Richard Stearns was the CEO of Lenox China, the luxury tableware company. From there he received an unexpected call, and though he fought it as much as he could, eventually he gave in and accepted the job as president of World Vision.
To say it changed his life would be an understatement. He went from Lenox China to places like Haiti and Uganda, seeing firsthand the devastation that is so common in our world. He walked among the ruins of earthquakes and AIDS, and in doing so his heart saw the world, and our Gospel, in a new light.
The hole in the Gospel Stearns refers to in the title is the lack of focus on social justice, particularly for those in foreign lands. Stearns calls us to read the Gospels once more and realize that the prosperity Gospel has led us far from the message Christ preached. When we read the Bible honestly and allow it to challenge us, we see a cry for those who love God to serve the least of these.
Are we doing this? Are we loving the least of these? Are we serving those who live on $2 a day or less? Do we recognize the need for clean water? Stearns has plenty of statistics to astound, but more importantly he has stories, stories that will break your heart and ones that will gladden it. Stearns has hope, for he sees the change the church can make when it puts its heart into it. He is just hoping that more church members will do so, showing their love of God by loving their neighbors, even those in faraway lands.
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