Fasting To End Hunger In Spokane

"Is this not the fast which I choose, To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To undo the bands of the yoke, And to let the oppressed go free, And break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, And bring the homeless poor into the house; When you see the naked, to cover him . . .". (Isaiah 58:6-7)

 

This week's article is a combination of "old and new". The "old" part is that this newsletter needs to be read and understood in the light of other things I have written in this forum. For example, if you haven't read the revised edition of our House Church Manifesto  then you might want to do so, because what follows is an integral part of that. Also, what I am about to share is directly related to my article "House Church, Good Deeds And 'The Least of These'" which I first published in my e-letter for October 19, 2006 and which you can find in our newsletter archives on the. All of this is prelude to what I want to briefly share with you regarding Fasting To End Hunger In Spokane.

 

As some of you are already aware, one of my incarnations is that I serve as the Executive Director of Feed Spokane, a food rescue agency. We rescue perishable prepared food from local area restaurants & caterers and place it with over 15 meal sites which feed the hungry in our community. We currently work with 22 local area restaurants and move about 1,000 pounds of food per week. I have been part of Feed Spokane since its inception (almost 3 years ago) and now have the privilege of serving as its Executive Director. As part of this journey the Holy Spirit burned Matthew 25:31-46 into my heart, telling me in no uncertain terms that He wants to take His Kingdom "back to the streets" and that He wants His Church to take the initiative to reach out to "the least of these". For the better part of a year (actually, since I first wrote the newsletter on "good deeds") I have been "chewing" on an idea that has now come to fruition. Question: How can we get the attention of a city, challenge it to "do the right thing" and (as Christians) pursue the Kingdom of God and His righteousness? Answer: By discovering one of its "raw nerves" and touching it with "Kingdom values". And one of the "raw nerves" of our city is the twin issue of hunger and homelessness. My "idea" (which I believe is God's heart) is to touch the raw nerve of hunger in our community, to bring it into heightened public awareness and sensitivity, and to challenge both Christians and non-Christians to "do the right thing". How to do this? By engaging in a public 40-day fast: "Fasting To End Hunger In Spokane".

 

I am always amazed at how God puts things together, even on "short notice". Some things simply have God's finger prints all over it. When I shared my plans with my Feed Spokane fellow board members there was immediate unanimity. Last week I sent out the first Press Release regarding the "Fasting To End Hunger" campaign. I immediately received a phone call from a religion writer for the local newspaper. She and I had developed a professional relationship over the years and collaborated on several stories. She was preparing an article on fasting for Lent and wanted to talk with me, but had lost my phone number. We reconnected and did a long interview. The photographer who "got assigned" to the story is a 19 year veteran with the paper . . . and grew up in the Philippines as the son of Assembly of God missionaries. A teaser for the story appeared in Monday's paper and the article ran in Tuesday's edition. She also wants to do a follow up story on Feed Spokane after Lent. On Wednesday (Ash Wednesday) we will conduct a live Press Conference to publicly launch the 40 Days of "Fasting To End Hunger". Local area restaurants (thanks, Arby's!) are stepping up to be drop off locations for a used cell phone fund raising drive ("Hang Up On Hunger"), and several local area radio stations have agreed to run an amazing number of PSA ads to help raise awareness. My only question now is: "Where are the churches?"

 

When I read the passage from Isaiah quoted above I am struck by the reality that many Christians fast for the wrong reasons. We fast in order to "get something" from God. We use fasting  as a subtle form of spiritual blackmail in which we declare, "Give me what I want, or I'll starve myself to death". Another "spiritualized" form of this is the "fasting for spiritual power" version which says (in not so many words), "I fasted for (fill in the blank) days, so God owes me an enduement of spiritual power & anointing". The most popular version is fasting for "revival". I saw one about a year ago that nearly made me weep. A major prophetic church in Texas had embarked on a 40 day fast for revival, and they were inviting everyone to join them for a celebration service. Now that they had fasted, it was time to proclaim the beginning of revival. This is the "we fasted for revival, God owes us a revival, so let's proclaim a revival" formula which is very popular today. Does it work? No, but why let that stop a good program!  All of these "fasting manifestations" have one thing in common: they treat fasting as a way of getting something from God. In other words, we are often pursuing OUR agenda, rather than God's.

 

It took me twelve years to figure this out (yep, I know, I'm slow on the up-take, but I do eventually get there). In mid-1995 God opened in my own life a ministry of fasting and prayer. For the next 12 years He had me embark on two 40 day fasts every year (plus, fasting from eating breakfast nearly every day except weekends). His call was very specific. I was to fast and pray for spiritual outpouring and revival. Then, in early 2007 He "released" me from that call and lifted that mantle from me. For nearly a year now I have been literally unable to fast (I would try and couldn't last a day! Frustrating!). But during that 12 year period I learned many valuable spiritual insights (which I will spare you from sharing), but none was more valuable than this: In it's essence, fasting is an act of genuine personal repentance and sacrificial worship in which we lay ourselves at the feet of God for His Kingdom purposes, whatever they may be. In the timeless words of the great English poet, George Herbert, "Only, since God doth often make Of lowly matter, for high uses meet, I throw me at His feet; There will I lie until my Maker seek For some mean stuff whereon to show His skill; Then is my time." Genuine fasting is our preparation for that time.

Something has once again changed. To be honest, I feel like a 12-year veteran NFL quarterback who, after a year of retirement and no training, has suddenly been called up to quarterback the Super Bowl. It's going to be a challenge, to say the least. And I would appreciate your prayers. My thanks to Mark Brehm, a house church friend from Dallas, Oregon who has agreed to fast two meals a day along with me during this time. Perhaps others of you might feel called to do something similar. God is up to something, and I would appreciate your prayers.

 

Finally, by now you should have asked the OBVIOUS  question (at least it's the question I've been asking the Lord). What's all this got to do with planting house churches? Good question, my young padawan learner. Allow me to offer a couple of simple answers. First, I don't really know. But that's not my problem. In Matthew 16:18 Jesus promised that He would build His church, and "unless the Lord builds the house (church) they labor in vain who build it" (Psalm 127:1). My responsibility isn't to build. My responsibility is to obey and let Him do the building. How He does it is up to Him. That's why He's God and I'm not! Second, New Testament Christianity isn't about planting or building structures. It's about living out biblical values wherever we happen to be, whether at home or in the public square, values such as those embodied in Mathew 25:31-46.  Perhaps God in His infinite wisdom knows that the key to reaching a city is for His people to return to the simple values embodied in Matthew 25:31-46, to repent as a Church for having failed to do so in the past, and to step out in obedience and faith.