This is the third of several posts that we will be doing to explore Mission, Missions, and Short Term Mission Trips together. Check out Dr. Rasmussen’s thoughts on ways to get better results from Short Term Mission Trip and Pastor Tom Flaherty’s thoughts on The Heartbeat of Missions.
by Jim Reimer
I grew up in a setting where the “social gospel” was considered, at best, a misguided form of Christianity, and at worst, an outright departure from the true purpose of the evangelical church. The axiom instead was “get ’em saved.”
At the same time, the world was increasingly criticizing the church as hypocrites and irrelevant to mainstream society. We Christians shrugged it off. For anyone struggling with poverty issues, we assumed it was “their fault.” The responsibility of helping the poor was left to governments, liberal churches, and social agencies.
All this, I now believe, is a massive departure from the teaching of Christ and the entire theme of the Bible. God has always been concerned about the poor. He even provided in the Old Testament law for the disenfranchised. Consider the following:
Do not deny justice to the poor (see Exod. 23:3).
Leave food in the fields for the poor (see Lev. 19:10 and 23:22).
Don’t charge interest to the poor (see Lev. 25:35-36).
Don’t turn the poor man into a slave (see Lev. 25:39).
Don’t take advantage of a poor man (see Deut. 24:14).
“If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother” (Deut. 15:7).
This last verse really gets down to our attitude. Are we softhearted and openhanded, or hardhearted and tightfisted? Verse 11 of this chapter actually commands us to be openhanded towards the needy and poor.
Today in spite of our elaborate social safety nets in both Canada and the United States, I believe it is the church that has been given the mandate to care for the poor, to show justice, and help those who cannot help themselves. The welfare of the poor is not an option to be left to the state or other agencies. Isaiah prophesied that the hallmark of the coming Messiah’s ministry would be an anointing “to preach good news to the poor … to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness from the prisoners … to comfort all who mourn” (61:1-2). Jesus would be focused not on the rich and well positioned in society, but on the outcast, the troubled, and poor.
Twenty years ago we planted Kootenay Christian Fellowship in Nelson, British Columbia, a lakeside town of about 10,000 people. We decided this would be a church that reaches out to the disenfranchised people of our community. (God knows there are a lot of them, and maybe there could be a lot less if we could get our priorities straight.) So we went to the street. And street people started to come.
During this time, four dirty, dreadlocked, drug-addicted “travelers” came to our street outreach. It was a cold, rainy night. They were hungry and wet. Because it was our value to take people in, one of our new converts from the street took them to their home and gave them access to a shower, food and beds.
Three of the four gave their hearts to the Lord and were baptized. Here’s what happened thereafter:
One immediately grew like a wildfire and cleaned up, was a great blessing in our church, and is now studying anthropology in university.
Another, immediately after baptism, went on the road not to be heard from again … for a few years, that is. Then suddenly he showed up in church looking like a new man and announced he was studying to be a pastor. Today he is serving in a ministerial capacity.
The third individual struggled with drugs and street culture for a long time, but remained connected to our church. We continued to feed him, love him, encourage him, and embrace him. He was unable to find work, so we hired him in the church’s secondhand store called S.H.A.R.E (Supporting Humanity And Responsible Ecology). Today he is drug-free and married, living a productive, responsible life.
The fourth individual never left the streets, eventually committing suicide. I preached his funeral service, with many attending from the street and drug culture.
Jesus talked to his disciples about how he intended his people to stand out from the rest of society. He knew that when it came to “religions,” there would be many of them, and if the subject was “devotion,” many people would be devout. But he said very clearly that we would distinguish ourselves from all the rest by the way we love one another (John 13:35). Love is not abstract; it has a practical manifestation in how we treat each other.
“Fiona” (name changed) came to our Sunday night dinners to see if we were real. She was certainly from a different religion; she was a high priestess in Wicca. She had never had a church experience, hated Christians-but was intrigued with KCF. Her curiosity was stirred, because we didn’t fit the stereotype of what her religion said Christians were like.
She began to attend our services, and today she is a strong, baptized member of our congregation. Her conversion was a result of our loving attitude, exampled by good works in ministry to the poor and disadvantaged in our community.
What Do Sheep Do?
When we stand before God on that great and terrible day described in Matthew 25, our discipleship will be measured. The Son of Man will separate the “sheep” from the “goats.” Now of course, we evangelicals know that the sheep are Christ’s followers, while the goats are not.
How will Jesus sort out the crowd before him? This parable makes it is clear what sheep do and what goats do. Those that are sheep will:
- Give food and drink to the hungry
- Make room for the stranger
- Clothe the needy
- Care for the sick
- Visit people in prison (which is code language for showing hospitality and love to social outcasts)
The goats, meanwhile, will not-and will make excuses why they don’t.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world” (Matt. 25:34).
The church today will be blessed if we take up this mandate as a fundamental mission of the church. We will be blessed in eternity as well.
This has to be more than being nice to the one mentally challenged person in the congregation, taking up a Christmas offering for the Salvation Army, or organizing a quarterly “church potluck” dinner to which the homeless are invited. (What do we think they will eat during the intervening three months?) These tokens of helping the poor are simply designed to assuage our guilt, relieve our uneasiness, and make us feel “good” about our ministry to the community.
God has called us to do good works. They have to be more than superficial or surface level. They must be born out of the heart of God.
Saved for What?
The scripture “badge” of the evangelical church is Ephesians 2:8-9. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast.” We all certainly like to emphasize this last phrase!
However, keep reading. The reason we are saved comes next, in verse 10. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
When Jesus announced his ministry by reading the Isaiah prophecy (see Luke 4:21), all eyes were upon him. “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing,” he said. Ministry to the poor, social justice, and speaking for those who can’t speak for themselves was never intended to cease with his death. In fact, it did not; read about the very early church, where “they gave to anyone as he had need” (Acts 2:45). As a result, “there were no needy persons among them” (Acts 4:34) because individuals shared and helped one another. Acts 2:47 reports that there was praise in the church and favour among the people, and the church enjoyed unprecedented growth.
The contrast to the Jewish majority must have been astonishing. Their law taught that this should be happening, but apparently it wasn’t. Now they were seeing the disciples of Jesus’ faith working out in practical terms. As a result, it broke down much resistance towards Christ.
I wonder, could it be the same today? The world knows how the church should act. If we only did, collectively and purposely, then the world might believe our message too.
Jim Reimer is pastor of Kootenay Christian Fellowship in Nelson, British Columbia.
Postscript:
Kootenay Christian Fellowship operates a hot-lunch program (soup kitchen) for about 80 guest per day, five days a week. This costs about $70,000 per year. It also operates a secondhand store called S.H.A.R.E. Nelson, which has the following goals:
- Provide funds to sponsor humanitarian projects
- Provide employment opportunities
- Provide a training ground for those who are hard to employ
- Reduce the landfills by putting recycled home goods back into the community.
The majority of people attending KCF are under 40 years old. They are highly mobile, and we experience a 20-30 percent attrition each year. This is due to young people getting cleaned up and moving away to attend school, obtain jobs, or be reconciled with family.
The only way we could continue at our present level is due to our God’s favor on our church. Our staff consists of one pastor, one administration person, one cook, and seven full-time-equivalent personnel in our store. In addition, more than 50 percent of our congregation is active in some ministry of the church.[Jim Reimer] you can find us at www.
