Listen.

God has led us thusly, "Dare to be the one that listens when no one else will."

The first purpose of our mission is to listen.  We aim to make ourselves available to listen to the lost and the needy, to the hurt and the broken.  Our listening will be guided by questions and open to criticized and possibly unanswered response.  This is that we may hear of our (the church's) unfortunate contribution to the hurt of the hurting.  It is that we may begin to break down the expectation of close-minded preference and the walls of prevention to receptiveness of truth in both the lives of the church and in the lives of those sharing.  Our listening is also that we may hear how to serve and share with them.

By listening, will we be greeted with the ramblings of misunderstanding and mis-perception, with stubbornness and hardened hearts?  Yes.  Of course we shall.  But will we also be used to touch the hearts of the least of them with sincerity and love leading to soul salvation and enduring encouragement grounded in Christ?  I believe, absolutely.

For, in the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, taken from his writing Life Together, "Just as love for God begins with listening to God's Word, the beginning of love for other Christians is learning to listen to them."  The death of the spiritual life begins when talking takes over listening, when the Christian ceases to truly listen, "and in the end, there is nothing left but empty spiritual chatter and clerical condescension which chokes on pious words.  ... those who think their time is too precious to spend listening will never really have time for God and others, but only for themselves and for their own words and plans."

So we set out to listen, and while our listening is that we may hear, it is not just that we may hear.  Our listening is that we may hear and purposefully respond with the word and action that is the Gospel of Christ... that is the expansion of God's Heavenly Kingdom.

So, our listening has three main purposes.  First, we listen that we may participate in the breaking down of close-mindedness and fearful, resentful wall.  Second, we listen that we may hear how to serve.  Thirdly, in congruence to the second purpose and surely the most directly important, we listen that we may hear when and how to share the Gospel of Christ.  As began in the last sentence of the first paragraph above, our listening is that we may hear how to serve and share with them.