One of the arguments that I have witnessed that liberals use against evangelical Christians is that we don’t care for those who are suffering and we don’t do things that help people who are misfortunate. They see us as being more concerned with doctrine, buildings, keeping ourselves comfortable or supporting missions overseas. My response to that is “guilty as charged!” One of the reasons that evangelical or should I say more fundamental evangelicals have avoided more of the compassion or mercy minded ministries is that it was connected with a social gospel approach and a mindset of providing services for the needy and possibly sharing Christ. To be honest, the fundys were right and the liberals were right. On one hand conservatives are do nothings. And the liberals forgot Christ and the need for salvation as being more of a problem then having a house or food!
Now reality - the fact is that much of the money for social programming comes from conservatives. A matter of fact, most of your money for missions activities have come from more of the conservative side of evangelicalism, it always does. The problem is that when we needed people to actually roll up their sleeves and minister personally to the destitute – we stayed home. This perception needs to change, therefore conservative people and for the sake of my argument, churches, need to be involved with community service more. There has been a movement in this area but not enough. I have seen and am very thankful for the change I see coming in that more and more evangelical are supporting groups like Habitat for Humanity; feed the Children; even catholic charities – who are on the frontlines of mercy ministries. Money is not enough.
One of the things that has excited me about our church is the annual “In and Out Sunday.” Where we take the resources IN the church and make it available OUT in the community. We cancel the Sunday service….and mobilize the entire congregation to do acts of service and “good works” in the community. NOT direct evangelism – but loving acts of service and kindness. When the church begins to engage in community service; gains the respect of the watching world; bridges lasting relationships in the community and then kindly expresses how their faith is the motivating factor – those in the community will be more open. As Jesus said in Matthew’s gospel – “we do good works…our Heavenly Father gets glorified.”