When Hitler began interfering with the churches and humiliating, torturing, and killing the Jews, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a loyal German himself, began to resist and protest. Being a minister, he refused to take part in the state churches which bowed to the Nazi’s demands. Some other ministers faced this tragic situation with quite a different logic. They argued that they might lose the opportunity to preach altogether if they followed Bonhoeffer’s example.
Some churches today are silent about the horrors that are happening around us – they are more interested in avoiding issues so as not to upset membership. Bonhoeffer countered the opinions of his colleagues with this statement: “One act of obedience is better than a hundred sermons.”
The Church of the Palms is responding with sermons that challenge us and we are acting to bring about peace and justice to our hurting world. We will not be “taking the summer off” of ministry. Our church will be faithful in our call to preach the gospel in word and deed even in the heat of summer. I contend that our amazing growth, spirit, and financial blessings have been precisely because we are trying to be real in this hurting world.
What gets a person to act? What has to be hurting for you and I to stop and respond to the pain around us? Examine that for your life and your church life. Thanks for journeying with and being the church.