Some Ideas

One of the comments to my last post was from a guy named Joel. He has a great blog about cardboard couches, you should check it out. I'm going to make this post directly off of one of the sections of his comments, cause he kind of asked me to:

"I know that your church has ministries for the poor. I know from you're recent post that you just went to San Francisco to see how others are ministering to the poor and needy. Do you think this is the right action? Is your church doing enough? In an ideal world what would you add, or change, or get rid of, or call your congregation/youth to do?"

Since I'm kind of an idealist, I'll work backwards and start with what I would add, change or get rid of in the Church in an ideal world with regards to ministry to the poor. First of all, I will make clear, that I am becoming more and more of a liberation theology disciple. Put really simply, liberation theology says that God has a special concern and presence with the poorest of the poor and one of the most significant events in history is God's action in liberating his people in the exodus. Because of this, I would ADD a lot of things to what the Church (capital 'c' is the universal Church, lowercase 'c' is the local body, individual church) is doing in her ministry. Caring for the poor, hungry, homeless and in need is central to the call of Christ. It isn't a way to get people to show up and share the Gospel with them, it is a part of the Gospel. Churches that do not have involvement in helping to clothe, feed and shelter people around them who do not have these necessities need to get involved.

That said, this doesn't mean that each individual church should have their own meal service, clothing room and housing program. Maybe there is a church near your church that is already doing this and your church could join the cause. (Heaven forbid that two churches that might have differing views on communion work together in anything.)

One thing I would change would be to see the local church become the focal point in ministering to people. I like parachurch organizations. A lot of them, like World Vision, do GREAT work. However, if Christians all gave 5% of their income to the local church they attended, the church organized alongside other churches solid ministries locally, and attendees volunteered at these ministries an unbelievable amount of stuff could be done. Five percent of your income is piddly money, especially for most American Christians.

On what my church, LaSalle Street Church, is doing, and what we saw in San Francisco at Glide Memorial Church, I think we're moving in the right direction. Breaking Bread serves a weekly meal which has at it a nurse practitioner, health worker, free clothing room and a Bible study. We try and extend hospitality to people for a few hours a week. Currently, we are looking at what our future will look like. I am working a lot to coordinate with some other ministries, shelters and agencies in Chicago to see how we can support each other and work together. This is hard work, especially since this isn't natural for people. Why work together when I can start something new and not have to work with people? It's easier to start something new and I would rather do that some days. However, this isn't the best use of resources and isn't the way to do things best and learn from one another.

If you're reading this on FB, please do comment on FB, but also head to my blog (jesusandlife.blogspot.com) and comment there as well. Would love to see a conversation going on what other churches are doing and what people are thinking...

Peace,