Matthew Costner

I admit that I haven’t been good at blogging lately. That’s no secret to anyone seeing that the last time I blogged was over a month ago. However, a lot has been happening.

For one, God’s church that I pastor, East Nashville Community Church, has moved into a new building. We are now at the Kirkpatrick Recreation Center! This is a complete answer to prayer! It is what we were hoping and dreaming of doing!

And yet as wonderful of a time as this has been in the life of ENCC, there has been sadness. Kirkpatrick sits in the middle of a poverty stricken area.  In a one-mile radius of the building 40% of the people live in poverty. I lived down the street from this area for a time with a few ole friends, but I never really got engulfed into the community until now. Recently, I have been reading, studying, and experiencing as much about the situation of poverty as I can. Here are some things I’ve noted.

• Poverty is relative. If everybody around you is broke, and you’re broke, then not having things is not as big of a deal.
• Poverty affects all people groups and is in every country. I have to admit that it bothers me that some churches and people seem to care more for those in poverty in other countries than those in their community. It also bothers me that some people assume that when poverty is mentioned that it’s about a specific group of people. FYI – there are actually more Caucasians living in poverty in the US than any other race. (Soapbox: Let’s stop the stereotypes.)
• We cannot blame the people in poverty for being in poverty. Too many factors create it – factories close, racism, poor economy, sickness, etc. Interesting fact: many of those in poverty are much better off financially by taking government assistance in their living than working an hourly paid full-time job (even while earning minimum wage). Most places that pay per hour don’t offer subsidized insurances, etc. and insurance is expensive! For instance, when Alyson lost her job as a teacher and we had to think about paying for our insurance as a family, the monthly coverage would have taken two weeks of my current monthly paycheck. Thank God she got rehired!

The bottom line is that we as a community and a society have to do better about taking care of those around us. We don’t have the stuff we have because we are great at whatever we do. We have what we have because God has blessed us with certain abilities, families, etc. Let’s not forget that we are where we are because of God. Now…

Let’s take care of ALL His children.