My heart fell through tonight as I listened to “60 Minutes” tell me that one out of every four children in our country now lives in poverty. This is the highest number since the Great Depression, and there is nothing on the horizon to make me believe this number won’t get higher.  And we still are talking about Nation Building in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Give me a break. Please. It’s time to focus our attention and our money on rebuilding our own country before it’s too late.  We’ve spent $1,250,000,000,000 on these two wars and we are closing schools and cutting back on education, and we have more people on food stamps now than ever in our history other than during the Great Depression. Where is the sanity in all of this?

And please don’t make this a political statement, because it’s not. Both parties are equally guilty. This situation is not a political issue; it is a moral issue.

So I want to make two challenges.

Challenge One: I want to challenge every church in the U.S.  to adopt at least one homeless family of four living below the poverty level of $22,000 a year.  What would happen if the 450,000+ churches in the U.S. adopted at least one family? Some megachurches could adopt ten, twenty, or thirty families.

Challenge Two: I also want to make a challenge to our politicians – either focus on rebuilding our nation or get out of the way. Quit the double talk and the campaign rhetoric and man up.

Question: What are some practical steps church leaders can take to help end poverty in the US? Share your ideas in the Comments section below.

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