Richard Stearns wrote “ Yet while it is true that oppress the poor must be challenged to achieve any lasting escape from poverty, even righting all the systemic wrongs in a community, does not automatically liberate the poor from their shackles.
After decades of entrenched material poverty, many communities suffer from a poverty of spirit as well. They have lost their faith in themselves and given up after too many heartbreaks and disappointments.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
22–23 Then he took a deep breath and breathed into them. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” he said. “If you forgive someone’s sins, they’re gone for good. If you don’t forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?”
When God calls people to membership in the church, there is a service component for them.
