Resolving Conflict Biblically • 10.22.23
Nick Lees   -   October 22, 2023

Resolving Conflict Biblically
Matthew 5:21-26, 7:3-5, 18:15-35

What does God say about resolving conflict and practicing forgiveness?

  1. If you sinned against another
  2. If you have been sinned against
  3. Come ready to address your part in the problem
  4. Follow God’s process of forgiveness

Good morning church family! Welcome to our visitors. My name is Nick Lees and I have the privilege of studying God’s Word with you this morning.

Dismiss 4th + 5th graders

Ushers + Bibles (Matthew 5; page 963)

Over the month of October, we’ve been working our way through a biblical understanding of communication and conflict resolution.

I have heard from a number of our small group leaders that these studies have generated some great discussion amongst our church body. I am thankful to hear it. I am also hopeful that it will go beyond discussion to application! That we would be a people who not only hear the word but DO the word. Imagine the testimony of a people who take sin seriously and handle it God’s way, thereby making and preserving peace!

Today we turn our attention to the issue of Resolving Conflict Biblically. In many ways, this is what we’ve been building towards throughout the series. Everything before this has helped set the stage for this study. Before we could talk about how to resolve conflict in depth, we first had to understand the problem of sin, the solution that Jesus provides, and be able to recognize why sin shows up in our own lives. My hope is that we all come to the Word with greater humility as a result. That I am here to learn how I might change, and you are here to learn how you might change. As each one of us is focused on doing our part in resolving conflict biblically, there will be an increase in peace.

As with the other studies in this series, this is not going to be an exhaustive study today. It simply would not be possible to handle the volume of teaching that God’s Word has on this topic. So, we are going to narrow our focus onto three primary passages from the Gospel of Matthew as well as some other supporting passages. I would highly encourage you to continue digging into these topics in the Word outside of Sunday mornings.

Next week, Pastor Jack will wrap up this series by helping us answer the question, “What does it mean to love our neighbor and our enemies?” That is also a 5th Sunday, so please remember that we’ll be meeting as one service at 9am and then going out to serve together at 11am. If you have not signed up for a service project yet, please feel free to pull out your phones and open our website to the eBulletin event so you can remember to register before signups close tonight.

Let’s turn our attention to the study of God’s Word, beginning in Matthew 5:21-26.

Matthew 5:21–26 (ESV)

21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

The context of this passage is Jesus’ sermon on the mount. Just prior to this Jesus was explaining to the disciples what it really looks like to follow Him and be a part of God’s rule and reign. He is teaching them about the character and behaviors of followers of Christ. And he gives some hard teachings!

Verses 21-22 take the 6th commandment from the Old Testament and intensify it. Jesus wants the people to understand the seriousness of their situation and to do that he traces the commandment from fruit to root. The problem is not just murder, it is the sinful heart of anger that lead to that action. Jesus then links that same sinful heart attitude to other fruits like verbal insults – calling someone a fool. And do you hear how Jesus intensifies the consequences each time? First it was liable to judgment. Then liable to the council. Then liable to the hell of fire! There can be no mistaking Jesus’ intent here – he is saying that unresolved sinful anger is a dire problem that must be addressed lest you be judged.

He then applies this principle in two different parables. In verses 23-24, someone is at the altar offering sacrificial gifts and remembers that a brother has something against them. Jesus tells such a person to prioritize being reconciled with their brother over worshiping at the altar! That’s how important reconciliation and resolving conflict are to God!

In the second parable (vv25-26), Jesus is painting the scenario where time is running out before judgment comes. The emphasis is again on prioritizing reconciliation with the person you’ve offended before it is too late, and the Judge has issued his sentence. Both parables point to the urgency of reconciliation from the perspective of the party who has sinned against another. So…

What does God say about resolving conflict and practicing forgiveness?

Our first answers fall under the category of…

  1. If you sinned against another

Based on Jesus’ teachings, if you sinned against another, you are to go to them! YOU are to take the initiative in seeking out reconciliation with them. Don’t wait for them to come to you, you go to them.

Jesus says your priority, more than worshiping God at the altar, is to go and be reconciled to your brother! Then come back and offer your gift. Jesus is prioritizing peacemaking! God wants you to value unity with others over your personal worship of Him. Whoa! That’s putting tremendous value on making peace.

Do you value unity like that?

Consider this, the only altar where gifts were offered was in the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus was teaching this around Galilee, which was 80 miles away from the temple. Jesus is effectively saying, even though you’ve traveled 80 miles to offer that gift to God, leave it there, travel the 80 miles back and make peace with your brother FIRST! Then go back! That is how committed to peacemaking you ought to be!

Can you imagine being here on a Sunday morning only to realize you fought with your coworker during the week and never resolved it? Or fought with your spouse the night before? Or with your kids on the way in? NOOOO that never happens! Does it?! Of course, it does. Will you be obedient to this passage and prioritize reconciliation with them? Even if it means circling them up before service or during service to confess the sin and ask their forgiveness! Or calling them to do the same if they aren’t present.

Some of you come in here week after week with unresolved conflict in your relationships. That’s not God’s will for you. God cares about that, and he is telling you, “Go deal with that! Don’t sweep it under the rug. Handle it my way! Be reconciled!” This is an obedience issue! I know how tempting it is to value ease and comfort over doing the hard work of reconciliation. It is humbling to have to go and confess your sin, but the joy of forgiveness and the fruit of reconciliation is far better than facing the Just Judge in unrepentant sin!

I would love to see our church be known as a place where peace abounds. And the reason it abounds is because conflict and anger are handled quickly and biblically. If you know someone else has something against you, go to them directly and work through it. Resolve it and be reconciled.

Now, this is not meant to say that it is only the responsibility of the party who has sinned to seek reconciliation! The next passage is going to give instructions for if you have been sinned against. Let’s turn now to Matthew 18:15-20.

Matthew 18:15–20 (ESV)

15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

The context of this passage is intentional training of the 12 disciples. The theme of child-like humility is woven throughout chapter 18. Jesus teaches them to repent of their pride and become like little children who are known for their complete dependency on God. The expectation for disciples is humble faith that flees temptation and, ultimately, seeks the good of others!

As Jesus called them to this type of humble faith, he also explained the incredible care of God for his little ones. In fact, God cares for them so much that when one goes astray into danger He lovingly goes after them and brings them back into the fold! It’s incredibly personal! God is involved in the lives of each of his people, his sheep! He is personally invested in their spiritual wellbeing. Listen to verse 14:

Matthew 18:14 (ESV)

14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

Do you hear that? God’s will is that none of these little ones should perish. Meaning, be lost or destroyed. This is not simply speaking about a sheep lost in the wilderness, this is speaking of a human being who is in danger of spiritual death. God will not suffer to lose any of his little children. He is willing and able to care for and protect his people from spiritual death. Jesus is teaching the disciples that God has great care and compassion for all His flock. Not one of them can go missing without the Father noticing and going after them.

And what’s incredible is that God invites Jesus’ disciples, both then and now, to partner with him in caring for his people. That’s exactly what Jesus is teaching these men in verses 15-20. The responsibility of caring for the flock is a shared responsibility. God extends this responsibility to his people; his intent is that they would watch out for one another and protect one another from wandering away into temptation and sin.

Now our answers address the scenario…

  1. If you have been sinned against

That’s how verse 15 started, “If your brother sins against you…” What then?

You go to them. Now isn’t that something? Consider what we’ve already heard in Matthew 5 combined with this… In the ideal scenario, when two people have conflict, both parties would meet on the way as they are heading to be reconciled to one another. It’s not permissible for Christians to say, “I’ll wait for them to come to me.” No, you are called to go to them! No matter which side of the problem you are on!

This should not be surprising considering how important peace and reconciliation is to God! He cares deeply about it and so should you.

This process of addressing sin happens as often as necessary. We all know that when you are in close relationship with people, it is not surprising that you will sin against them. Whenever that happens, you have the opportunity to obey God by seeking one another out to be reconciled! There is not a single household in this church where this type of interaction should not be happening regularly. None of us are without sin. Wherever there is sin and conflict, there is the opportunity for handling things God’s way, as laid out here! So don’t sit there thinking, “Well this isn’t for me.”

This is a way for Christians to be salt and light in this unrighteous world! Handle conflict and sin quickly and seek to be at peace in your relationships.

What is the goal of going to one another? To put them in their place? To get your pound of flesh? NO! It is to seek to resolve the conflict and be reconciled. The goal is the restoration of the relationship and, ultimately, the brother/sister who was stuck in sin! “If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.” This must always be the motive for us when we approach a brother or sister who has sinned against us.

Will this process always be easy? No. But will it be worth it? Absolutely. Especially if you gain your brother back! Consider this beautiful truth from James 5:19-20:

James 5:19–20 (ESV)

19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

This is our goal when someone is stuck in sin. We want their eternal good – to save their soul from death and see their sins covered over. This makes the hard work of reconciliation worth it!

We also see that this process calls us to keep the matter as private as possible. It starts 1-on-1 and only brings others in for increased accountability when the person is persisting in unrepentance. Ideally, they are repentant, and the problem can be solved quickly. However, we all know that sin is deceitful, and our hearts can easily be hard to truth. There are times when we are not receptive to confrontation the first time and we need a persistent brother/sister who will keep coming back for us. The Scriptures do not tell us how many times we should do this before bringing others in, but I would suggest that it is wise to be in fervent prayer over the situation and, in most scenarios, to give time and several attempts before bringing others in. Pray fervently for wisdom in these matters and for God to change their heart.

If they are not repentant, then you will need to bring in others to confront the sin. Throughout this process, the goal never changes – it is the reconciliation and restoration of the erring brother/sister. These additional people are brought in solely to help establish the facts and to add their voices in the call to repentance. The hope is that a hard heart would be broken when faced with a unified group of believers. As we heard, this may even reach the point where the entire church is unifying their voices in a call to repentance. Again, this for the sake of this person’s soul and eternal good! God is giving us his plan to win back a wandering sheep. It is not right for us to dismiss it and think we have a better plan by tolerating sin. Study 1 Corinthians 5 for God’s thoughts on tolerating sin.

Matthew 18 is very important to understand when talking about resolving conflict biblically because it reminds us of the beauty of God’s design for his church. We are called to be God’s ambassadors. We are to represent and reflect him as accurately as possible. God said in verses 18-20 that in these matters of confronting sin and seeking to resolve conflict biblically that he stands unified with the church. Our sin in relationships, if it is left unhandled, is not a private matter. At some point, the rest of God’s people in your local church are called to help you resolve that sin issue. God has given you an entire body of believers for your protection and his glory.

Unfortunately, there are times when a person refuses to handle conflict and sin God’s way despite the increased levels of accountability from the church. In these cases, Jesus says that we must treat them as a Gentile and a tax collector. They are living like an unbeliever in unrepentant sin; therefore, we cannot continue to treat them like a Christian. We must call it what it is and continue to implore them to repent and return to God! It would be unloving to let them remain in unrepentant sin and think things are fine between them and God. They are heading for judgment, and we want to call them back before it is too late! And I want to re-emphasize, forgiveness and restoration to the church are always ready and willing to be offered when the person repents!

I think it is safe to say that God calls us to go to great lengths to resolve conflict biblically! From personal to corporate accountability, he marshals all the resources of the local church to make sure sin is handled quickly and biblically. You need to prioritize this to the degree that God does! Are you willing to do the hard work of humbly confronting sin for the sake of reconciliation and restoration? (You need to be willing to say yes!) And are you willing to invite fellow Christians to humbly confront sin in you for the sake of your reconciliation and restoration? (Again, you need to be willing to say yes!)

But what does this process look and sound like? So far, we’ve established the framework Jesus gives to take ownership for resolving conflict, now let’s get into some details of how to do it. Let’s turn to Matthew 7.

Matthew 7:3–5 (ESV)

3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

Jesus is addressing our tendency to be proud when working through things with others. Rather than being meek and humble, it is easy to point fingers and blame others. Jesus gives us a better way.

  1. Come ready to address your part in the problem

The call is to show humility by dealing with your log first. This means being willing to turn the eye of judgment on yourself first, evaluating how you need to grow and change. Perhaps there are ways you’ve contributed to the conflict. We are usually experts at seeing how others have contributed to the problem without being able to see how we also did the same.

Allow me to use a famous example from our own relatives… Adam and Eve. Do you remember what Adam said when God asked him whether he had eaten of the tree that was off-limits? “I did it God. It is my fault.” NOPE. “The woman you gave to be with me… she did it!”

And how did Eve respond when God questioned her? “I did it. It is my fault.” NOPE. “The serpent… he deceived me!”

No one was willing to take ownership for their part of the problem! And we repeat this same type of behavior all the time. It doesn’t matter whether you’re young or old, it is very tempting to blame others rather than take responsibility. “You started it!”

Jesus calls Christians to a different way. Put on humility and come ready to address your part of the problem. And, not surprisingly, Jesus’ way works well! Conflict is resolved quickly when both parties are practicing this type of character and behavior!

What does this look like in practice?

It starts with:

Confess your sin/contribution to the issue. To confess literally means to say the same thing God says about it. You are agreeing with God about the matter. “I sinned by the way I spoke to you.” “I was not believing the best about you in that moment.”

Many struggle to confess sin. And when you do confess, it can be easy to confess in a way that is unhelpful or ungodly. So let me share some tips for godly confession of sin.

  • Be succinct
    • 10:19 – “where words are many, transgression is not lacking”
  • Be specific
    • Identify the actual sin issue; the facts of the matter
  • Do not confess accusingly
    • Pointing the finger at them – “I’m sorry I responded poorly when you were mean to me.”
  • Do not destroy good words with wrong attitudes/tones
    • 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.”

This may be necessary for only one party to the conflict, or it may be that both (all) parties need to practice confession. The point is that everyone who has contributed to the conflict ought to be coming to the table with humility and a readiness to confess as needed. Doing this completely changes the atmosphere of the conflict. Whereas pride fuels conflict, humility brings calm to the chaos and peace to the conflict.

Once these things have been laid out on the table, now we’re engaged in conflict resolution! When someone confesses to you, now the ball is in your court, and you are called by God to respond. Do you know what your response ought to be? Forgiveness.

Right after that teaching on confronting sin in Matthew 18:15-20, Peter had some questions. Let’s go back to verses 21-22 now.

Matthew 18:21–22 (ESV)

21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Aren’t you thankful for Peter? He asks the questions many of us have. How often do I have to forgive, Lord? He thought seven times was pretty generous. Jesus blows his answer out of the water, effectively saying, as often as you are sinned against, you must be willing to forgive. He then goes on to share a parable in verses 23-35 whose main point is this – your sin debt against God was unfathomably great, yet he willingly forgave you in Christ, therefore you should be willing to forgive all who sin against you because their sin against you is tiny in comparison!

This leads us to our final answer for today…

  1. Follow God’s process of forgiveness

Forgiveness is a complex topic. There are a lot of differing opinions out there about the definition and practice of forgiveness. So how can we arrive at a solid definition and practice of forgiveness? By looking at what God says and does in His Word. After all, God calls us to look to him as our example in this area:

Ephesians 4:32 (ESV)

32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Colossians 3:13 (ESV)

13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

God is our example. As we survey the Scriptures, we learn some valuable lessons about forgiveness. First, we find that forgiveness is gracious but not free. In fact, forgiveness is quite costly. For our sins to be forgiven, Jesus had to lay down his life in our place.

1 Peter 3:18 (ESV)

18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,

That is a high cost! Forgiveness is gracious but not free.

Forgiveness is a commitment. God commits to not count our sin against us in judgment. It has been covered by the blood of the lamb and now we are declared righteous or innocent.

Hebrews 10:10 (ESV)

10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Romans 5:17 (ESV)

17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Forgiveness is a gift to be received. One must respond to God’s gift of forgiveness through Christ by faith and repentance. In this way, we also understand forgiveness to be conditional. You must respond to God’s gift in the appropriate manner. One who does not turn from sin in faith is not forgiven. Faith and repentance are two sides of the same coin. Faith produces repentance (turning from sin).

Mark 1:15 (ESV)

15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Forgiveness begins the process of reconciliation. When God forgives, he makes peace and restores the relationship. We heard about this in previous weeks.

Colossians 1:19–20 (ESV)

19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Forgiveness does not eliminate all consequences. For example, after King David sinned with Bathsheba and murdered Uriah, God told him that war would be in his house and that his son would die. Though David was forgiven by God and had the hope of heaven, there were still earthly consequences for his actions. We learned a similar truth in Hebrews 12 earlier this year, about God disciplining those he loves.

Based on what we learn from these passages about forgiveness, here is a definition to consider:

God’s Forgiveness: A commitment by the one true God to pardon graciously those who repent and believe so that they are reconciled to him, although this commitment does not eliminate all consequences. (Chris Braun, Unpacking Forgiveness, 51)

Have you experienced this kind of forgiveness from God? If not, what is stopping you from turning from your sin and believing in him as your Savior? That is the only way you’ll ever be able to forgive another. Forgiveness is a distinctly Christian practice. We forgive because we’ve been forgiven.

Our Forgiveness: A commitment by the offended to pardon graciously the repentant from moral liability and to be reconciled to that person, although not all consequences are necessarily eliminated. (Chris Braun, Unpacking Forgiveness, 55)

When you forgive someone, you are taking on the hurt and pain of their sin rather than holding it against them. This is not easy, but it is the path to reconciliation and healing. You can bring that burden to the Lord and lay it at his feet. By operating this way, you are making peace with the one who sinned against you, even though there may still be consequences for their actions.

Ken Sande, in his book The Peacemaker, summarizes four commitments a Christian makes when they forgive another:

  • I will not dwell on this incident
  • I will not bring up this incident again and use it against you
  • I will not talk to others about this incident
  • I will not let this incident stand between us or hinder our personal relationship

Is this how you typically handle forgiveness? Or do you bring past incidents back up and throw it in their face? That is ungodly behavior that will only reignite conflict.

Notice that the act of forgiveness requires the offender to confess and repent of their sin. Just as we must respond to God’s gracious gift of forgiveness through Christ by believing and repenting, so too those who sin against another need to confess their sin, ask for forgiveness, and seek to turn away from it. Forgiveness is a relational transaction – the offender confesses and asks for forgiveness, the offended responds by forgiving, and both live out their commitments. The offender lives out repentance and the offended lives out forgiveness. This is the ideal, biblical scenario.

But what if they never come and ask your forgiveness? Does that mean that you are able to remain angry or bitter at them? I mentioned the story of the prodigal son last week from Luke 15. I love this parable because it shows us the disposition of God. He stands ready to forgive! If the son returns in repentance, then the father is ready and willing to forgive. That’s exactly how a Christian should posture themselves. Standing ready to forgive, whenever the offender asks for it. This is sometimes called “attitudinal forgiveness”.

This posture is motivated by the great forgiveness we have received in Christ! As we’ve already heard about a few times today. In fact, Jesus even gave a severe warning for those who are unwilling to forgive.

Matthew 6:14–15 (ESV)

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

I assume you want forgiveness for your sins; then you’d better not withhold forgiveness from those who sincerely seek it from you.

Something I had to learn related to this is that forgiveness is not dependent on forgetting. Some offenses are never forgotten. But that does not mean I cannot forgive. Forgiveness is not dependent on feelings either. You can make the choice to forgive in obedience to God even if you don’t “feel” like it. These are counter-cultural views on forgiveness that are worth mentioning.

I hope you would agree there is great beauty and hope when we handle conflict God’s way! Reconciliation and restoration of relationships is possible, even in incredibly difficult situations. I would recommend Chris Brauns book Unpacking Forgiveness as a further study on this topic. He provides some incredible real-life stories of forgiveness being lived out in very hard situations. He also deals honestly with situations wherein trust may be hard to rebuild, or wisdom may dictate not restoring a relationship to the same level of physical interaction or access, such as in abuse situations. Oftentimes there are consequences that come into play in these harder situations that help protect those who have been harmed. I’m not intending for this sermon to be able to get as nuanced as necessary for those types of situations because we’d be here for hours to address them all. I would be happy to discuss those afterwards or at another time if you have questions or concerns or need counsel on such a situation.

I think it would be helpful for us to end our time together with a roleplay of this process of forgiveness.

  • Scenario – I’ve sinned against you
    • What does each of us need to do? – Come to one another. With humility. Taking the log out of our own eyes first.
  • Step 1 – As the offender, I need to confess my sin and ask forgiveness
    • What do I need to be aware of when confessing? – Be succinct, be specific, don’t confess accusingly, don’t ruin good words with wrong attitudes/actions
    • The importance of asking, “will you forgive me?” à It invites the other party to respond. The ball is now in their court! “I’m sorry” isn’t in the Bible and it doesn’t invite the other party in.
  • Step 2 – As the offended, you need to be willing to grant forgiveness
    • You are taking on the burden of my sin debt when you grant forgiveness
      • The pain of the words I said; the actions I did; not taking on my consequences, although those consequences may affect you
    • The importance of saying, “Yes I forgive you.” Considering how much Christ forgave me, how could I not?!
  • Step 3 – As the offender, I now get to live out repentance and, as the offended, you get to live out forgiveness
    • Not just talking the talk, but walking the walk
      • For repentance: There is a difference between godly and worldly sorrow (2 Cor. 12:7-10)
      • For forgiveness: You may be tempted to be bitter or to want to bring up those sins against me. Forgiveness is both a point in time decision and an ongoing way of life.
    • Peace is restored to our relationship and trust is being rebuilt
      • Trust may not be rebuilt immediately based upon the severity or frequency of this sin.

When we seek to resolve conflict biblically, peace can reign in our relationships. This is a practice that is worth your time and effort. It is something we adults need to model for the next generation. It is a critical way to grow in holiness as we protect one another from sin. And by living this way, we can keep short accounts and protect the church from division and bitterness. In all of this, God will be glorified.

Let’s pray.

Pray

How Deep the Father’s Love for Us

Backpack Buddies program + special offering on 10/29 (Slide)

On Tuesday, August 29th the church’s prayer team met to pray over the connect cards and church. As part of that prayer time, we asked the Lord to provide us with opportunities to be engaged in ministry to our community. Less than an hour later the church received an email from two local schoolteachers from South Prairie Elementary School in Grimes asking if we would help provide food for some of their students in need through a Backpack Buddies program. They have asked for our help in providing 2 meals per child in need that can be taken home to help them each weekend through the end of the school year. They anticipate the need to serve between 30-40 children per week.  

Frasier Dew and our deacon of compassion, Adam Conn, have been working with the school to come up with a plan to address these needs and now we are presenting it to you. This is an 8-month program with an approximate need of $1000/month. In total, we are hoping to raise $8,000 of support to purchase and pack these meals for the kids through the end of the school year in the spring. As part of this effort, we will have a special offering on Sunday, 10/29 at the end of the service where you can give towards this Backpack Buddies program. You could also work within your small group to raise financial support as well. Any and all help is appreciated and will go directly towards this program and feeding these children.

We believe this is a great opportunity to be a light in our community and meet an answer to prayer. We are asking the school if we would be able to share information about our church with the families as well. If you have any questions, please contact the church office at info@harvestdesmoines.org.

Prayer + Visitors

Parents, please pick up your kiddos first and then visit with friends.

You are Loved