We want to renew Clinton
At Hope City Church we value local renewal. This is because God values local renewal. The good news of the gospel itself is a joyful exclamation and proclamation that in Christ change is possible. People can change, families can change, this city can change, all for the better.
As you probably have noticed, it’s not just us Christians that want this place to change. The greater Clinton community is obsessed with local renewal. Whether it’s a facebook group rehearsing the bygone glory days, whether it's folks organizing to clean up the forgotten nooks and crannies of our town, or whether it’s a holiday conversation around the meal table where the talk drifts to ‘what Clinton really needs...’ Throw a rock in any direction and chances are you will hit a conversation about how Clinton can be renewed.
And out of all people Christians should be leading the renewal. This is because we have a gospel that is big enough to give real hope in the midst of very complex, very emotionally exhausting, and very long standing problems in this community. God helps us transform our vague sense of ‘somethings wrong here and somebody out to do something about’ to “on earth as it is in heaven.” The gospel produces hope filled prayer, because we know the living God who gives living hope who has the power to make dead bones live.
The church should care about local renewal because it is woven into the way we were made. God’s word paints a picture in Genesis 1 and 2 of humans as gardeners and caretakers of their local place. God commissioned Adam and Eve to work and keep the ground. He commissioned them to take the stuff of creation and cultivate a culture that glorifies him. This was their vocation. And this vocation has never been revoked. It is also our vocation. This means that we were made to work alongside God to tend the Garden here in Clinton and labor to see to it that this city may flourish for the glory of Jesus and the joy of all people.
And no nook or cranny of local life is off limits to our care. No garden is too secular, no soil too ordinary to be tilled and planted with the seeds of the gospel. This is because Jesus is King over everything. Colossians 1 says all things were made through Him and for Him. And he is reconciling all things he made to himself. He is reconciling people to God, people to one another, and people to the rest of creation. And so all things means all things. Jesus is renewing Clinton’s churches, businesses, arts, families, and all of our common life in this place. Nothing in Clinton will escape the renewing presence of Jesus. And as a church we want to be a part of that. And because we have his Spirit in us we are part of that. We are priests for Clinton’s renewal.
But what happens when it's hard? What if people don’t want us to seek Clinton’s flourishing? What if we meet opposition. God says do it anyway. Jeremiah 29 says we ought to seek the welfare of even the most inhospitable places. And that our welfare is found in its welfare. This is because God loves this place. He loves his world. And so we commit ourselves to loving Clinton as God loves Clinton. Praying and working for its renewal.