Waterfront Church Makes a Difference
By Peter Elliott | Contributing Editor of Everyday Christian
Posted 11:28 am on March 02, 2009
It’s certainly not unusual for a church to sponsor a mission. Giving money and manpower to build up resources in needy areas domestically and internationally is often a worthy exercise.
But what if the church is the mission itself?
That appears to be the case at Waterfront Community Church in Schaumburg, Illinois. A feature on the church ran on NBC Nightly News on Friday as its weekly “Making a Difference”segment.
The first thing that struck me about Waterfront was its location. Schaumburg is a sprawling Chicago suburb, the type of place caricatured in those ’80s teen movies like “The Breakfast Club” and “Pretty in Pink.” It’s about as nondescript as thousands of other suburbs around the country.
The second thing, and most important, was how Waterfront spends its donations. All the donated money goes toward helping people in need. The NBC segment showcased the church giving $11,000 to a mother with a cerebral palsied daughter to help them make ends meet.
The church’s overhead is low, renting out the local high school auditorium for Sunday worship.
Cynics could say that this is a group of people just waiting to be taken advantage of, or that the potential for fraud is enormous.
Yet, what should be learned from this effort at unfettered kindness is the concept of sacrificial giving that is illustrated constantly to us through the examples of Jesus’ life, and often what we’re exhorted to do ourselves on Sunday morning.
Waterfront’s Website quotes Matthew 6:21—“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” In this instance the treasure is not found, but rather it’s given freely.
Tags: churches, giving, treasure
Peter Elliott is a veteran news and sports journalist. He enjoys interviewing others about how God works in their lives and sharing that with readers. He is also a lifelong, long-suffering Chicago Cubs fan. He resides in Indianapolis with his wife and three sons.
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