We’re in a series about being the church and touching our city. Yesterday I talked about Nehemiah. When his brother came to see him, Nehemiah writes, “I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.” Before Nehemiah took one step toward Jerusalem, he wanted to know what was going on there. When it comes to making a difference in a city, in people’s lives, the first thing we need to do is get the facts, find out what’s up. Even though the stats and the info might be hard to hear, it’s the starting place if you want to make a difference. Too often, our efforts lack the strategic edge because we’re not in the know.

I shared quite a few stats yesterday and read from two important articles that will no doubt frame up some new initiatives for us as a church. They both center around the fact that Memphis leads the nation in infant deaths. It’s an epidemic that’s been going on for years, but I wasn’t even aware of it until a month ago. The hardest hit area is North Memphis’ 38108 zip code. The 38108 zip code is said to be deadlier for babies than Vietnam, El Salvador and Iran. Here are the links to those two articles. Read them prayerfully.

Commercial Appeal Article
MSNBC.com Article