Written by David Grigsby, Membership Pastor - Church of Champions, on Monday, 05 May 2008

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In Luke 10, we find Jesus embroiled in another encounter with the educated theocracy of the day. A young man rises with a challenging question, “What is the key to the door of heaven?”  What followed was a dissertation on the two great commandments.  After Jesus' rebuttal, this young law student, in an apparent attempt to justify himself, asked another provocative question, “Who is my neighbor?”

This question was not posed to Jesus' to discover “who” we are to love, but he was asking about the “limit” to which we are to love!  He was asking, "How far do I have to love and to what limit."  Jesus uses this opportunity to explain the chasm between their head knowledge and their heart knowledge. The chasm was great. There was a great divide between what they professed with their lips and what they were doing with hands and feet.  You see, love is like the sun, which does not ask where it can shine, it shines on all things, because of its nature. The nature of love is without limit, without boundary, without color, without religious delineation and without condition.

There is now a population of more than 6.6 billion people on earth.  Our planet is overwhelmed with need, but Jesus, our Mighty Savior, has created a change-agent and it's called the Church!  When He left this earth, He left humanity in the care of His Church!

The Church is challenged by Jesus and we must make sure that we respond correctly.  We cannot fail to respond to the needs of our world.  Too often, the Church is guilty of becoming consumed with its  doctrine (head knowledge) and failing to function with its heart (knowledge).   However, Jesus instructs us to understand the recipe for inheriting “the kingdom.” (Matthew 25:34-36) “For I was hungry and you gave me meat: I was thirsty and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger and you took me in. Naked and you clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came to me.”

Its interesting to see that these “righteous” Judaizers respond and say “Lord when saw we thee?” interpreted “We never saw you…” Jesus says that’s right, “because you never opened your eyes to the needs around you!”

I believe the answer to the original question, “Who is my neighbor?” is this –

• the homeless man on the street trying to sell newspapers,
• the child in your city that has lost his un-wed mother to drugs,
• the mother in Rwanda who simply needs clean water,
• the newborn in Liberia who has been thrown in the village dump, because he has AIDS and his family can no longer take care of him. 

They are all in need of the Church being the real solution!

The Church of Champions has taken the challenge to “Be the Solution.”  We are reluctant to even share our story, because we know that we are simply doing what God called His Church to do, "Be The Solution."

In Houston, Texas the average age of a homeless person is 9 years old!  That's right, 9 years old!  We have partnered with a tremendous organization called the SEARCH Project.  Our generous congregants have donated over 250 boxes of clothes to homeless men, women and children, just in the last few days.  We have also been blessed to help financially as well as send great volunteers to serve.  In fact, this week several of our small groups are coming together to make sack lunches that will be distributed on the streets of Houston  through Mobile Outreach units.  Also, this summer we will be participating in a bottled-water drive where bottled water will be distributed during the hottest summer months.

The Church of Champions is also privileged to partner with Casa de Esperanza, a local organization that takes in 0 to 6 year old infants. Many of these children have been abandoned by their parents and/or orphaned.  Some of these children suffer from HIV or AIDS. Again, over the past few weeks, our incredible church body donated thousands of dollars worth of diapers, baby wipes and formula. Also, our incredible volunteers have "Become The Solution" by donating their time to rock and play with these babies, who are starving for love.  These children just need someone to love them!

As the school year ends and summer begins, many children in our city (and yours) will go hungry over the summer.  While these children attend school, they are provided breakfast and/or lunch.  However, at home during the summer, many of them will not have access to lunches.  The Church of Champions is a covenant congregation with Northwest Assistance Ministries which is located in Northwest Harris County.  This group provides a wide range of assistance to those in need.  We are happy to partner with them for their “Survival Over Summer” Food Drive, which will be collecting food items for kids. These food items will be distributed to families who are in need during this summer break.  

We are not only focused on our own city, we also share in the responsibility of ministering to our world.  It is a documented fact that over 80% of all sicknesses in developing nations are due to water-born diseases.  In 2008, we joined in the mission of providing water wells by partnering with the Rwanda Clean Water project.  Every new well provides fresh water to villagers who have never had fresh water.  In fact, many of them walk as far as 10 miles per day just to get 5 gallons of water.  You can imagine, by the time they return to their homes and villages, the water is not pure.  Most of us would not even walk through it, much less attempt to drink it.  The water they are able to fetch is, of course, used for everything in the house hold, including cleaning, cooking and drinking. It costs $3000 to build one well.  The Church of Champions has set a goal of providing 10 wells this year.  Again, due to the incredible generosity and sacrifice of our church we are able to achieve such goals. 

Every 14 seconds a child loses a parent to AIDS somewhere in the world.  The Church has been very slow to respond to this AIDS pandemic.  There are millions and millions of lives that have been devastated by AIDS.  In a joint venture with World Vision, the Church of Champions is building AIDS Care Giver Kits that will be shipped to Africa, Asia and South America. These kits contain enough supplies for about 90 days of care to workers that are local in villages who are caring for patients dying from AIDS.  The costs of these kits is approximately $28.00.  For such a small sacrifice, we are totally changing life for thousands of people around the world. In our church, several ministries and small groups have taken up challenge to finance and build these kits.

We admit that the needs can be overwhelming, but if all we focus on is the size of the problem, we will never focus on the solution. God has called the Church to “Be the Solution”!  In the Scriptural account of the “Good Samaritan” there is found there a type of the Church, and it is the inn to where Samaritan took the wounded traveler. Friends, God is simply saying, “Whatever it takes for you to heal them and fix them, do it and when I come back, I will repay!"

If you would like more information about involving your church in these projects, contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

Last update: Wednesday, 07 May 2008

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