The promise and plan of God to Abraham in Gen 12 was for his treasured people to become a blessing to others. When they received his law on Sinai it focused on loving Him and looking to the interests of their neighbour. Jesus emphasized the same mission and helped us understand who our neighbour is. The same plan and mission of God exists for his 21century churches. Do neighbourly kindness and so point people to the living and true God, so they discover His love by being loved by someone the way He loves.
Before the Church was born [Acts 2] the people of God were to represent His purpose and values in the world. God’s plan has always been to change the world via His people. We are His agents of transformation in the world; transformation begins with us, then extends by our good works to others. The church is both a sign and foretaste of the eternal kingdom. Why have some evangelical movements focused only on evangelism by grace and steered clear of good works [Eph 2:10]? The gospel clearly calls our faith to works; the gospel of Jesus included what we call social action. In too many movements and churches, we disenfranchise the people of God from loving their neighbours by reducing their calling to donating money to the department which looks after the poor.
An effective way to transition members of a congregation from being too focused on church activities to being socially active is for the church leader(s) to engage in a regular social ministry outside of church, and take others along to get involved or be inspired to do their own thing. To be the church outside the property boundary and serve in the local community or for a charity group etc, is to imitate Jesus and love our neighbours. Leaders can preach this every week, but a culture will develop via a contagious virus only when leaders are active and intentionally take others with them. More than that, the role of leaders is to equip and empower people to pursue their own vision of how to do Kingdom mission and to resource them with training and support.
Another strategy is to fund social action in addition to evangelism, either within or outside your facilities – some such projects attract government funding. I can think of a church whose strategy is to care for the needy by setting up various facilities on site, such as room for the homeless to sleep overnight. Sadly, a difficulty was the resistance of members to having homeless people at their church. But the reputation the church is earning in the local community is growing immensely, especially when it serves the community in other ways as well. When we do neighbourly kindness God sets up situations, moments and conversations by His Spirit that honour Christ.
Have we made “church ministry” the main story, instead of discipleship and mission as Kingdom agents? Have we privatised faith and focused on converting people to save them? Salvation is actually about a totally restored creation, key agents in which are the disciples of Jesus. They must become the change they want to see in the world [Ghandi]. The biblical vision of God is to unite all things under Christ – a restored creation. Are we stewards looking after all His creatures and creation itself? Do we have a glimpse of what the Holy Spirit is doing outside the Church? Are we passionate about joining in that activity? Are we doing neighbourly kindness and taking others with us?
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