Resolutions: How Are YOU Doing?

By Neil Schori

So we're about three weeks into this new year and new decade...and I'm wondering how you're doing with sticking to your resolutions.  The crowd at my gym is already thinning out, and I've seen many posts by friends of mine on Facebook and Twitter announcing to the cyber-world that they've already fallen off their diet-wagons.  Resolutions irritate the heck out of me!  Do you know why?  Because I've hardly ever seen anyone follow through to their goals.  They just don't work and I've been told over and over that if the way a person is doing something doesn't work, that the method must change before different results will be seen.

For some people, resolutions don't "really" matter.  And what I mean by that is that the consequences of not following-through for most resolutions are minimal.  But for abused women, our lack of follow-through has dire consequences.  Kathleen Savio may not have died if it weren't for a lack of follow-through.  Stacy Peterson may not have disappeared, either.  So we must change.  We must make a renewed commitment to these women whom are crying out for help.  Our places of worship must be islands of refuge for abused women instead of acting as the seal on a doomed fate.  Our police officers and our courts must be held accountable for abuse of power and to uphold the rights of tragically terrorized and forgotten women.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said: "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who perpetrates it.  He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."  Dr. King believed so much in over-turning deeply entrenched social injustice that he paid for it with his life.

So, today, I want to make my recommitment to abused women in this public forum.  This is greater than a resolution.  It is more than a whim.  It is connected straight to the very heart of God.  

If you are abused and afraid and have no place to turn, you can turn to Naperville Christian Church.  We will not betray you nor will we minimize your problems.  If you allow us the privilege, we will walk alongside you and help you see and find a better way.  We will become friends and family to you.  We will never tell you that you should just go back to your abuser or that if you were a better wife that he wouldn't have hit you.  We will listen to you and we will let you know that you have value and that you are valued.

I am fully dedicated to this cause, but I know that I am NOT enough.  If you are a pastor or leader in a faith community and you are interested in learning about how you can step up and make a difference in the lives of many women, please call me or email me.  It would be my honor to share my passion with you.  Will you join me in this struggle against domestic violence and perhaps even more importantly, for the hearts and lives of these women?

Peace,

Neil Schori
Lead Pastor, NCC
napervillechristian.org
630.983.5600
neil@napervillechristian.org

Churches: Walk the Talk, Take the Risk

By Neil Schori

Have you noticed that most people don't have a problem with talking too little?  It isn't too often that you have to ask a suburbanite their opinion about something, is it?  We talk about how our bosses are unfair and how the political system is so corrupt.  We also talk about all of our big ideas to make everything better and the latest cause we've adopted and how we are going to make a difference in our families and in our schools and in our churches and in our lives. 

But how much really changes?  Not a whole lot, really.  Bosses are still good targets for complaints and politicians are never short on corruption for the most part.  Churches can start to care more about songs on Sundays instead of caring for people on Mondays.  So what's the deal?  Is it that our world is past the point of redemption?  I don't buy that for a second.  I see small incidences of redemption all the time.  So what causes change?

The Bible talks a lot about this very subject.  James 2: 14-17 says this:   

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?  Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

James is telling us what most of us really already know in our hearts: that our actions show what we really believe.  If we truly want to make a difference in our own lives and in the lives of other fellow strugglers on this journey of life, then we need to act.  And we need to do it now! 

What does that mean for me?  Over the past week, God has shown me in so many different ways that the church (all churches) has been complicit in relation to the treatment of women in horrible domestic violence situations.  We talk about justice for the oppressed, but we're scared to do the hard work and praying and planning that it takes to make changes in the lives of victims.  Many of us are fearful for the implications that standing up against the abusers could have in our own family.

Are there risks for me and Naperville Christian Church in saying 'yes' to what I know I'm supposed to do?  Of course there are.  But at this point the risk of NOT doing something far outweighs the risk of doing something.  So what is that you need to do? 

If you are being abused, call me at the church and we will help you.

Peace,

Neil Schori

630.983.5600

Neil Schori is the Pastor of Naperville Christian Church.  Follow Neil on Twitter!  @neilschori for all the latest!