Friday, June 27, 2008
Healing and preaching...
The ministry of Jesus featured two prominent activities: serving people (healing, feeding, etc.) and preaching the good news of salvation. I have recently been involved in a number of discussions about the mission and purpose of the church...most of which center around the idea of serving people. Let me share three of those discussions, along with my concerns about them.
One of the hot trends among churches today is to partner with human resource agencies to help people. That is, instead of maintaining a food pantry you refer people to the local agency that does that. Your congregation may contribute to stock the food and you encourage your members to be involved. This enables you to really serve the community more efficiently.
So who gets the credit for these activities? Does God get the glory, or the agency? Are people led to marvel at the love God's family has and thus want to know how to become a part of this family?
Our own congregation at Southern Hills has been asked to think about the following question: if we were to close our doors tomorrow, would the community even realize we ceased to exist. In other words, what kind of difference are we making in the community?
Is the function of the church to serve the community? Or, are we to worship God, encourage each other to go out and serve and teach, and help each other to live faithful lives for Jesus? What really is the mission and function of the church?
Finally, I have been in several discussions about the enthusiasm people have for digging water wells, building houses, and making a difference in the physical well being of third world countries (or disaster stricken cities in our country). It is easy to raise money for these projects, or staff "mission" trips for these efforts, or generate enthusiasm for these projects. It is not so easy to raise money for evangelistic efforts, or staff a vacation Bible school, or be excited about evangelism.
Do you even have to be a Christian to participate in some of these campaigns? Why do we not have the same desire to tell someone the story of Jesus as we do to provide clean drinking water?
Finally, I believe service is an incredible door opener to talk about Jesus. But if all we do is serve people, have we really helped them in the long run? I believe in serving people... it is a way of connecting to their lives and gives me authenticity and credibility to talk about Jesus. But I worry that if we are not careful, there will not be much difference between us and a civic club. You know, pray a prayer, sing a song, serve the community. Have we made the Great Commission a call to"seek and serve" the lost rather than to seek and save" the lost?
Jesus came to this earth to save the lost. He served a lot of people. He encouraged his disciples to do so also. But that was not their mission. Service is a means to an end...not the end.
So... am I way off base here or not?
One of the hot trends among churches today is to partner with human resource agencies to help people. That is, instead of maintaining a food pantry you refer people to the local agency that does that. Your congregation may contribute to stock the food and you encourage your members to be involved. This enables you to really serve the community more efficiently.
So who gets the credit for these activities? Does God get the glory, or the agency? Are people led to marvel at the love God's family has and thus want to know how to become a part of this family?
Our own congregation at Southern Hills has been asked to think about the following question: if we were to close our doors tomorrow, would the community even realize we ceased to exist. In other words, what kind of difference are we making in the community?
Is the function of the church to serve the community? Or, are we to worship God, encourage each other to go out and serve and teach, and help each other to live faithful lives for Jesus? What really is the mission and function of the church?
Finally, I have been in several discussions about the enthusiasm people have for digging water wells, building houses, and making a difference in the physical well being of third world countries (or disaster stricken cities in our country). It is easy to raise money for these projects, or staff "mission" trips for these efforts, or generate enthusiasm for these projects. It is not so easy to raise money for evangelistic efforts, or staff a vacation Bible school, or be excited about evangelism.
Do you even have to be a Christian to participate in some of these campaigns? Why do we not have the same desire to tell someone the story of Jesus as we do to provide clean drinking water?
Finally, I believe service is an incredible door opener to talk about Jesus. But if all we do is serve people, have we really helped them in the long run? I believe in serving people... it is a way of connecting to their lives and gives me authenticity and credibility to talk about Jesus. But I worry that if we are not careful, there will not be much difference between us and a civic club. You know, pray a prayer, sing a song, serve the community. Have we made the Great Commission a call to"seek and serve" the lost rather than to seek and save" the lost?
Jesus came to this earth to save the lost. He served a lot of people. He encouraged his disciples to do so also. But that was not their mission. Service is a means to an end...not the end.
So... am I way off base here or not?
