Keeping First Things First

In our local paper the Democrat and Chronicle had a first page article that began like this…

“When a church is surrounded by poverty, its mission seems as obvious as the neighborhood's broken windows and sagging stairs. - Feed the hungry. Provide clothes and housing for those who are struggling. Offer job training, But when a church is surrounded by freshly manicured lawns and homes that look perfect from the outside, what should its mission be?”… and the article went on to say that their mission is to offer financial counseling, help care for people’s aging parents, deliver meals, and repair houses…um…what?

What should the churches mission be?…It doesn’t matter whether it’s in a poverty stricken area or Beverly Hills the mission of the Church is same, and I’m sorry Marketta Gregory it is not to feed the hungry, provide clothes and housing to the poor, or offer job training. The mission of the church is to seek and save the lost! Now don’t get me wrong…I think all those things mentioned are good things, but the mission of the church? Not primarily! Someone somewhere got mixed up in what Christ’s first priority was. Luke tells us the "Son of man (Jesus) is come to seek and to save that which was lost", and when He (Jesus) was about to ascend into Heaven His last words to His disciples were “ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” He did not say “listen, while I’m away make sure you help people balance their checkbook”

I don’t mean to sound too sarcastic...but this is a dangerous theology that replaces meeting people’s spiritual needs with meeting their physical or emotional needs. It’s the social gospel, and more and more it’s worming its way into evangelicalism as a deceptive counterfeit. Now I am willing to admit that I am being a little harsh. In fact, I think a lot of these programs are good, and as one of the ministers says "There are many difficult times when the face of Christ needs to be given to someone." But Christ was supremely concerned for the spiritual needs of people, and their physical and emotional needs were a distant second.

I want to explain better why this bothers me. Setting up a soup kitchen and saying that we are doing the work of Christ by feeding the poor, while neglecting to do the work of an evangelist (2Timothy 4:5) will only send a poor person to Hell on a full stomach.
Providing job training to help people provide better for themselves will only ease the road to a lake of fire if we never address that person’s sin problem…and that’s the rub!
We don’t want to address their sin. It is easier to just help them care for their aging parents instead of sitting them down and showing them how desperately they need the Saviour. We can set up euchre tournaments, and church sponsored dances for the lonely without looking like fanatics, but boy, if we show then the scriptures that say “Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” we get …"oh your one of them". Well I am one of them. Call me silly, but I think we need to love people enough to point them to Jesus and prepare them for eternity, and not to our Christian Investment Seminar to prepare them for retirement.
Again I am for these programs that help those in need…well except the euchre and dancing…not so much that…but it’s not the mission of the Church.
I also don’t want this to sound like I’m taking a shot at Marketta Gregory, to a lot of people that’s what Christianity is to them, a social program, but that is simply not true. It is a salvation program! - Now heres the question churches...How are people on the outside like going to get that straight if we can’t?

Mark 16:15 - And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

For full article -
In church ministries, looks can be deceiving - Marketta Gregory Staff writer D&C