Can Just One Person Make a Difference?
The answer to that is, definitely, YES.

The "Power of One" is vastly underestimated. Just one person can change the world -- and history is full of examples.

Part of our core purpose is to promote the ministry of our members to one another and to others. We hope to inspire one another to "love and serve the Lord," to develop a "can do" attitude, to find a need and fill it, to respond to Jesus' call: "as the Father has sent me, so send I you."

Very little real ministry has to do with religious buildings, religious gatherings, and religious services. Most real ministry is done by faithful people simply doing what faithful people do for the good of others, whatever that happens to be

Here at St Marks you will find MANY examples of people making a difference, inside and outside the parish walls. Some have devoted their lives and careers to finding solutions to problems that literally plague our world. Others devote their lives and careers to shaping young minds. Others devote their lives and careers to saving the lives of those in harm's way: to save the lives of fire fighters, law enforcement, or those serving in the military. Still others give their time, energy, expertise, and wealth to outreach ministries rising from St Marks.

The late Peter Jennings created the "Person of the Week" feature on ABC News, which celebrates, highlights, and more importantly, models how individual people, regardless of their talents, skills, resources, status, power, or position, not only can, but do make a significant impact. The lesson is clear: If these people can change our world, so can we. "Person of the Week" demonstrates well how we live out our vows in the Baptismal Covenant.

Here are some other real life examples found by ABC News:
Rye Barcott, Austin Lee, Lindsey Adams, Doris Vortier, Linda Nealon

Interestingly, Maslowe's famous "heirarchy of needs" offers the surprising and helpful insight that our efforts to serve others is more than just what the world needs from us: It's something we deeply need for ourselves. It is a common but understandable mistake to think about ministry only in terms of meeting needs toward the lower end of the scale. At the lower end, it is easier to imagine what is needed. For example, it is relatively simple to figure out how to supply food, clothing, shelter, medicine or blood.

But it is a common mistake to think that, once our basic needs are met, the result is that we have fewer needs. In reality, as we move up the scale, our needs are not diminished. Rather, once our more basic needs are met, we must face our more complex and abstract needs. We discover needs of another kind, requiring us to think about what we need in a different way.

At the higher end of the scale, living becomes dependent not on getting something that is lacking, but on giving something that we have. Once our more basic needs are met, we discover our more complex needs. These needs MUST be met in order for life to have meaning. Just as certainly as we need food, clothing, and shelter, we also need to give, serve, and sacrifice. We need to make a difference. We must attend to our needs both at the lower end AND at the higher end of the scale. Sometimes we desperately need to get something we don't have... and sometimes we desperately need to give something we do have.

For the healing of the world, we need to attend to both ends of the scale: not only to provide the raw, most basic needs of so many in our world, but also to inspire, challenge, and provide oppotunities for service: to give, serve, and sacrifice for others. 		maslowe

Related to this, John Stossel on the 20/20 program (also from ABC News) took an inspiring look at how Americans (especially religious Americans) make a difference in the world through voluntarism and charitable giving. To read some of this positive and exciting story, see "Are Americans Cheap? Or Charitable?". At LEAST read the wonderful story about what one Maryland church (Methodist) did in Zambia at the end of the article, half way down on (page 3).

Finally, you might enjoy seeing the Index of Global Philanthropy which evaluates clearly the assumptions and practices that make real impact on poverty. Again, for us at St Marks, reading this should be an exciting and inspiring experience, for we can see clearly how we are in much more of a position to make a significant difference than we thought -- and are already doing so.

Let us go forth to love and serve the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

come and serve
St Mark's Episcopal Church
12700 Hall Shop Rd, Highland, MD 20777
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St Marks is convenient to Clarksville MD, Columbia MD, and Laurel MD,
in Howard County, half-way between Baltimore and Washington DC.


Click here for a map and directions.