Tue 24 Oct 2006
I was listening the other day to NPR’s Fresh Air. Hostess Terri Gross was having a discussion about the White House’s “Faith Based Initiatives” with David Kuo, author of Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction.
Though Kuo’s point was that he felt that the faith-based initiatives program had been used to draw in religious leaders with promises that were not kept, I couldn’t help but find my mind wandering to other points brought up by the program.
On the one hand, we might view Bush’s idea of giving many community outreach programs to churches and community outreach groups as a good thing. On the other, we might ask why churches weren’t doing these things all along and why it has taken yet another government initiative to remind us of these things.
James says in 1:27 that: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” James says that the faith that is real and active and “pure” is that faith which is lived out of love for the sake of God and others.
Jesus, when speaking of the final judgment in Matthew 25:31-40 says that what we do to the “least of these,” we do to Him and among the actions He commends His hearers to do are feeding and clothing the poor. In an interesting command, God, in Jeremiah 29:7 commands the peole of the exile to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” In other words, God’s people are to naturally be doing the very things that this Republican White House has tried to encourage churches to do. We must once again ask why it is that more of our churches are not doing these things to begin with.
For many, the answer is probably, at least in part, a knee-jerk reaction against the “social gospel” movement which focused on acts of service to the detriment of the preached Word, the real reason why we do acts of service in the first place. For others, it probably never occurs to them that churches ought to be involved in such ministries because they have never seen this, because the government takes care of these things.
Over the years, churches seem to have continually abdicated our role as community servant. As we have, the need does not diminish, so naturally, someone is going to pick up the distribution of these services and in most cases, it has been the government. Once these services are taken over by the government, the moral attachment that comes by necessity with the preached Word, that component that convicts laziness and exhorts hard work for the sake of God goes missing and now many people feel entitled to these same services, which in turn, breeds a dependence on the welfare state.
We as Christians are to be about love. Love of God and love of others. We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). This love is to begin within the local Body, so much so that Jesus goes so far as to say in John 13:35, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Does your community know that your church is full of Christ’s disciples because of your love for one another? Does this love then overflow into the surrounding community? Yes, we must preach the Gospel at every chance, we can never lose sight of that, any service devoid of Gospel content is not satisfactory for the Church, but the preached Gospel must also be the lived Gospel.
As Paul reminds Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:16, we are to keep a close watch not only on our teaching, but on our lives as well and our lives must be marked by love and our love will be lived out in service. We need to lovingly encourage our churches to take back their role in reaching each local community and truly being that “city set on a hill” (Matthew 5:14).
- Read Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction by David Kuo
- Read The Hospitality Commands by Alexander Strauch
on 24 Oct 2006 at 8:53 am 1.Harvey said …
Do you have few responses because you’re stepping on our toes? You are of course, hitting the “nail on the head”. And our toes!
on 24 Oct 2006 at 7:45 pm 2.Bryan Riley said …
I agree with the thought that the failure of many of the churches to address social injustice is the result of a knee jerk reaction against the social gospel movement. Unfortunately, that attitude just further illustrates our hypocrisy and lack of love. We must be full of truth and full of grace. They are not independent for the Christian life.
on 24 Oct 2006 at 11:05 pm 3.Amber said …
I have another log to throw on the fire.. if the church WERE to start trying to take of care of the needs to a greater extent rather than leaving it to the governemnt, would they be able to do so? Isn’t it true that it’s typically a small percentage of the congregation that conributes to the majority of the church’s budget? And isn’t it usually true that it’s the same people you see stepping up to serve over and over again? Some churches may be better than others, and personally, I think our church tries hard to focus on meeting the needs of it’s own members, but still, would we (not just our church, but churches, plural) have the money and the manpower to accomplish as much as would be needed, or even almost as much? We all know that tithing and giving is a topic a lot of people don’t want to hear about..preach about anything, just don’t touch their wallet. And also, many people don’t want to hear about giving time, either. Wouldn’t you agree that in addition to “the knee-jerk reaction” it’s also true that a lot of people don’t have a heart to help and don’t (or don’t want to) think about “what you do to the least of these, you do to me.” Just as we ought to pray for a heart that aches for the lost and has a desire to reach them, we must also pray for a heart that yearns to serve and is willing to give.
on 25 Oct 2006 at 9:30 am 4.Tami said …
Yes, yes, yes, Brent. I agree with you about the church abdicating our role in our communities. It does all stem from lack of trusting in the power of the preached Word. Isn’t it ironic that the social gospel movement left the Bible behind (in some sense), yet the Bible is we where learn how to truly love and serve the poor, widowed, and orphaned. Most importantly, we learn that physical needs pale in comparison to the greatest, most real need- the true gospel of grace.
Thanks for the thoughts, and for the NPR update- gotta love Terri! (I sometimes find her rancor towards conservatives and Christians almost palpable.)
-Tami
(p.s. I changed my blog to http://www.hereatourhouse.blogspot.com)
on 25 Oct 2006 at 3:07 pm 5.Dan Trabue said …
This is one area where, when those who complain about welfare get started, I’m quick to point out that there is NOT A THING stopping churches from tackling poverty problems. Just because the state has poverty programs doesn’t mean that we can’t have some, too.
If “conservative” types want to abolish welfare programs, all they have to do is take care of the problems on their own. I’m of the mind that usually anyone other than the gov’t can do a better job. But if others aren’t taking care of a job, then apparently a majority of the US believes it wise fiscally and socially to have the state intervene.