Within the forward of the book The Equipping Church, written by Sue Mallory, pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell states, “The church exist to equip people in order to release them back into the world, grounded in truth and community, dangerous for the gospel”(Mallory, p.9).
I spent much of my early life seeking and searching for the answer to the question, “Why do I exist?” What is my purpose? What does God want from me? Over the past several years, I have found that purpose, or at least a portion of the purpose, as I have served in The Salvation Army as a pastor and as a social agent. God has called me to minister in the pulpit but also in the community through social ministry. God has laid upon my heart the need for social justice and has guided me to the Biblical reference of Psalm 82:3-4, “Defend the cause of the weak and the fatherless, maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked” (Thompson, p.996).
I am confident that God has put me on this earth to reach the lost and to bring them Christ. As a pastor in The Salvation Army my goal is to bridge the gap between social ministry and spiritual ministry and to find ways to bring Christ to those my church serves in a social capacity everyday!
In the book, The American City and its Church, Samuel Kincheloe says, “Poverty drags the city family to the bottom level of life. Here are to be found poor housing, overcrowding, sickness, inadequate food and light and air, unemployment, social disorganization, personal demoralization, poor educational facilities, cultural destitution, ignorance, delinquency, crime and punishment. No wonder that the crude forms of degeneration here met with, the vice and immorality, the ignorance and uncouthness, sometimes are said to be below a human order”(Kincheloe, 1938, p.54). That book was written over 70 years ago yet it still rings true today.
He continues later by stating, “Churches help individuals get their bearings by clarifying their purposes and building patterns of motivation and conduct”(Kincheloe, p.146). So what is the Church’s response to the needy? What is my response to God?
Well first, I must have a faith that takes action. There is a necessity of following God’s instruction to doing something about a need which cannot be ignored. The ministry of Jesus throughout the four gospels regularly emphasizes the need for practical answers to obvious need. Jesus was often condemned for consorting with marginal-type people. Those who were outcast, poor, diseased, widowed, unemployed, directionless. One of Jesus’ most identifiable responses to this argument is found in Mark. “On hearing this, Jesus said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners’”(Mark 2:17, NIV).
Isaiah felt his calling to the poor and wrote that God, “has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to comfort those who mourn” (Isaiah 61:1-2, NIV).
The power to which God instructs Isaiah, and the extent to what the good news can be applied to individual life, is profound. The Spirit of God persuaded Isaiah to feel compelled to help release people from their overwhelming burden before instructing them in the loving ways of God. This same power from God moves me to be an agent for His care and compassion to those less fortunate, the marginalized.
Every human being has a unique worth within the eyes of God, but our culture has reduced the value of that worth of a person if poverty is involved. Vinay Samuel states his observation in The Church in Response to Human Need, by saying, “A person’s senses of meaning, identity and worth have come to be derived from his or her ability to successfully participate and compete in an essentially economic world. They have learned to derive their very identity from what they produce and what they consume”(Samuel, p.7).
In our society, financially challenged people can be seen as second class citizens because of what they do not have or cannot give to society. It is my responsibility, as a reflection of God’s love, to reach out to the marginalized and help them out of their dire situations.
William Booth knew that other churches and agencies did not see eye to eye with his form of assistance to the poor in the 1800’s. In his book, In Darkest England and the Way Out, he directly states, “Perhaps as an agency, we (The Salvation Army) may not be of your way of thinking, but that is hardly the question. Look at that dark ocean, full of human wrecks, writhing in anguish and despair. How to rescue those unfortunates is the question”(Booth, p. 280).
Booth saw poor people as suffering from the poverty, not that they were undeserving. He knew that action was impending and that it was imperative to confront the underlying question of “how to help”.
· How will you be a Christian in action?
· How will God use you to be a difference in someone’s life?
Hear the words of Booth as we reflect on Living a life of action, action serving Christ and serving others!
“While women weep as they do now, Ill fight;
while little children go hungry as they do now, I’ll fight;
while men got to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I’ll fight;
while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl on the streets,
while there remains one dark soul without the light of God,
I’ll fight – I’ll fight to the very end.”
-- William Booth, May 9, 1912, public address
Bibliography
Mallory, Sue. 2001. The Equipping Church: Serving Together To Transform Lives. Zondervan Publishing House. Grand Rapids, MI
Kincheloe, Samuel. 1938. The American City and Its Church. Friendship Press. New York, NY.
Samuel, Vinay. 1987. The Church in Response to Human Need. William Eerdsmanns Publishing. Grand Rapids, MI.
Booth, William. 1975. In Darkest England and the Way Out. Patterson Smith Publishing Co. Montclair, NJ.
Thompson, Frank Charles. 1990. The Thompson Chain Reference Bible. B.B. KirkBride Bible Co. Inc. Indianapolis, Indiana.
I spent much of my early life seeking and searching for the answer to the question, “Why do I exist?” What is my purpose? What does God want from me? Over the past several years, I have found that purpose, or at least a portion of the purpose, as I have served in The Salvation Army as a pastor and as a social agent. God has called me to minister in the pulpit but also in the community through social ministry. God has laid upon my heart the need for social justice and has guided me to the Biblical reference of Psalm 82:3-4, “Defend the cause of the weak and the fatherless, maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked” (Thompson, p.996).
I am confident that God has put me on this earth to reach the lost and to bring them Christ. As a pastor in The Salvation Army my goal is to bridge the gap between social ministry and spiritual ministry and to find ways to bring Christ to those my church serves in a social capacity everyday!
In the book, The American City and its Church, Samuel Kincheloe says, “Poverty drags the city family to the bottom level of life. Here are to be found poor housing, overcrowding, sickness, inadequate food and light and air, unemployment, social disorganization, personal demoralization, poor educational facilities, cultural destitution, ignorance, delinquency, crime and punishment. No wonder that the crude forms of degeneration here met with, the vice and immorality, the ignorance and uncouthness, sometimes are said to be below a human order”(Kincheloe, 1938, p.54). That book was written over 70 years ago yet it still rings true today.
He continues later by stating, “Churches help individuals get their bearings by clarifying their purposes and building patterns of motivation and conduct”(Kincheloe, p.146). So what is the Church’s response to the needy? What is my response to God?
Well first, I must have a faith that takes action. There is a necessity of following God’s instruction to doing something about a need which cannot be ignored. The ministry of Jesus throughout the four gospels regularly emphasizes the need for practical answers to obvious need. Jesus was often condemned for consorting with marginal-type people. Those who were outcast, poor, diseased, widowed, unemployed, directionless. One of Jesus’ most identifiable responses to this argument is found in Mark. “On hearing this, Jesus said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners’”(Mark 2:17, NIV).
Isaiah felt his calling to the poor and wrote that God, “has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to comfort those who mourn” (Isaiah 61:1-2, NIV).
The power to which God instructs Isaiah, and the extent to what the good news can be applied to individual life, is profound. The Spirit of God persuaded Isaiah to feel compelled to help release people from their overwhelming burden before instructing them in the loving ways of God. This same power from God moves me to be an agent for His care and compassion to those less fortunate, the marginalized.
Every human being has a unique worth within the eyes of God, but our culture has reduced the value of that worth of a person if poverty is involved. Vinay Samuel states his observation in The Church in Response to Human Need, by saying, “A person’s senses of meaning, identity and worth have come to be derived from his or her ability to successfully participate and compete in an essentially economic world. They have learned to derive their very identity from what they produce and what they consume”(Samuel, p.7).
In our society, financially challenged people can be seen as second class citizens because of what they do not have or cannot give to society. It is my responsibility, as a reflection of God’s love, to reach out to the marginalized and help them out of their dire situations.
William Booth knew that other churches and agencies did not see eye to eye with his form of assistance to the poor in the 1800’s. In his book, In Darkest England and the Way Out, he directly states, “Perhaps as an agency, we (The Salvation Army) may not be of your way of thinking, but that is hardly the question. Look at that dark ocean, full of human wrecks, writhing in anguish and despair. How to rescue those unfortunates is the question”(Booth, p. 280).
Booth saw poor people as suffering from the poverty, not that they were undeserving. He knew that action was impending and that it was imperative to confront the underlying question of “how to help”.
· How will you be a Christian in action?
· How will God use you to be a difference in someone’s life?
Hear the words of Booth as we reflect on Living a life of action, action serving Christ and serving others!
“While women weep as they do now, Ill fight;
while little children go hungry as they do now, I’ll fight;
while men got to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I’ll fight;
while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl on the streets,
while there remains one dark soul without the light of God,
I’ll fight – I’ll fight to the very end.”
-- William Booth, May 9, 1912, public address
Bibliography
Mallory, Sue. 2001. The Equipping Church: Serving Together To Transform Lives. Zondervan Publishing House. Grand Rapids, MI
Kincheloe, Samuel. 1938. The American City and Its Church. Friendship Press. New York, NY.
Samuel, Vinay. 1987. The Church in Response to Human Need. William Eerdsmanns Publishing. Grand Rapids, MI.
Booth, William. 1975. In Darkest England and the Way Out. Patterson Smith Publishing Co. Montclair, NJ.
Thompson, Frank Charles. 1990. The Thompson Chain Reference Bible. B.B. KirkBride Bible Co. Inc. Indianapolis, Indiana.
1 comment:
Isaiah 61 speaks so clearly, almost enough to make you look around and wonder, "Is He talking to me?"
Good posting today...I do feel so captivated by Vinay Samuel in one hand and Isaiah in the other.
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