In the final chapter of Titus, Paul’s got a handful of things he wants Titus to remind the Christians on Crete to live out. Paul’s instructing God’s people how to live out their faith within society. And his instructions remind us, and actually points us to our new influential identity that Christ has purchased and redeemed.

Here is Titus 3:1-2: “Remind them [God’s people] to submit to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to slander no one, to avoid fighting, and to be kind, always showing gentleness to all people.”

Alright! So since I’m the outreach guy, and for this post’s sake, I’m gonna just focus on the instruction “to be ready for every good work.” Now one quick thing to notice about this instruction is that it follows right after “rulers and authorities.” And so, this “good work” seems to be directed at the community and society level.

I believe as Paul wants to “remind” the believers on what to do, he’s already got their identity in mind too. So this instruction “to be ready for every good work” is basically revealing to us that, we’re community contributors!

Check out what Ephesians 2:10 has to say about us, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.” We’re community contributors, because we’re God’s workmanship. We’re his masterpiece! Created not to just sit back and do nothing, but to get involved. To do good in this world that, “God has prepared ahead of time for us to do.”

Now I don’t this means we all gotta go volunteer twenty hours a week for a local nonprofit organization, or the current social cause that’s happening. I mean, it totally could. But notice what Paul mentions in verse one, “be ready for every good work.” So for us that means “be on the lookout!” Be ready to respond when an opportunity comes up during your day or week, when you can do something good for someone.

We can be a community contributors in our workplaces. Maybe you heard about a coworker who’s about to move into a new place. And he or she doesn’t have much help. So you sacrifice your sacred Saturday, to sweat it out and lend a helping hand. That’s a huge contribution!

Being ready for every good work, is not about taking on everything that comes your way. But walking with God and knowing what opportunity he’s placing in front of you. It’s really about our hearts being ready to respond to others.

And, I know so many people in our church who’s already leading the way in contributing in their communities. So many of our people are involved in their neighborhoods, in their offices, with their kid’s soccer team and gymnastics friends. Not to mention all those endless school fundraisers. Wow, praise God for you! You’re building your platform of influence for the gospel!

Now if you want to find ways to contribute in your community, but don’t know where to start. Well, you’ve come to the right place! The outreach guy is right here to help! We’ve got some opportunities to do good work at Harbor in serving our community.

Here’s 3 community contributing ministries you can get involved in:

Every second Saturday, we have a ministry called Kakaako Kakou that’s focused on building relationships with our neighbors living on the streets. Kakaako Kakou meet in our Lanai area, and provides breakfast, and good conversation that are building relationships with our neighbors. You can bring or drop off breakfast items, can goods, and clothes too. You can also sign up and volunteer by serving breakfast, talking story, and praying with our neighbors. A few of them have started coming to our Sunday services, and one person is interested in getting baptized soon!

We’ve also got ministries centered on mentoring students at McKinley High School. And lastly, a ministry that’ll be launching in October that’s focused on sharing Christ’s love with women who are working in the sex industry.

There’s a ton of ways to get involved in these ministries such as: making home cooked meals, providing safe homes, prayer, spending one-on-one time with the different people, giving financially to our compassion fund, providing rides, and donating necessary items. You can email me at mike@harborhawaii.org if you’re interested and want more information.