Mercy.Justice.Descipleship. Part 3b/3

 Okay, so this entry on our thinking journey is going to include a good deal of quoting.  Quite simply, ministry-focused topics need to pull in thought and scholarship from around the church.  Let’s be thankful the writing is out there as we work in collaboration.

Let me note at the outset that, in my opinion, Randy Nabor’s book Merciful, The Opportunity and Challenge of Discipling the Poor Out of Poverty, is my gold standard book on the topic of Mercy Ministry in the local church.  I say this in spite of the book’s decidedly urban vision.  I must say “in spite of” because the work of Metokos focuses on the 900+ churches in the PCA, and others like them, that have memberships of 100 or less – and they are mostly in small towns.  Some of these small towns are dying communities where the local sustainable economies are eroding as they move from being producing communities to bedroom communities.  As people move into their new bedrooms, we have newcomers, that is, strangers reflecting Don MacNair’s 3Es of educational, economic and ethnic diversity. Transitional communities present Mercy Ministry challenges we can address with Discipleship.  Remember, collaboration is the key – working together at the same time.  Here is Randy’s definition of mercy:

“Mercy is compassion toward those who are in need, resulting in action to alleviate that need through acts of charity leading toward self-sustainment…I like to tell people that mercy as it pertains to the poor consists of two parts: charity (or relief…) and development…Charity (merciful relief) is the response of love to immediate human needs. Development is mercy extended to the poor in ways that empower them to help themselves, not only so they can become independent, but also merciful to others…Therefore, mercy – if it is done well- requires a relationship that builds and fosters accountability.” ( p. xxix)

The book may have an urban vision, but, friends, the preceding quote definitely covers folks in those bedroom communities as well as the concrete jungle.  Read for the principles and put them into your personal context.

At the end of Mathew’s gospel we can read what Jesus said to his disciples on that mountain top,

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

As I explained in my preceding entry, parts of the church in recent decades replaced Christ’s first instruction to make disciples with evangelism. The church looked for converts, not disciples. Occasionally a church can fall for the modern solution, that is, find the One Thing – the single point of failure – fix it, and everything will be healthy. The focus on a balance of making disciples and conversion experiences is one of the issues that drew me to Dr. D. James Kennedy’s Evangelism Explosion when I was first exposed to EE in 1972 in Dr. Robert Rayburn’s Covenant Seminary pastoral theology/evangelism class.

Here is what Dr. Kennedy had to say about discipleship and the health of a local church,

 “Some churches have entered into evangelism programs without considering their spiritual health. Tragedy can be the result. Leaders need to work constantly on the health of the local congregation so that there can be responsible reproduction and growth in the local church. (p.ix)

Jesus said, ‘By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, because you love one another.’ He said we are one in him, ‘the world will know that God has sent him.’ The loving unity of God’s people, living in a disciplined relationship with each other under the authority and the love of God, becomes a demonstration to the world of the power and the truth of the gospel. Though the precepts of the gospel may be proclaimed to an individual in a few minutes, their reality must be lived out in a lifetime of relationship within the body of Christ. This is properly called body evangelism. The corporate witness to the life-transforming truth of the gospel in the local church becomes the backdrop for individual proclamation. Individual proclamation without the reality will always be somewhat limited. Also, the individual proclamation is to build the local body in spirit and size. Christ is not interested in proclamation for its own sake. He is building his church.” (emphasis added)

Yes, evangelism is part of the discipleship ministry in a local church – and a healthy local church also worships and also has a ministry of mercy. Dr. Kennedy understood the need for a healthy local church that lived out what he called “body evangelism.” (p.xi, x) “The corporate witness to the life-transforming truth of the gospel in the local church becomes the backdrop for individual proclamation.”  Mercy ministries are often the way we witness to the world that we love one another and that God has sent his son.

Mercy, as defined in Randy’s book, requires a relationship.  The relationship must be a life-transforming relationship, not simply a “5-sessions-and-you’re-done” relationship. Sure, expect disappointments and detours in this mercy relationship, but remember the goal of the relationship is to empower the poor to help themselves and then to help others.

So how does this mercy-as-a-stool-leg happen in a local healthy church? Again, we can take a lesson from Dr. Kennedy. Just as he designed a discipleship program for evangelism, the local, healthy church can design a discipleship program for people who will be part of the mercy ministry.  If we study the history of EE, it adapted to change and to the needs of the culture and local churches. Mercy ministries, the same as EE, will need to adapt and change, but never forget that EE’s constant was/is a disciple relationship. So should it be with churches. A local church may need to learn from another church in the community that has an active mercy ministry. The PCA provides resources to help build a solid foundation, available through the denomination’s Mission to North America.

Back to Randy Nabors and Merciful,

“Pastors need to train deacons and other practitioners of mercy in the congregation. As with evangelism, this is better caught than taught…If a pastor doesn’t know how to train a deacon, or isn’t sure of what they should be doing, he should consult with a pastor who does know and whose church has an active and effective diaconate…Eventually, once deacons are trained, the pastor can give the ministry of mercy totally over to the deacons, …the pastor needs to give mercy ministry away to qualified men and women. However, he must have a heart for those in need…”(pp. 214, 215)

As pastors are training their congregations’ leadership,  the instruction in the principles of discipleship for new Christians needs to go beyond the needed confessional, creed content, doctrine, Scripture reading, prayer, public and private worship, and personal holiness. It needs to proceed to Christian community life, loving one another and striving to live a generous life.  Principles of discipleship need to include the words of Paul that he wrote concerning the generous life reflecting the glad and generous hearts of Acts 2:46. Listen to Paul’s last words to the Ephesian elders on his discipleship model of showing how to do mercy ministry in Acts 20,

“I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel.  You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

A disciple will remember the words of Jesus, “It is more blessed to give than receive” and Paul’s words, “we must help the weak.”  Disciples of Jesus Christ in a healthy church will be glad and generous and beyond to reflect their union in Jesus Christ, their faith and repentance.

To flesh out the work of a church in the area of mercy and discipleship, Merciful offers practical chapters on Developing Policy, Analyzing the Need, Creating Structure To Meet Needs, Developing Proper Leadership and Programing For Ministry, to name a few.  Chapter 15, “Showing Mercy Across Ethnic and Class Divides” specifically addresses Don MacNair’s 3Es of educational, economic and ethnic issues in a community and local church. On this point, Randy writes on page 109

“All people come from certain ethnic and social context, and this means they interpret the actions and words of others from that context. What you might mean in all sincerity as a gift and an effort to help may be taken as an attempt to control, demean or manipulate.”       

This remark concerning sensitivity to ethnic and social context reminds me of all the training I had and then gave to prepare U.S. military members to go overseas.  Removing your sunglasses, for example, is important in some places because a culture insists people be able to see the eyes of each other. Not looking women in the eyes in order to give no offense is also imperative in some places.  In the U.S. we have huggers and people who will do anything NOT to be hugged.  Knowing when to hug and whom to hug requires not only sensitivity but also the realization that it is not about you.  We learn sensitivity to people from other ethnic and social backgrounds by interaction with people who are outside our daily lives and, perhaps, our comfort zone.  Time, trial and error, questioning others who are farther along in a mercy journey – all are necessary as we work to make sure others do not see our gift “as an attempt to control, demean or manipulate.”

In my previous entry, I recounted issues of trauma and our reaction to it. I say again, in discipling people for mercy ministries we need to expose Christian disciples to the dark side of the world we live in today. Consider this sample from an interview with Diane Langberg, Ph.D., printed in byFaith, http://byfaithonline.com/suffering-and-the-heart-of-god/ , about her book, Suffering and the Heart of God.

You explain that, “We blaspheme the name of Christ if we pretend that the evils of genocide, the rape of little children, or the events of a massive earthquake are less than they truly are.” Can you explain?

As Christians we are called to righteousness. You cannot have righteousness without truth. All sin is a lie; a crooked thing. Righteousness declares the truth — not just about good things but also about evil, sin, and suffering. Sometimes the most righteous thing is the facts about evil; facts that need to be named and to which we are called to respond. To pretend that an affair or pornography or hatred of others is a little thing is to deceive ourselves and others. Deception is what the enemy does. To turn away or minimize the rape of a child or ignore genocide is a failure to live in truth. It is, therefore, unrighteous. Also, in reducing evil to little or nothing we fail to see the work of Christ on the cross in truth. There is no evil He has not borne. He carried incest, genocide, war, and trafficking — all of it. Our “little” bit of pornography or “slip” in an affair has wounded Him grievously. When we speak of God’s redemptive work, we are speaking about a sacrifice that covered unspeakable atrocities, such as incest or genocide. We are also speaking of a sacrifice for things we, at our peril, minimize.

If we are His righteous servants, we are to see and speak truth about the wonders of His grace and mercy. We are, as light in this dark world, to “expose the deeds of darkness” (Ephesians 5:11). The God who sees calls His righteous servants to also face the horror of sin from His perspective, whether it is on a massive scale or hidden in our hearts. Righteousness measures and declares the truth.”

Mercy Ministry in a healthy local church is both spiritual and physical because, as Dr. Langberg  points out,  “Deception is what the enemy does.” Often we need to face the many myths about the 3Es. This myth-busting can be a by-product of discipleship relationships as local church members get to know their neighbors as real people instead of statistical or second-hand profiles.  Again, as  Dr. Langberg said, “We are, as light in this dark world, to ‘expose the deeds of darkness’ (Ephesians 5:11).”  

Let us understand, readers, that a mercy ministry is not a quick fix.  It will take a multi-generational commitment by a local church to show mercy in the community and the neighborhood where they have been planted to live and called to minister.

At Metokos Ministries, we stress the collaboration between worship, discipleship and mercy ministries. The head of the church, Jesus Christ, calls the church to all three from the start of ministry to be a healthy church, a revitalized church. That is why we need collaborative leadership, the coming topics in the future Metokos blogs. We need a team for ministry because no one does it alone.

Metokos has the means to help churches as they seek to work toward collaboration and health. Contact me for more information. Also, as usual, share this link with others who could benefit.

Merciful by Randy Nabors is published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, North Charleston, SC, in 2015.  The book has a chapter on Additional Resources with lists of 10 ministries and 16 books.

Mercy. Justice. Worship. Part 3a/3

Easter Day 2016 has come and gone.  Last Sunday, churches everywhere were full of “heartfelt gladness” as described in Acts 2.  But, as we continue this examination of mercy and justice in the context of a revitalized church, we must not forget the other descriptive element given us in Acts 2:46 – generosity.  Every day, not just Easter day, a revitalized church is a healthy church that demonstrates both heartfelt gladness and generosity. After looking at some of the Old and New Testament teachings on mercy and justice, it is time now to explore how to express these biblical concerns in a local church that is on a path toward revitalization.

As I have said before, at Metokos Ministries we help churches in the areas of worship, discipleship and mercy ministries – a three-legged stool that must have three balanced and equally functional legs.  The three areas need to work in this balanced, equal functioning collaboration – at the same time – not sequentially, that is, one after another. We cannot postpone one aspect of the church life until the others are “right.” We cannot postpone one for convenience or comfort. The church is the body of Christ, and he paid for the souls of the church with his blood. Worship, discipleship and mercy ministries – all three in collaboration – make visible to a watching world the presence of, and our union with, the only head of the church, our Lord Jesus Christ.

I emphasize these concepts of collaboration and balance and equality of function because I believe I see that churches have strayed from the collaborative mindset.  Within the PCA denomination, for example, historian Sean Lucas has examined the roots of the church in his book, For a Continuing Church, and his research shows us how the collaborative approach goes against the history and the practice of the Presbyterian Church in America. The denominational roots often, and officially, rejected “social” and “justice” ministries in favor of evangelism and the changes that can follow new life in Christ.  In Lucas’ chapter, “Southern Presbyterians, Billy Graham, and the Mission of the Church,” we read

Other southern Presbyterian conservatives similarly distinguished between their understanding of the church’s mission and the liberals’ understanding. “In our modern age two general positions have been set forth as to what the position is in relation to the social problems of the world,” R.P. Robertson observed. The liberals held that “the Church’s primary emphasis is that of easing suffering, correcting social and economic problems.” Conservatives understood that “the primary message of the Church is the proclamation of the Gospel; that it is the prime duty of the church to make clear to a world dying in sin that the hope is in the Christ of the Gospel.” These questions were the primary ones facing the church: Would the church primarily be a social and educational agency, or would the church be an evangelistic agency? How did social change happen, and how might America be transformed – through education or evangelism? (p. 184. quoted from R.P. Robertson, “What is the Message of the Church,” in The Southern Presbyterian Journal, page 19, on 1 February 1949.)

My point here is that we cannot reduce the work of Jesus, his Church, his kingdom, down to one ministry that is more important than other Jesus-directed/mandated ministries.  The roots of the PCA rightly were concerned with doctrine, but were wrong in opposing a Biblical concern for the poor and opposition to segregation. I point again to Lucas’s book, this time to his fifth chapter “Red and Yellow, Black and White”: Southern Presbyterian Conservatives and the Crises of Postwar America.”  The author devotes over 30 pages to the history of the church’s dealings with issues of race. The discussion ends on page 133 with this paragraph:

This merger of doctrinal, political, racial, and economic conservatism represented the worldview of southern Presbyterian conservatives.  In their minds, it was not possible to separate the strands; the same Bible that taught of Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection was the same Bible that legitimated segregation, championed individualism, and castigated Communism.  The disagreement with PCUS progressives, then, was not whether the Bible spoke to social issues; rather, the disagreement was whether the Bible supported traditionalist or progressive approaches to those issues.  In addition, the two sides differed on the way of achieving social ends: progressives generally favored institutionally driven change through pronouncements, while conservatives desired personal, “natural,” gradual change through evangelistic outreach and conversion.  Those differences would come to be represented more clearly in the decade ahead.

A healthy church will have a visible mercy and justice ministry, a vital worship ministry and a discipleship ministry that includes evangelism addressing all of life, not just the “spiritual.”  People and churches have focused on one ministry while understanding neither the unintended consequences of that choice nor the reason behind that choice.

Remember, again, the concerns for local churches expressed by Dr. Don MacNair:  Education, economics and ethnic differences (3Es) create divisions in our communities and neighborhoods where church members live, worship and minister. We need to create pathways and bridges for long-term relationships in those communities and neighborhoods with people who experience these 3Es differences – in both directions.

In the early ‘70s when my wife and I moved to St. Louis for seminary and graduate school, we attended a church plant located in the inner city near a university. The church began in a home and later moved to a storefront, and members of the fledgling congregation moved into the neighborhood.  Looking back through the 3E filter, I can see that though most of the core group had college degrees, at least, and many were working on post graduate degrees, the neighborhood population was largely poor or working poor.  Also, though a good number of the church’s members were “impoverished” students, and economically had a connection with their neighbors, the reality was that the students, whether St. Louis natives or transplants who had moved to St. Louis to further their education, and their backgrounds were different from those who were there first.  Racially, at least initally, the church was mostly white while the neighborhood was mostly African-American.  Yes, there was definitely the 3E climate there, but the church quickly began to reach out to the neighborhood around the storefront.  Children from the neighborhood attended our Sunday school.  Both morning and afternoon services had fellowship dinners each Sunday – well attended by those neighborhood children and others from the neighborhood. There was, from the start, an active diaconal ministry; a redevelopment ministry grew.  Two co-pastors and elders were a team from the start.  I am recounting here some early efforts of a congregation’s attempt to cross the 3Es.  The church learned many lessons and has persevered in the inner-city to this day, now with a multi-ethnic staff.

As described here, a healthy church works to have a vital, practical, and generous mercy ministry as its members work in building these pathways and bridges by whichever means God shows them. A healthy church also sees concerns for justice as part of Christ’s local church mercy ministry mandate. Jesus’ words in Matthew 25 can motivate, shape, and guide such endeavors: “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me,’” and Paul’s words in Acts 20, “I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

As churches gather to worship, how are justice and mercy to have a role?  Does the following fit your general experience?  When Protestants, in particular Presbyterians, think about worship, that worship tends to have some music, after which there is a jump to the preaching. Now, of course, preaching, historically, has been a mark of the true church. Let’s look at some healthy collaboration between preaching and mercy ministries and then consider other aspects of the worship liturgy, as well as personal and family worship.

Preaching begins with text selection, and includes choice and development of illustrations and applications. Sometimes the text will come from Lectionary choices; other times the pastor is preaching through a Book of the Bible; or a sermon theme needs support. After selecting a text, many pastors have the choice to unpack the text in either an expository manner or thematically. In thematic preaching the text is more supportive and illustrative, while in expository, Covenant Seminary style, (The style I learned) the main or unifying point, supporting points and their sub-points all have roots and connection to the text. The sermon comes from the text. It is not overlaid on the text.

In our quest to keep our healthy, generous stool legs balanced, we can ask a few questions when we come to a text. Do these verses show any differences between people, 3Es? Is there an outsider, a poor person, a widow or someone whose illness defines them? What kind of sin is addressed – individual,   family, community or national? Does the passage address power or leadership? Is there a challenge to the majority culture?  Jesus and women and outsiders in the gospels are examples of some of these issues.

It can be too easy to overlook parts of texts because they might make people uncomfortable. With the news of today’s world, the words from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, blessed are the peace makers might seem out of place when we are looking for security. We also need to make sure that we subject prevailing political views and expectations to Biblical truth. People sometimes forget that a local church can become known for the political views its members hear expressed in preaching and conversation. That perception can become a wall that keeps others out before they have an opportunity to hear the Biblical gospel. It is too easy to forget that the 3Es hear differently because of their different backgrounds and experiences.

How different people hear what we say is the point where the choice of illustrations becomes critical. Using mercy illustrations to help open up passages can expand the listener’s view of the world. If poverty, economic, or ethnic issues are never used in illustrations, then silence becomes the norm. Both positive and negative stories are appropriate, but reinforcing stereotypes is not appropriate, nor is making assumptions or profiling. A most powerful illustration I recall came from an African pastor recounting the story of a widow and her three children, starving in a conflict zone. The mother found a dried up banana peel to feed her children. She stopped her children from eating until she could offer up a prayer of thanks. This poor woman saw God’s provision in that conflict zone and gave thanks for what many of us would put on the compost pile. This illustration is powerful using a few words – conflict zone, dried up banana peel, prayer of thanks – to demonstrate the situation’s humanity. We see human needs in a conflict zone, and we feel the connection with this woman and her family because of prayer and a common faith in the midst of trauma. A poor woman is a spiritual hero in the midst of her family’s trauma.

Some parents do not want their children exposed to the dark side of our broken world in sermons, but this illustration was true, not graphic. Unlike a photo, the story did not describe the appearance of children facing starvation. A story does not reflect on the damage done to brain development from childhood malnutrition. Unlike a photo, there is no visible image of the trauma of children living in conflict zones, seeing death and experiencing family loss. What we have learned about caring for children in the midst of the trauma of international conflicts can be transferred to care for inner city youth here in our own nation.

The application of a text is often what people are looking for in a sermon – the so what! Too often pastors chose safe applications to make listeners feel safe, or OK with their styles of life. Occasionally, that safety and okay-ness is needed, and warranted by the text. But more often than not, the text will push us to both change and repentance, making us uncomfortable. It is God’s grace that makes his people both glad and generous to those in need. Remember that.  Sometimes a sermon application will help us to see groups of people within our lives who have been invisible, unseen to us on account of how our lives play out each day. We work, go to school, shop, and live with people who are like us as defined by the 3Es. Using a mercy or a justice application that comes from the text is important, because to be silent reinforces the invisibility of the poor, the stranger, the weak and the needy.

Let’s consider a couple of texts and how what I have been suggesting might work out.

In Malachi 3:5 we read, Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.

Often people will jump to “I will draw near to you for judgment” and/or  “do not fear me” at the end of the text.  Our minds are trained by our culture to think about a personal application or to deflect the text’s application by assuming it “doesn’t apply to me.” Look slowly and carefully and we can see how this passage can be mined for religious sins, commandment violations, or systemic economic sins against the weak and powerless. There are family and neighbor sins. View this text through a political lens of either the right or the left. Point:  We need to let the text drive the application.

Next, let’s look at Galatians 5:13-15, For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Again, our culture teaches us to jump to the obvious – in this case, the freedom reference. The text pushes us farther – “through love serve one another…You shall love your neighbor as himself.” Here applications from mercy and justice can flow. One of the verbs is “serve.” Serving can be “drive-by mercy” or “vacation mercy,” not a long term commitment to a mercy ministry that can be messy and at times disappointing. This text fully reminds us to see people, who are all made in the image of God, as neighbors, not strangers or at the worst, invisible.

Worship, of course, takes place not only in corporate settings, but also in personal and family  contexts.  Alone, or with your loved ones, it is natural to pray for ministries that focus on mercy ministries or justice.  Keep those prayer letters, cards, and brochures in a folder to pray through in your time with God.  Encourage your children or teens to write an email to someone in a ministry offering encouragement or asking or an update.

Within the corporate setting, the time of our confession of sin can include acknowledgement of our sin of not saying anything to support the poor or just not seeing those who are not like us. Then we can ask forgiveness for these omissions. We can recognize past corporate sins dealing with the 3Es. I have been  reminded recently that President Woodrow Wilson, in working on the Treaty of Versailles,  rejected a request by the Japanese for a declaration of the equality of all races. The reality was that white Europeans and Americans were not willing to give up the superiority of the white race. The name of that show, my friends, was “Prelude to Pearl Harbor.” Our nation and others, publically and formally, by silence, continued to support international racism. Preach about these public sins, then confess them in prayer. Don’t just spin off a confession without hearing God’s word expounded concerning the issue.

In public corporate prayers of intercession, offer specific prayers for mercy ministries. To be able to make them specific, have the ministries provide the church with current needs and praises.   Many churches have ministry highlights during corporate worship services. These are blessed times for the members of a church to hear first-hand of mercy and justice ministries within your congregation or in the local community or denomination.

Last Sunday we celebrated in a special, intentional way The Risen Jesus. Prayerfully consider the implications of His resurrection as those implications lead to collaboration between worship and mercy ministries. Next time, we will look at the collaboration between discipleship and mercy ministries.

Mercy and Justice on the Path to Gladness and Generosity in a Healthy Church, Part 2/3

Remember that tired and discouraged pastor from early in this series about the focus of Metokos?  He shared a number of things about his church that had him down emotionally. We could hear his frustration at efforts his church made that seemed to show no results. Let’s take some time here to examine one area of congregational life in which people can sometimes forget the appropriate focus of their effort.  We are going to keep our conversation going with this next try of food for thought.  Remember, the common theme of this series of writings is the relationship between church revitalization, a healthy church, the ministry of mercy, and the role of justice in mercy ministry – and this theme is where congregations gain their God-given focus.  How do we keep that focus, in this case, in applying justice to our mercy ministry?

Flashback with me to Acts 2 and my comments at the end of the last entry. These verses show three ministries – worship, discipleship, and mercy – all working in collaboration, which means elements of all three ministries were going on at the same time and with the same people. Yes, this is a description, not a prescription, but this is what the Holy Spirit accomplished and had recorded in Scripture for the soon-to-come church to find awesome. We know that this picture of something beautiful would break down in a short amount of time, and there arose with that breakdown the need for deacons to minister to the economic needs of ethnically diverse believers.

And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

            As these early Christians went about the actions described in this passage, notice how Paul describes their attitude. “. . .they received their food with glad and generous hearts.” A healthy church has people with hearts that are “glad and generous.” Requirement Number #1.  This idea is certainly in stark contrast to our fearful and self-centered culture we share with our neighbors today. Let’s turn to some New Testament passages to continue to consider the relationship between a healthy church and the role of justice in the ministry of mercy in the church. Again, I would recommend Timothy Keller’s book Generous Justice for a broader selection of New Testament passages.

I have made reference before to Acts 20, highlighting “we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” We also saw the connection between passages in the Minor Prophets Malachi, Zechariah, and Micah and Matthew 24 where Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me,…”

Joy and generosity come together in 2 Corinthians 8 in an account of the church in Macedonia, “their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.” Paul associates that generosity with a vision of our Lord Jesus Christ, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” Perhaps Paul was reflecting back to the church in Acts 2 when he tells us,

For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.”

Mercy flows from glad, joyful, and generous hearts that are seeking fairness, aka  justice. We follow the one who became poor so that we could become rich. Our prayers need to focus on our need to see our abundance, and deliverance from the virus of covetousness passed to us in an infection from our commercial culture which trains us to only want more for ourselves. In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul’s assumption is that people separated by geography are connected or united by grace and our Lord Jesus Christ. This connection, a union of ethnically diverse peoples, demonstrates a common faith that shared economic provisions to supply for each other’s needs. The gathering reference in 2 Corinthians 8 refers back to the sharing by and among God’s people during Israel’s 40 years of wandering – a time when they were fed manna by God’s grace.

Perhaps Jesus had in mind Israel’s wanderings and shared daily grace when he taught his disciples to pray, “Give us today our daily bread.” The prayer, my readers, is a community prayer, “give us…our daily bread.” So often we, by default, overlook the plural and turn it to give me, my…! See how this prayer section of Matthew 6 comes after a warning,

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven…But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

     In today’s world, our Lord might say, “Keep your acts of mercy off of Facebook.” In any case, his message is that only our Father sees the secrets of our hearts. We wait for his rewards – in his time, in his way – and reflecting his values, mercy and justice. Remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 5, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

Luke 4 reminds us that the first recorded text Jesus publicly read in his hometown was from Isaiah 61,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

     Jesus reflects on Isaiah 61, his mission statement, as he answers – in Matthew 11 – the imprisoned John the Baptist who has asked, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.”

     An identifying mark of the ministry of Jesus, in his mind, was to preach the good news – the gospel – to the poor. A healthy church will seek to include the poor in their worship ministry, evangelism ministry, and discipleship ministries, as well as mercy ministries. Our prayer should be that we will see the poor and not let them become invisible to our eyes and ignored in our ministry efforts. A healthy church will be intentional, like Jesus, to include the poor, because the hearts of the congregants are both glad and generous.

At a dinner hosted by the ruler of the Pharisees, recorded in Luke 14, Jesus continued his teaching about being intentional in our generosity and hospitality towards the poor. Jesus knew he was being watched when he made the following comments to his host, the other diners and to us, Luke’s readers,

He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

     There. We have now read of the Father’s secret reward – referred to back in Matthew – for including the poor. Notice the intentional verb, given, actually, in the form of a command: “Invite them!” Mercy, Jesus tells us, is to be generous, because “they cannot repay you.” Sharing a meal across economic classes was a practice in the Acts 2 church and in the church of 1 Corinthians 11. By the time of the Corinthians account, church meals had become divisive because, “each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry,…” The shared meals of Acts 2 had been lost, as was the concept of  “our daily bread.” Paul asks a harsh question, “Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?” Economic divisions caused – and do cause – divisions in the local church.

Luke 19 records the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus, a rich tax collector, a sinner in the eyes of the crowd.

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.  And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”  And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

     Zacchaeus, hearing his Lord’s forgiveness, made a spontaneous promise to Jesus – “the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” Mercy and justice, we see here, are expressions of repentance and new faith in Jesus. Zacchaeus, in his first act of new faith, understood  it. He promised to be merciful and generous to the poor. Justice for those he had defrauded results in, “I restore it fourfold,” reflecting Exodus 22:1: “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.” Zacchaeus was declared now “a son of Abraham.” Jesus stated, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” So it is that in Luke 19 we learn there are indeed economic consequences when God expresses his grace through Jesus, the one who seeks, saves, and restores – even a public sinner (who also may be a criminal) – and then brings that sinner into the covenantal family to be “a son of Abraham.” Justice, my readers, is treating everyone the same. Mercy flows from a generous heart that has been touch by grace – God’s grace. Jesus sought and saved all of us in his mercy and grace.

Allow me a final observation about Luke 19. Notice that the poor benefit from the evangelism and the conversion of the rich. As the poor hear the gospel and enter God’s covenantal family, they are to be cared for within their new, economically diverse family.

Paul played that justice card, illustrating legal rights for citizens,  when he was arrested in Acts 22 and began his pilgrimage to Rome.

But when they had stretched him out for the whips, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned?” When the centurion heard this, he went to the tribune and said to him, “What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman citizen.” So the tribune came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” And he said, “Yes.” The tribune answered, “I bought this citizenship for a large sum.” Paul said, “But I am a citizen by birth.”

     Paul’s citizenship was a call for justice when the crowd/mob and the soldiers wanted to flog him without a trial. In the text we see the power of citizenship and the protection it should give against a crowd/mob or unruly soldiers, people with weapons and power. Again, I repeat Mr. Keller, “The three causes of poverty, according to the Bible, are oppression, calamity, and moral failure. Having surveyed the Bible on the texts numerous times, I have concluded that the emphasis is usually on larger structural factors.” (P. 38)So often, as 21

So often, as 21^st century Christians living in the USA, we only look at personal responsibility when it comes to a response to the poor among us. Yes, personal responsibility or moral failure is one of the reasons for poverty, but the Bible has an awful lot to say about oppression by way of systematic advantage or disadvantage and using the law to deny equal status or justice.

In the United States we have multiple examples of using the law to deny equal status or justice. Let me cite one of many Jim Crow laws at the Federal level that created legal discrimination or segregation. The GI Bill after WW2 provided loans for new or first-time homes, yet it was interpreted differently for whites than it was for African- Americans. Through the real estate and loan practices known as “red-lining,” the GI Bill did not give equal footing to African-American veterans in housing, education or employment. “Levittowns became the model for real estate developers across the country and helped establish a pattern of racial discrimination in housing that persists even today.” (Understandingrace.org) Paul claimed his Roman citizenship and the rights that came with it. Christians and the church in our country need to own injustices based on race and economic status. Whites used the law to separate themselves from African Americans, Mexicans, Chinese, and Japanese immigrants and give themselves legal privileges. Not only is the church to be about unity and not division, but Paul reminds us that public justice, ours by citizenship, is Biblically the right of all. (See the last blog on the Old Testament’s teaching about justice and equality before the law.) It is a birthright, a human right, from the Biblical point of view, rooted in creation, and all people are created in the image-of-God. (For more on housing discrimination, do a computer search GI Bill and red lining for a wealth of information.  Remember, the Federal Fair Housing portion of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was not amended until 1968, just 50 years ago.)

Often a church may not see beyond the physical distance between the family and the church building. They do not see the separation or distance caused by Professor Don MacNair’s 3Es:  economic, education and ethnic diversity. All of us who have been around the organized church for any years at all know of churches that have poured loving effort into segments of their communities to no avail, humanly speaking.  We also know happier stories, such as one I know, of an entire family coming to Jesus through the conversion of their small daughter at a church’s neighborhood backyard club.

I want to challenge tired and downtrodden church members to focus on what I have called Requirement #1.  Pray for that glad and generous heart.  Pray before you move to do any thinking about HOW you can accomplish a biblically-based mercy ministry in your church. It may take you some time to get there as you try to get around the boulders of memories, but God promises that our agreement will bring his fulfillment.

It is now time to recommend again my friend Randy Nabor’s book.  As we move toward the HOW of mercy, read, Merciful, “The Opportunity and Challenge of Discipling the Poor Out of Poverty.”  There we find both a foundation and direction for working out the ministry and the role of justice.

Our discussion of Mercy and Justice will continue over a couple of more entries, focusing specifically on the HOW within the local church.

Mercy and Justice Part 1/3

If we think of a blog a free food – free thought food, if you will, then here is the next tray. As you help yourself to the topic offered, keep talking to your conversation partner(s). Soon that conversation can lead to a relationship.
The Metokos blog is centered on church revitalization. We collaborate with local churches to set a chosen mission for each local church. I have shown you our image of the three legs of the Metokos “stool” – worship, discipleship, and mercy ministries. Today, let’s begin to investigate the local church’s mercy ministry, focusing all the while on mercy and justice. Local churches all need to face this sensitive, divisive, emotional, biblical issue. Facing the issue and coming to terms with God’s direction in the matter will help these churches in the neighborhoods where they are rooted and where they live and witness as they seek revitalization.
We are all aware, no doubt, that the biblical issue of mercy and justice is a part of the political conversation our nation is having in this election year. In my own church, The Presbyterian Church in America, we are having internal conversations and debates about issues related to justice and mercy, and these issues will face votes at our next General Assembly in June.
I am indebted in this study to writings that have touched and taught me throughout my ministry, from school days to now. Two recent books by contemporaries, Tim Keller and Randy Nabors, stand out on this topic. Keller’s book, Generous Justice, gives a helpful beginning to a biblical survey of the topic. Then, we can see the nuts and bolts in Nabors’s personal writing in Merciful.
From farther back in my ministry, I bring you Jonathan Edwards’s Charity and Its Fruits. His sermon from Deuteronomy 15:7-11 “The Duty of Charity to the Poor, Explained, and Enforced,” sums up some of his thoughts and is on the web at http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/index.php?view=article&aid=3417. Yes, Edwards owned slaves, yet he was used by God as a saved sinner. The whole of Jonathan Edwards can be another conversation, but his writings did shape my thinking about the topic at hand.
Finally, I will share with you later from my seminary professor for three courses in ethics. Dr. David Jones gave us Biblical Christian Ethics.
As we get going on mercy and justice, let’s look at two areas relating to mercy and justice and the local church. First, we will consider a brief biblical outline of mercy and justice, and then an explanation of why those topics need to be in the scope of a church seeking revitalization.
The whole of the Bible’s treatment of mercy and justice is obviously, and thankfully, Big. While I will point to a few significant texts, keep in mind that a more thorough treatment is available to you in Keller’s book.
Acts 20 is a good place to begin. Paul’s last words to the Ephesian elders in the 20th chapter address the church’s ministry to the weak, not only as a response to the Lord Jesus, but also as a chosen lifestyle – “I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Paul, a former Pharisee and persecutor of the church, found himself shaped by the words of Jesus and the Old Testament. Let’s revisit a few of those passages.
The final book of the Old Testament, Malachi, is one of the labeled Minor Prophets (Minor simply means shorter). These shorter messages from God call the Covenant people back to Him to be revitalized, to have new life. In chapter 3 the LORD of hosts says,

Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.

Earlier Minor Prophet Zechariah 7 reflects the same concerns,

Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.                                                      

As we continue to move back through the Minor Prophets, we find the even-more-familiar text in Micah, chapter 6,

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

It should become clear now that God ties together justice and mercy in our social/political communities. As we read in Keller’s work on page 3,

The term for “mercy” is the Hebrew word chesedh, God’s unconditional grace and compassion. The word for “justice” is the Hebrew term mishpat. In Micah 6:8, “mishpat puts the emphasis on the action, chesedh puts it on the attitude (or motive) behind the action. To walk with God, then, we must do justice, out of merciful love.

Move now from the Minor Prophets to the Pentateuch and look at a foundational passage in Deuteronomy 15 – the one Jonathan Edwards chose for his sermon on the poor.

If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, “The seventh year, the year of release is near,” and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, “You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.”

In this sermon from Deuteronomy, Edwards tells his listeners, “So Christ tells us, it is one of the weightier matters of the law.” He cites Matthew 23:23, Hosea 6:6, and then from Matthew again (9:13 and 12:7) as he builds his argument for those listeners – “Ye have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. The Scriptures again and again teach us that it is a more weighty and essential thing than the attendance on the outward ordinances of worship.” He reminds them that in the Hosea passage they read that their God “desired mercy, and not sacrifice. I know,” he continues, “of scarce any duty which is so much insisted on, so pressed and urged upon us, both in the Old Testament an New, as this duty of charity to the poor.”
Before God’s people even had a kingdom or the land, God gave them a text in Leviticus 24 concerning capital punishment. “You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the Lord your God.” Further, Deuteronomy 16:18-20 speaks to the appointment of judges who are not to pervert justice or show partiality or accept bribes. Isaiah 10 warns against unjust laws that would deprive people of their rights and oppress them. Hear this: Mercy, my friend, is clearly to be with an open hand. Justice, my friend, will be the same for the “sojourner and the native.”
Our Lord Jesus reflects the words of the Minor Prophets when he teaches about judgment in Matthew 24. He notes those who are hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, and in prison. His words, “Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me,” are hard words of judgment from the one who identifies with those who are poor, powerless, orphaned, widowed, oppressed, strangers, sojourners, non-natives, and immigrants. Jesus publicly berates the religious leaders of his day for neglect of justice in Luke 14:42, “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”
Come back to this space in the coming days as I address other texts, specifically from the New Testament, related to Justice and Mercy. The step after that will be to connect the texts from both testaments to the church as the Ministry of Mercy and Justice connects with revitalization – particularly, how does the revitalized church “live out” its new-found health.
According to Keller, “The three causes of poverty, according to the Bible, are oppression, calamity, and moral failure. Having surveyed the Bible on the texts numerous times, I have concluded that the emphasis is usually on larger structural factors.” (P. 38) I, Fred McFarland, writing to promote the ministry of Metokos, come away from reading and studying God’s appeal in his last prophetic books of the Old Testament with a clear call for mercy and justice – for the orphan, widows, day workers, and the immigrant – that relates to new life for God’s covenant people. A revitalized church will listen to ALL of God’s word, not just the words that give us comfort or support a comfortable and safe style of life. The vision held out for the healthy church is from Acts 2,

And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Mercy, The Third Leg of the Healthy Church

Since we are looking at the health of the revitalized church as a three-legged stool, it is time to take a look at the third leg balancing the stool – Mercy Ministry. A revitalized church must address Mercy Ministries as well as Worship and Discipleship in order to be the church Jesus – through the Bible – calls us to be in our locality, our time and our culture, that is, our local neighborhood. Keep in mind that the God of scripture calls us not to a sequential approach but to a collaborative approach among these three legs of the stool. Each of these three God-given and God-commanded ministries beautifully shows His people a different reflection of his grace. Ponder as you read this examination of the scriptural basis for Mercy Ministry, and then the next two entries which will continue to unpack Mercy Ministries. We will be ready then for further reflection and discussion as we examine the art of weaving the ministries into that collaborative reflection of God’s Grace.
Consider this: “the essence of the diaconate: that the physical and financial cannot be divorced from the spiritual.” This part-sentence comes from Professor Don MacNair’s book, The Living Church, A Guide For Revitalization. Specifically, the words appear in Appendix A, “The Living Church and the Deacon,” and they are at the heart of the concerns for what we here at Metokos Ministries refer to as the Mercy Ministry of a local church. Professor MacNair also writes, “Under the direction of the elders, deacons must work to prevent physical and financial problems, deal with them when they occur and encourage healing of spiritual maladies exposed by physical and financial ills.” (p.155) So, what is the Scriptural basis for the practical suggestions offered by Professor MacNair and now, Metokos? Let me begin with a look at the mercy ministry in the book of Acts.
Paul, in his final address to the elders of Ephesus recorded in Acts 20, reminds us why the church matters, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood… And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” As Paul ends his address to leaders he loves, note the tears on the part of all with these words, “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” These are the words that haunt my heart from this passage, “we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus,…” These words give us Paul’s only quote of Jesus, and they are used to provide support for the ministry of mercy, helping the weak.
Paul’s concern expressed in his last words to the Ephesian elders are a local expression of what happened in the church in the Jerusalem church in the early days of the church. The Greeks lodged a complaint against the Hebrews (recorded in Acts 6) “because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.” The church had begun a first century “meals on wheels” in response to a need, and the needs of some were overlooked because they were Greek, not Hebrews. The first deacons were dealing with ethnic and economic issues as well as the lack of equality in the local church’s care for widows. This diversity issue is something Professor MacNair reminds us will be a part of a revitalized local church. See his Appendix C, “Diversity, Unity, and the Community in The Church” (p.163ff) to think about three areas of diversity for local churches to address – educational, economic, and ethnic.
For Presbyterians, the 1645 Form of Church-Government is the foundation for how we see the church. The brief section on Deacons – after reminding us what they are not – states that deacons are, “…to take special care in distributing to the necessities of the poor.” The footnote supporting this is the carefully-chosen passage from Acts 6:1-4. These words together give us that Biblical focus and mission statement for deacons, “…to take special care in distributing to the necessities of the poor.” They also echo Paul’s words, “we must help the needy.” In 1645, the church, imperfect as it is in every generation, expected an economic diversity so that “distributing to the necessities of the poor” would be part of a local congregation’s life and ministry.
Notice the wording of these 1645 document and Acts, “the poor,” not “the poor in the church.” Yes, we should begin with the poor among us. Paul reminds readers in Galatians 6, “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” Consider this passage from 1 John 3, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” The Biblical motive for “helping the needy” and “distributing to the necessities of the poor” is that we have been loved first. Within the church we are to lay down our lives for each other. Here is John’s big question in this passage, “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” It is God’s first love in his son that revitalizes a local church – his abiding love. Mercy then, along with worship and discipleship are the response of the local revitalized church of that abiding love.
Now let us return to Paul’s words from Galatians 6, “let us do good to everyone.” Paul has just warned his readers “not to grow weary of doing good.” This idea takes us to the question in Luke 10, “who is my neighbor?” Here, Jesus relates the parable of the Good Samaritan to flesh out the background to the answer to a question Jesus asked the young lawyer, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” The parable ends with these words of Jesus, “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” The lawyer said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” Yes, Jesus wants us to know that mercy is at the heart of loving your neighbor. Our Lord frames his story of a stranger helping a wounded victim around an outsider, both religiously, and ethnically from his audience.
These Luke 10 words of Jesus expand on his words recorded in a message to a multitude in chapter 6. Consider these parts of verses 27-36 from the middle of that message from Jesus, “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,… Give to everyone who begs from you,… And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them… But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” We have much to consider in this passage. Take with you today what Jesus ends with – a call and a command, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” A revitalized church is merciful because its congregation has experienced in a fresh way the mercy of the Father and desires to be like the Father, that is – merciful. These words of Jesus challenge our safe view of the church and the Christian life, “Love your enemies…he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.”
Mercy ministry in a revitalized church will stretch the comfort zones of educational, economic and ethnic diversities as you begin to see the unseen poor all around you in your community and neighborhoods. Grace will become generous in helping the poor. To help us move beyond the finger food of a blog to consider the meat and potatoes of mercy ministry, I suggest Merciful, The Opportunity and Challenge of Discipling the Poor Out of Poverty by Randy Nabors. This book opens eyes about poverty in the USA and in our neighborhoods. Not only does he give practical suggestions for engaging the poor, but he also helps readers to understand the historical context of urban poverty. For those of us in rural communities, we can learn much and work on translations to our context. Randy’s passion for this ministry grows out of his own story, which he shares in Merciful.
In the next two weeks, we will build on this scriptural base and look at the relationship between justice and mercy, then the challenges of mercy ministry in a revitalized local church and presbytery.