Q&A: Sarah Adams on serving the city's poor

Sarah Adams is a member of the South University City Group. Sarah works for The NET, a non-profit in Fort Worth, and is in the Deacon process at The Paradox and leads our movement with City Renewal.How long have you been at The Paradox?I have been at the Paradox for a little over two years now.How does the Gospel speak to the renewal of a city?

“There is a direct relationship between a person’s grasp and experience of God’s grace, and his or her heart for justice and the poor.”-Tim Keller"Poverty is rooted in broken relationships, so the solution to poverty is rooted in the power of Jesus' death and resurrection to put all things into right relationship again."-"When Helping Hurts" by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert  

Pursuing justice or city renewal has everything to do with the Gospel. Jesus left the perfection of heaven and his eternally perfect relationship with the Father and the Spirit to come to us, to pursue us, to invade our brokenness and darkness and to sympathize with us and experience everything that we do. He left perfection and invaded our depravity so that we can be reconciled to God so that we could be adopted into his family.When we grasp that this is what Christ has done for us, it should compel us to the ‘ministry of reconciliation’ or the mission of seeing other people experience what we have experienced in Christ.We pursue community with the poor because Jesus pursued us. We love without expecting anything in return because Jesus loved us in spite of us.Jesus went out of his way numerous times. He talked to many people he wasn't supposed to talk to, and he shared meals with those people, too. He let a prostitute wash his feet with her hair. He touched lepers. He welcomed tax collectors.Showing compassion to the poor is part of our job description as followers of Jesus. It shows a watching world what God is like. It illustrates that He is in the business of taking what is broken and redeeming it, meeting people where they are and calling them out of darkness into light.

“That is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation."1 Corinthians 5:19

What is your hope for The Paradox Church and its posture to the city?My hope is that we would be known by our culture of social justice for the poor and vulnerable and that we would love and defend those with the least social and economic power.I hope we would be concerned about the most vulnerable, poor and marginalized members of our society and that we would make long-term, personal sacrifices in order to serve them.My hope is that we would be a people who go. A people who scatter, invade darkness, pursue those who are lost, dead, broken and hopeless. I hope we would pursue our neighbors, but also the poor and powerless, the outsiders, the people on the other side of town, out of the way, hidden and overlooked.We should pour ourselves out for the poor. My hope is that Fort Worth would be transformed.

“And he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”2 Corinthians 5:15

What do you think keeps Christians from taking an active role in city renewal? Many do not know where to start. Our culture has taught us that serving the poor is about meeting their material needs, but in fact much of what the poor really need are healthy, on-going, consistent relationships with committed Christ-followers. Serving the poor is about long suffering. This idea can be daunting, but in my experience God graciously makes it incredibly life giving instead of draining.What is your role at The Paradox? At The Net?I mentioned that a main thing that holds people back is not knowing where to start. I am here to help you know where to start. My role is to connect our City Groups to areas of the city that are desperate for the redeeming power of Jesus. I want to make it as easy and accessible for our people to serve as possible.I'm the Assistant Director at The Net, which basically means I do anything and everything that needs to be done. Mostly I do administrative and behind-the-scenes work.What does The Net do?The Net exists to empower the city to restore dignity to those in poverty through community and relationships.We create long-term support systems that help restore individuals to emotional, spiritual, and social wholeness. We believe that through relationships we can instill hope, which gives birth to empowerment and self-sufficiency, and inevitably leads to transformation. We want to restore dignity to the poor by equipping them with life skills through community and friendship.We also empower and assist the local church in serving the city by providing the training, education, logistical planning, mentoring, and resources that will allow the members of our NETwork to easily connect and serve the marginalized of Fort Worth through holistic relationships.We pour ourselves out for the vulnerable, oppressed, and marginalized so that people meet Jesus.If you could look 5 years into the future, what would you hope to see for The Paradox Church and the city of Fort Worth?In five years, I would love to see The Paradox as a diverse body of believers that testifies to the regenerating, transforming work of Jesus. My hope is that our radical justice for the oppressed would be our identifying marker. I hope compassion for the poor flows from our deep understanding of who Jesus is and what He has done for us.How can we pray for you?There's much to be done. Pray that I would believe the Gospel that says I don’t have to earn my righteousness before God, but that I can rest in the finished work of Jesus. Pray that I would find my identity in Him alone.