come true. At the end of every show, those who had achieved things like jumping out of a plane or visiting the Grand Canyon proudly accepted their ‘Jim Fixed For Me’ medallions.

We don’t have to coin medallions saying ‘Jesus fixed it for me’. But we can build such relationships with those around us that they’re willing to share their dreams, and we can see what we can do to support them. Single parents, divorcees, those on low incomes, those lacking formal education, and so on.

One church did just that. A mother they had built a relationship with through their parent & toddler group expressed a wish to be a teaching assistant. She had no qualifications, though she obviously loved children and interacted with them well.

The church decided to support her on the journey towards her dream.

They invited her to be a helper and then a leader in the parent & toddler group, and she blossomed. Then they invited her to become a member of staff at the nursery they ran, and get some training. The church paid half the costs and she paid half - it was all she could afford.

Friends in the church looked after her children as she did the part-time college course. Over the next two years she gained the first qualifications she ever had.

She approached the church leader and asked if he would be willing to act as a referee for a teaching assistant post at a local school; he was very pleased to do so. Teachers from another school, who were part of the congregation, ran her through some mock interviews. She didn’t think she had any chance of getting the job, but she did.

“It was worth the effort and the finance just to see the look on her face when she got the news,” the church leader said.

Has she come to faith? No, not yet. Would she wear the t-shirt “Church fixed it for me!” You bet she would!

How many people are there around your church that with a little support and encouragement could make the same journey towards their full potential?

Last Updated 13 December 2010