Today I had the chance to take a tour of New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29th, 2005. That's about 2.5 years ago. You would think that the city would be well on its way to looking the way it did before the storm, but as you drive through the city, the streets are still eerily deserted, the houses are still destroyed, and it looks as though Katrina could have hit yesterday.
The devastation that hit this city is hard to comprehend. As I drove around today I was reminded of a quote I read in a book by Bill Hybles called Couragious Leadership. In this book Hybles states, "the local church is the hope of the world." As we drove today, the truth of this statement sunk in on me like it never has before. The church truly is the hope for NO, and there is NOBODY else stepping up. The church was the organization that fed people the week of the storm, they were the people who gutted houses, helped rebuild, etc... You name it, the church has done it down here, and the way that the church has stepped up and served has had great spiritual impact on this city.
For all the blunders the church has made over the years (crusades, etc.), I do believe that the Church is the hope of the world. I have never been as proud to be part of the church of Jesus Christ as I was today.
1 comment:
I read that book also, and that quote has stuck with me ever since. The local church is the hope of the world. With all it's flaws, idiosyncracies, problems and foilbles. Don't know why God did it that way, but He did.
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