In Paul’s final instruction he urges Titus to remind the people of God to devote themselves to good deeds, so that they may help those with urgent needs. Unfortunately for us, Paul does not spell out what these urgent needs are. However, this is a very sensible point, which is sometimes overlooked in our day and age. Even among “spiritual people” the idea of urgent needs is passed over, in my opinion. To make this point makes me a bit uneasy, as I do not presume to know what the “urgent” needs are of the church with perfect vision.

With that said, I will go out on a limb and name a few urgent needs as I see them. First, we need to build the networks for world missions, while there is time. More specifically, the building of infrastructure is essential, if the church is going to grow even during hard time. There has to be more resources poured out in the East, as the West is much wealthier in many areas. To put it more pointedly, churches in the West need to pray for, build up, give more, and send more people to “unreached” groups of the world. As the economy slows and the world becomes a more difficult place to live, thinking of others will be harder. If we do not support now, we will most likely not support later.

Prayer and worship are also urgent, as I see it. There are so many distractions and voices in our world that it is hard to discern anything. It is hard to sustain devotion. What we need is greater discernment and we are only going to get this through corporate worship and prayer. The obvious challenge is that we are all busy doing many good things. However, what is better is the posture of Mary, who chose to sit at the feet of Christ. Wisdom and strength will be the outcome. With this wisdom and strength, we will be in a position to know what are the urgent needs with greater discernment.