To Be a Blessing

“Our mission is to belong and become,” Pastor Bryan reiterates in his sermon at the beginning of the night.

“But.” He pauses. “The question is: what are we becoming?”

And how do we know if we are going in the right direction?

When we look around the sanctuary on the night we celebrate our tenth anniversary, we look around to see familiar and unfamiliar faces. Faces of those who have been at EKKO since the humble beginnings in a small apartment and others of those who have prayed between the tight corners in the warehouse we eventually outgrew. And there are the new faces of those who have just stepped through the borrowed doors of our building just months, weeks, or days before. It’s a beautiful mosaic of new and old faces, belonging together under one roof commemorating what God has done in and through our church in the ten years EKKO Church has existed.

For most of us sitting between these walls in the sanctuary, we’ve found home here.

At EKKO, we found more than friends. We found co-laborers and we have together been equipped to become the people God intended for us to be.

Belonging to a tribe provides a safe place for us to be transformed.

“We belong here. So what kind of people are we becoming?” Pastor Bryan asks us again.

In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes to the church, “And in him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”

We are becoming a dwelling in which God lives.

We are becoming a church.

In an adapted story that Pastor Bryan shares that night, he tells a story about a woman named EKKO who receives a vision from the Lord to build a church in her city. Throughout the story, we listen as she painstakingly gathers the resources to build this dream that God had given her, only to give it all away when disaster strikes nearby towns and communities.

Not once, but twice does she end up relinquishing all of her gifts for the sake of others.

While we listen to the story, it’s easy to wonder why God had given her this dream to build a church, when circumstances for it to come into fruition keep derailing her plans. It is only at the end of her life when she is able to see the dream come to life in the shape of a building being built and used by the people. If God gave her this vision to build a church, why is it that she is only able to see it come into focus at the end of her life?

As the story closes, it ends with this:

It is said to this day that Ekko had actually accomplished her task of building a church three times during her life rather than simply once—the first two being more beautiful and radiant than the last.

This parable illustrates this idea that it’s easy to think of a church as a tangible building we could call our own. But in the end, the church that God desires is not necessarily a wonderful building, but rather a people who are attentive, mindful, responsible, and response-able to the needs of His heart.

The church God dwells in is made up of a people who desire the things that God desires and cares for the things that God cares about.

And like the character in the story, we build a church that God wants to dwell in when we become who we were meant to be: a blessing.

God told Abram: “Leave your country, your family, and your father’s home for a land that I will show you. I’ll make you a great nation and bless you. I’ll make you famous; you’ll be a blessing. I’ll bless those who bless you; those who curse you I’ll curse. All the families of the Earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12: 1-4 MSG)

For our tenth anniversary, we planned to give 100% of the tithes and offerings received that night toward blessing the world. We did this intentionally to remind ourselves that we have been blessed in order to be a blessing. At the start, we partnered with charity: water to fund a $20,000 piping system that would provide clean water for a school of 700 students in Rwanda.

But that night, we actually tripled our goal by raising $60,000, securing clean water for 2,100 students in three different schools in the Gicumbi District of Rwanda. These systems allow students to drink clean water in their schools, use running water for toilets and handwashing, supply potable water to the students and teachers, and thereby improving overall health.

While this act of radical generosity continues to astound us, we are reminded that the success of the night isn’t in how much money we raised.

It isn’t even in how much we’ve grown as a church or have survived the last ten years.

Our success as a church is that we are becoming a blessing to God’s world.

In the weeks leading up to our anniversary, we also introduced a new expression of giving at EKKO: our Missions and Outreach Fund. (Read more and find out about which organizations we gave to this year here). As we enter into the new year, we plan to introduce more opportunities and channels that we can give our time, money, and gifts towards to bless the world.

We are becoming a generous and kind people that are mindful of the things God cares about.

We are living out the blessing He is making us to be.

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“Building a Church”
By EKKO Church, adapted from Peter Rollins

“It has been said that many years ago there was a church called Ekko who received a vision in which God spoke to her as a dear friend. In this conversation, God asked that Ekko dedicate her life to the task of building a church in her city.

Ekko began to grow and the desire to build a beautiful new building, a facility that would accommodate its growth, began to be pressing. Now, at this time new buildings were extremely costly, the only facilities being built were by well-to-do churches in well-to-do-cities. Ekko was not birthed with a silver spoon in its mouth, hence the task seemed impossible. She would have to raise a vast sum of money to purchase the land and acquire the help of architects, get permission from the city and deal with contractors. All to build a beautiful building, a lasting church, in the city.

However, the impossibility of the task did not sway her in the least. After having received her vision, Ekko sold the few items she possessed and lived a minimalist’s life, working hard with her hands, so as to make and save as much as possible for the funds needed to build this church. But raising the money proved to be a long and difficult task, it took longer than initially planned to save, and the job market constantly shifted, requiring Ekko to work different jobs and sometimes even part-time gigs to make it through the month. But gradually, over the next ten years, the money began to accumulate and enough was saved for the initial phases of the building journey. The new church was in view!

Shortly before the commissioning of the first set of blueprints, a dreadful fire ravaged a nearby town, destroying many people’s homes and livelihood. When the news reached Ekko she gathered up what she had raised and spent it on food for the hungry, material to help rebuild lost homes, and basic provisions for the dispossessed. Eventually, the town began to recover from the fire that had befallen it and so Ekko left and returned to the city in order to start over again, all the while remembering the vision that God had planted deep in her heart.

Many more years passed slowly, extracting their heavy toll on Ekko. But there were now many who had been touched by her love and dedication, so although people were poor, the money began to accumulate once again.

However, after nine more years, disaster struck again. This time an earthquake devastated the city, stealing the lives of thousands and leaving many children without families or support. But now Ekko was tired and very ill, yet without hesitation, she used the money that had been collected to buy medicines for the sick, homes for the orphaned, and land where the dead could be buried safely.

Never once did she forget the vision that God had imparted to her, but the severity of the earthquake required that she set this sacred call to one side in order to help with the emergency. Only when the chaos from the earthquake had settled did she once again take to the drawing boards, driven by her desire to build a powerful and beautiful church so that many people could belong and become who God had intended them to be.

Finally, shortly before her death, Ekko was able to gather together the money required for the new church building. Although she was, by this time, close to death, Ekko lived long enough to see the first church being built and used by the people.

It is said to this day that Ekko had actually accomplished her task of building a church three times during her life rather than simply once—the first two being more beautiful and radiant than the last.”