“I got problems.  You’ve got problems.  All God’s children got problems.”  It seems that problems and difficulties are a common denominator in the human experience.  But it is how those problems are addressed and resolved that gives Christians enormous opportunities for gospel witness and persuasive leverage towards post-Christian thinking people.

A generation or two ago, our western society found many answers to their life problems either in their own nuclear family, broader family, or close-knit neighborhood relationships.  Those were the days when far more marriages and families were kept intact, and where people received “community-wisdom” to the life issues challenging them.  In fact, the term “common sense” originates from “the sense of community” or the shared wisdom from the people in one’s neighborhood–parents, school teachers, coaches, pastors, church leaders, law enforcement officers, and civic and commerce officials.  In this former era, there was a “pool of wisdom” that people drew from that gave them perspective and ability to solve many of their life problems.  Today in many societies, that pool doesn’t exist.

With the dawn of our post-Christian era, more people than ever are disconnected and fragmented, separated from these reservoirs of perspective and experience.  In many instances, post-Christian people are looking for a mentoring-kind-of-wisdom that can help them solve the issues that they are facing–issues that affect them relationally, medically, vocationally, emotionally, socially, and spiritually.  Too often, they silently scream for help to tackle the common problems that most people face.  Sadly, their silent screams at times are not heard.

The church that takes outreach to their local culture seriously needs to understand this dilemma and to respond in ways that offer this “pool of wisdom” or “common sense” in attractive manners to post-Christian thinking people.  By being a relational community offering applied wisdom and experience, they can act as a powerful magnet that can draw others to Christ and to His gospel.

Let’s suppose your congregation has physicians and attorneys in the parish membership.  Why not offer as a service to your community a “free night of counsel”–medical or legal–to your neighbors and friends once a month?  If your parish has CPAs or tax preparation specialists, why not offer free tax preparation advice in the weeks before tax day?  If your parish has financial planners, why not offer a free course on household budgeting and personal finance?  Are there special needs children and families in your community?  Why not see if there are members in your congregation (doctors, therapists and specialists) who have training and experience to answer a parent’s questions about their special needs child!  More examples could be cited, but you get the point.  The idea is to find ways to connect the “specialty wisdom” within your congregation to the needs that exist in your local culture.

Biblically, the church houses the “fullness of Christ” (Colossians 2:9).  Part of this infinite fullness obviously includes the wisdom of God.  As a gospel witness to this post-Christian culture and as an effective strategy to penetrate this society with Jude0-Christian virtues, the church has a golden opportunity to help “all God’s children with problems” by being a community of wisdom, perspective, and problem-solving.  The question remains: will she position herself to do this?