According to some reports, the wildfires that burned much of the wine country of Northern California were the most destructive in the state’s history. One of my friends, who lives in the area, told me privately that he was prepared for an earthquake but never envisioned wildfires.
The wildfires in the wine country of Northern California were an unexpected, unprecedented event. As far as I know, the source of the fires has not been identified. The wildfires covered an area with a radius of approximately one hundred miles. Scores of people were killed, and thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed.
Local firefighters were largely untrained and unprepared for this type of calamity and were quickly overwhelmed by its size and scope. First responder support from other regions poured into the area. In addition, the National Guard was called up to help the police maintain order and guard against looting.
In Santa Rosa, the largest city in the wine country, the situation was out of control for more than a week. Approximately one-third of the residents were evacuated. Hotels were full. Shelters were packed and many displaced residents moved in with family and friends. To leave the roads clear for first responders, government officials asked citizens not to drive unless necessary. Food and gas remained available but protective breathing masks were quickly in short supply. The air quality was toxic due to the fires and people scrambled to find ways to filter the air for breathing. Electricity and natural gas were unavailable at many homes. Business activity virtually shut down. Human suffering will be protracted. The need for material and spiritual support will be enormous. The recovery process will be long and arduous. Initial estimates of the property loss were more than one billion dollars.
Notwithstanding the severity of this natural disaster, there is an opportunity for the Christian community to serve the citizens of the city of Santa Rosa and the surrounding area. This role is not new for them; the Christians of Santa Rosa have ecumenically performed service projects for the city in the past. This service was well received and built a bridge of trust between the city leaders and the Christian community. There is now an opportunity for Christians to again serve the local community. And if the Christian community responds well, this could positively transform the people of Santa Rosa and the surrounding regions both physically and spiritually.
If the focus of the support is simply to help people physically rebuild and resume their lives as before, most likely there will be little spiritual change in the people. Anyone—Christians or non-Christians—choosing to help can accomplish physical rebuilding.
Christians, however, are uniquely equipped to help people both tangibly and intangibly. Indeed, Christians have a responsibility to do more than just help meet tangible physical needs. Christianity is evangelical in nature. Therefore, it is the responsibility of every follower of Christ to seek to bring others to Christ. Christians should always seek opportunities to bear witness of the saving grace of Christ. What better opportunity to share Christ than the rebuilding of a community devastated by wildfires?
As some have noted, these tragic wildfires could be the finest hour for the Christian community in Northern California. Christians know that God works through pain and suffering to transform the hearts of people (James 1:2ff). The Old Testament Jewish people are an example of how God uses pain and suffering to challenge his people to repent (Deuteronomy 28). Now amid heart-wrenching pain, suffering, death, and destruction, there is a redemptive opportunity for the Christian community to provide compassionate care through physical and spiritual support.
This opportunity requires sensitivity to both the physical and spiritual needs of people. Not only do the people need physical aid and support, they also need Christ. Physical aid and support has value for this life, but knowing Christ and living as a disciple of Christ has value not only now but for eternity. If you believe the ultimate reality of physical existence will be physical death and that spiritual reality transcends physical death, then the spiritual need is the seminal need.
If you embrace this perspective, you cannot meet only the temporal physical needs and ignore the spiritual needs. To do so would be tantamount to endorsing the lifestyle of the people before the wildfires. If before the wildfires most of the people had no viable answer to the issue of physical death, then physical aid alone will only encourage them to return to living as before—under the doom of death.
But Christianity offers a viable solution to the issue of physical death. Christianity contends that Christ alone is the answer; this means that Christ is the singular solution. The solution is eternal life through Christ.
Coming to a saving knowledge of Christ does not eliminate temporal physical death but provides a way to eternal life. All human beings, other than those alive at the return of Christ, will die physically. And all human beings will be resurrected and accountable for their lives before God (Revelation 20). Only those who know Christ will pass this judgment to eternal life; everyone else will experience the second death. Therefore, notwithstanding the need for and importance of physical aid, the ultimate and greatest gift that someone can give to another is to bring him or her to an acceptance of eternal life through Christ.
Consequently, there is now a wonderful, and arguably unique, opportunity for the Christian community of Northern California to come to the aid of suffering people who need to rebuild their lives both physically and spiritually.
It is important to note that the door of opportunity for the spiritual is through the physical. The Christian community needs a divine strategy to redeem this opportunity. The temptation will be, however, to simply focus on the tangible needs and miss the opportunity to meet the most important need of all. What should the Christian community do to avoid missing this opportunity? Here are some thoughts for consideration:
- The leaders of the Christian community should gather ecumenically to humbly seek the Lord in prayer regarding a divine strategy for meeting the physical and spiritual needs of the people of Northern California.
- These leaders need to develop a plan to train the Christian community tactically in how to meet the spiritual needs of the people in the process of meeting their physical needs.
- The Christian leaders need to develop biblical training and the Christian community needs to submit to the training. Each person needs to specifically identify and train for his or her assignment and accordingly be supported by the leaders.
- Physical and spiritual resources need to be identified and strategically deployed to efficaciously meet the tangible and intangible needs of the people.
- The Christian community needs to be accountable to the leaders to maximize the opportunity for an effective rebuilding effort that brings honor and glory to Christ as measured by the fruit of transformed lives.
Obviously, this is an enormous task. The Christian community in Northern California will need help from Christians in other parts of the country and from around the world. Those of us connected to this Christian community need to seek the Lord to discern what we can do to help.
As tragic as this situation is, it is a wonderful opportunity for spiritual transformation. It is an opportunity to literally bring beauty out of ashes. It is an opportunity for the Christians of Northern California to model for the world how to disciple a city and a region. It is an opportunity for the Christians around the world to help their brothers and sisters in Northern California practice servant evangelism and disciple a community.
May all of us who are called to be engaged in this noble task of bringing beauty out of ashes respond as we should. May we have the requisite vision and grace to embrace this challenge and to help meet the physical and spiritual needs of the people of Northern California. And may spiritual transformation be the fruit and a common occurrence in the wine country of Northern California in the days, months, and years to come.
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