"In your face" Jesus Style Mercy and Social Justice Ministry

"Bible education?"  We've got a program for that.

"Feeding the homeless?"  We've got a program for that.

"Seniors ministry?"  We've got a program for that.

"Greeting first time visitors?" We've got a program for that.

"Community outreach?"  We don't currently have that, but give us 6 months and we'll put a committee together to form a program for that.

Over the years I've come to notice that as the church, we love having "programs."  I'm not even sure many of us could define the word "program."   However, there is one thing we know, is that if there is a problem we are trying to solve, we know that a program will fix it.

Programs have become our one indispensable tool that we use on everything, and fulfills the prophecy that says if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem will begin to look like a nail.  And if we don't have a program for something as a church, we tend to let things fall to the wayside, as collectively, we can only do so much.

Please don't get me wrong.  I think programs are great, and I believe they are Biblical. Organizing a group of mutually interested people to solve a problem, pooling mutual resources, and working together as a community, we can often do more together than we can individually.  We need food pantries, we need community outreach programs, and all these sort of things.

However, there still remains much for us to do at the individual level.  As much as we need church programs, we also have a great need for "in your face" Jesus style mercy and social justice ministry.

Jesus once said:

"Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.' " ~ (Matthew 25:34-40; NASB)

One thing that has always stuck out to me regarding this passage is the very intimate and personal nature in which the followers of Jesus are supposed to reach out to people.

Jesus said "I was hungry, and YOU gave ME something to eat... I was thirsty, and YOU gave ME something to drink..."

There is something very one on one and up close and personal about this.   I, you, me.

I believe in my heart of hearts we need to reach out to people and connect with them in a way that programs simply will not allow.  Programs tend to get boxy and have steps and procedures and regulations and chains of command.  Programs become filled with red tape, and and as we institutionalize outreach, we sometimes make it impossible to reach out to people to meet their individual needs.

As a result, even our best of programs have tons of cracks for people to fall through, and if the program you have does not match the person, that person will become further neglected, marginalized, and unreached.

Jesus calls on us as individuals to reach out to individuals.

If we see somebody is in need, Jesus doesn't want us to simply refer them to a church or government program.  Rather, we need to look and see if there isn't a way that you as a person can meet them where they are at and help them.  You can feed them, you can give them something to drink, you can give them a place to stay, you can put clothes on their back, you can spend time with them when they are sick, you can visit them in prison.

You.... you... you!  This is one of the few times in the Bible that we read where it's really all about you.

You don't have to wait for the church or the government to solve the problems people and society face, rather you as an individual can look solve these problems at an individual level, within whatever sphere of influence you have.  You may not do a lot to fundamentally transform society and reach the masses, but you will be performing a service as if unto Jesus Himself.  And if we as individuals in the church all stepped up to do this, who knows to what degree society might be quietly changed and transformed.  I'm pretty sure there is a parable or two in the Bible where Jesus talked this sorta thing.

So, if you consider yourself a "social justice advocate" and think everybody should make a living wage, then when you go out to a restaurant to eat, instead of sitting back and dreaming about a democratic socialist utopia in which president Bernie Sanders leads a revolution that sticks it to greedy corporate fat cats, and forces them to better pay their employees, when you go out to eat at a restaurant, you could make it a point to leave a VERY generous tip (much more than 20%), regardless of how well your waiter performs, or the size of your food order.

Or if you think a particular government agency does a great job at something, and you really like what they do, you could always make a very generous donation to the IRS, and pay the tax level that you want to pay, instead of sitting around and waiting for the government to raise taxes on everyone else.

Or, if you think that college should be free, you could always head down to your local college registrars office, and find out the names of some students who need some tuition assistance this year, and bless one of those students with a scholarship or grant funded by you.

Likewise, if you think medicine should be socialized, there is nothing stopping you from randomly paying the bills of a stranger or somebody you know at the hospital.

Go, do these things.  Stop waiting for some program to be formed that addresses all these issues and ministers justice and mercy to others.  Rather, be an angel of mercy yourself.  Practice justice yourself.  Find individuals wherever they are at, be it friends, neighbors, co-workers, or even complete strangers, and think of ways that you as an individual can serve them even as Jesus would serve them.

Learn from Jesus, who when He healed the multitudes, He never did this by just waving His hand over an entire crowd and making everybody whole.  Rather, He did this by going through a crowd, and one by one, He touched people where they were at.  He ministered to people face to face, and He took the time to care for each person as an individual.  He didn't wait for a committee to organize something.  He was proactive, and took it upon Himself to do these things, because He knew that is what the Father wanted Him to do.

What does God the Father want you to do?  What has He purposed in your heart?  Who has He put in your life, that you know has a need?  Who can you reach out to as an individual?  Where can you make the difference?  Don't wait for a program to be organized to solve social ills that you have identified.  Don't simply talk a good game.  Put your hand to the plow, and work the field that is yours to work.

Charity Without a Press Release

"Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you." ~ (Matthew 6:1-4; NASB)

In just about every major city across America, without asking a single person who the most charitable person in town is, you could easily find out who that is simply by driving around a few blocks.

During your adventure, you will eventually discover a bunch of buildings with somebody's last name on them.  Where I live at in Charlotte, North Carolina, you'll discover the name "Levine" is all over the place.  They are a very generous family that has given hundreds of millions of dollars back to the local community.

And how do I know such?

Well, because they like to talk about their charity in the local news, such as the Charlotte Observer, and in more widely circulated news outlets, like the New York Times.  And in case any of those stories are ever lost or forgotten, the Leon Levine Foundation website will tell you on the very first page how much money he's given, and where he's given it.

Such a phenomenon is not unique to the world.

Such a thing happens even in the church.  In many older churches, you will often find pews that have tiny little name plates on the end of them, that tell you exactly who made it possible for you to sit in that pew.  Individuals known for their charity to the church regularly get appointed into important leadership positions.  And in churches that are more media intensive and tech savvy, there is this tendency to show short infomercials in church, where we videotape somebody handing a check to somebody else, and show it on a big screen... all in the name of Jesus of course.

There is something in our DNA that strongly loves the idea of charity, and helping somebody else out.  It's the stuff God has put in us as creatures created in His image.  God is a giver, and He has made us to be givers as well.

But in our fallen nature, something has crept into our humanity that is always looking out for number one.  We want to give, but we don't want to do so freely.  We want to give, but we want to know what's in it for us.  We want to give, but we want to attach strings to our dollars.  We want to give, but we want to be recognized for our giving.

Jesus blasted this sort of giving in His teachings.

We should give, and give generously.  But we should give in ways where we receive no recognition for it.  There should be no blowing of the trumpets in the synagogue or on street corners. We should not ask our name be put on any buildings; issue no press releases; and in God's holy name, we should never video tape ourselves putting money in somebody else's hands.

The only one who should be glorified in our giving is God.  And such giving requires no PR stunt on His behalf.  We should give secretly, like Jesus said, without drawing any attention to ourselves.  For if our giving is in anyway self-serving, then we are simply make-believe actors (hypocrites) who are not as selfless as we appear.

We may believe our own press, but God knows better.

And for all the philanthropists who make names for themselves in their charity work, I would encourage you to continue to do what you do and give.  There are people out there who desperately need your charity.  But when you give in such a way that somebody gives you a trophy for all of your giving, know such is the only reward you will ever get.  And what's that going to get you in the long run?

Rather, instead of giving in such a way that somebody gives you a pat on the head, give in such a way that the only person in this world who can reward you, is if God Himself rewards you.  And I don't know about you, but I would rather have a reward that came from God, instead of a case full of trophies.

Remembering the Poor as the Heart of Ministry

"They only asked us to remember the poor--the very thing I also was eager to do." ~ Galatians 2:10 (NASB)

I find this verse very curious. In the midst of much traveling, saving souls, and theologizing, the apostle Paul takes a moment to recall a time in his ministry when the apostle Peter asked of him "only" one thing, and that one thing was to "remember the poor."

Which makes me to wonder, how often do I remember the poor? And am I as "eager" as the apostle Paul was to remember those living in poverty?

Honestly, I don't think I remember the poor as often as I should. I know in my life, I'm doing pretty well. My wife and I live in a uber middle-to-upper-middle crust part of town. On either side of our neighborhood are some shopping centers featuring high end restaurants, grocery stores, and retail outlets.  We have two Target stores within a mile of our home!  These insulate us into a really nice cultural bubble, as we seldom need to go anywhere outside these two shopping centers to find most of what we need for our daily lives.

Don't get me wrong, my wife and I aren't exactly rolling in dough. But we do make out a pretty comfortable life as two young professionals, who have firmly planted our feet in the middle of suburbia.  Like most of our neighbors, we have a mortgage, car payments, and a little bit of credit card debt.  We have some savings, and some money tied up for retirement.  We give to charity.  And we manage to scrape away a few bucks for date nights, and the occasional trip to the mountains or the beach.

Poor people are very difficult to find in my part of town, as the size of the homes and the property tax values virtually guarantees you won't run into very many "undesirables."  If I wanted to go to a part of town where most of the people living there meets the Federal government's definition of poverty, I would probably have to drive about 20-30 minutes to find such a place.

And so an old saying becomes a prophecy fulfilled: "out of sight, out of mind."

In order for me to remember the poor, I have to make a concerted effort to find somebody that is poor.  I'm simply unlikely to run into somebody who is poor in my daily life and interactions with others.

And I am willing to bet that the chances are, if you are reading this short blog post, then there is a pretty good chance you are like me.  You too are rather insulated from the poor, and they are not a regular part of your life.  Therefore, as you go about your day, you think very little about the poor.

I am also willing to bet that like me, most of the people who you attend church with are in the exact same scenario.  In contrast to the churches the apostles planted, which were made up of mostly poor individuals, our churches are often composed primarily of other affluent people, just like you and me.  Of course, there is nothing wrong with this per say.  Jesus died for rich people too.

But as a result of the high affluency rate in the population of our churches, whatever we do in the name of "outreach" to the poor often becomes nothing more than a "special project" that our church engages in.  It involves us loading a bunch of white rich people into a van to take a trip across town to the "other side of the tracks."  It's nothing more than a side project we do on the weekends, and a line item on our church budget.  Our main focus in ministry is back in the comforts of our home church, on Sunday morning, where hardly a poor person is to be found.

Yet for the apostles Paul and Peter, ministering to the poor was at the very heart of their ministry.  Indeed, they saw ministering to the poor at the very heart of the Gospel itself.  Ministering to the poor wasn't simply a side project that they tacked onto an otherwise busy church schedule.  They saw ministry to the poor as central to their calling as apostles.

I believe I am in the process of discovering this truth in my life.  It is my hope that this short blog entry will help you begin the journey of discovering it in your life as well.  For I feel in my heart of hearts that we miss the opportunity to remember the poor, and in doing so, we fail to become true ministers of Jesus Christ.,

May we remember the poor in all that we do.  And may remembering the poor become something that gets ingrained into the heart of our everyday church ministry, experience, and life.

Give less to God, more to Others

God doesn't need your money.

People need money.

God can't accept your money.

People who are poor can accept your money.

With these truths being rather self-evident, maybe we should strive to give less to God, and give more to others.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we shouldn't give money to the local church or world missions, and to help financially support the work that goes into preaching of the Gospel.

Such is entirely Biblical.

I just think we should give more money to those who specifically need it than those that don't.

Such is simply MORE Biblical.

Blindly writing a check every week and putting it in the offering plate and saying you gave to God as a result... not so much.

Some ministers might object to such statements, and insist that you have (or get to!) tithe 10% of your income to the local church. It is there, they say, that God has setup His storehouse in which you are to bring your tithe.

Many preach this really well, but frankly, it's simply not Biblical. And there is nothing in the writings of the New Testament to support the notion that God accepts your tithe by means of a pastor at a church building.

Indeed, the early church didn't even meet in buildings, they met in public outdoor places and in living rooms. So the concept was far from their minds.  The only "house of God" they knew about was the temple in Jerusalem, and they knew that Jesus promised it would be soon be destroyed.  So, it's doubtful that they ever brought very much money there knowing such a thing.

No matter.  Such still won't keep very many pastors from trying to come up with clever ways to link the Old Testament practice of tithing to the New Testament, and induce you to give to them as a result.

As some pastors told me in Bible college and Seminary, whether tithing is required today doesn't matter, they were still going to preach it anyway, because without doing so, many of them were convinced that their doors on their church would close tomorrow, and they would be without a job.

(That was a true story by the way.)   

In case you are not aware:

The "storehouse" of the Old Testament to which people brought their tithes was something akin to a barn and used to store food. When people tithed, they brought livestock and other food stuff there.  It was like a giant community food pantry. They didn't bring money. If they had money, it was to be used to purchase food, and that food was subsequently stored and eaten.

Tithing was primarily a practical means by which God made sure the Levitical priesthood and their families, in exchange for their full-time service in the temple, could have something to eat. For the priesthood and their family were engaged in the service of the temple all day long, and they simply didn't have time to milk cows and plant a garden.

Additionally, because they didn't inherit any land in Israel, they literally had little to no land from which they could cultivate, farm, and support themselves with. All they received from Moses when he divided the land were a couple cities that were designated for the Levites to live in. Without the tithe, they would have literally starved, and they would have been forced to abandon their priestly duties in the temple.

This isn't a problem anymore today, because...

We have no more Levitical priesthood to support anymore.

With the giving of the New Covenant, all of God's people are now priests, and all are called to minister in some fashion. And while it is true that pastors and others have the right to be compensated for their service to God's people, if you read the New Testament carefully, you'll find that folks like the apostle Paul rarely accepted financial assistance in compensation for their ministry.

Instead, the apostle Paul worked, and was self-employed in the leather trade. And he specifically encouraged others to follow his example, as he thought it was the wisest thing to do.  He didn't want people to question his motives for preaching the Gospel, and create a stumbling block for others in the process.  Additionally, he wanted the money that might have normally gone to him, had he demanded it, to go towards the meeting of other more pressing needs than his own.

If you actually study all of the passages that talk about giving in the New Testament (and there are quite a few!), you'll discover that the early church primarily gave their money to feed the hungry, take care of the poor, and to support widows. Very little money seems to have ever been given or received for the purpose of helping pay preachers for their labor.

And NONE of it was ever given to help build auditoriums or cathedrals.

And the church still grew like wildfire in spite of not funding the things we typically spend a lot of money on, and did so for several centuries.  Which leads me to ask...

What would happen if we followed the teaching and pattern of giving practiced in the New Testament by the early church?

Just imagine all the places we live and how our cities and nations would be transformed overnight, if instead of "giving to God," we simply made it an intentional point to be radical in our giving, and looked to give our money directly to the people who actually need it the most.  And in the process, share the Gospel with them.

Can you imagine the witness this would bear for Christ in the community? Can you imagine the platform the church would gain in order to proclaim the Gospel if it had little overhead, and majored in giving?

Let's think outside the box for another moment.

I go to Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. As of December 2013, we received over 25 million dollars in offerings last year according to this audited online financial report from the church.  The church, which is very generous, gave back 12% of that money to the surrounding community.  Not too shabby compared to most other churches.

But, imagine a scenario, that, if instead of using the money we received to support the hundreds of pastors and staff who work at Elevation, and to pay for all the overhead associated with this ministry, that we simply decided as a church to pool all of our money together to end homelessness in Charlotte.

We could do so every year, starting this year!

Impossible you say? Check this out...

According to this report at the Charlotte Observer, as of December 2013, there were 2,418 homeless people in Charlotte. If we took the same 25 million dollars we received last year, and used it to help each of these homeless people obtain an apartment, that means we could give each person every year $10,339.12 (or $861.58 per month), to go towards paying for rent somewhere. For those not from this area, at $861.58 a month, you could easily find a 1 or 2 bedroom apartment to live at in the greater Charlotte area, and possibly have some money left over.

Now, imagine if my church did that. And then imagine if they partnered with other large churches in the area, like Calvary Church, Mecklenburg Community Church, Central Church of God, Forest Hill, Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, and the dozens of other very large mega churches in our community.

Each of these large churches bring in millions upon millions of dollars every year in tithes and offerings. Collectively, I would speculate that all of the mega churches in Charlotte probably bring in well over 100 million dollars annually.

Just think of all the good works the church could engage in across our community if we collectively partnered together to meet real and pressing needs.

Think of the opportunity it would create for all of us to openly share our faith with people who have been made ready by God to hear what we have to say.

Instead, the trend these days is for us to operate under the assumption that God has called our church to be a big church, with as many venues in as many cities and states as possible, so people can gather together and hear 1 or 2 people dynamic people preach for a couple hours a week, listen to some music, watch some theatrics, and then go home.

And as more and more churches expand their sphere of influence by opening multiple satellite locations, we are literally spending millions of dollars on buildings that just allow people to watch somebody preach the gospel over a jumbo sized TV screen that simply has a live internet feed attached to it.  Truth is, the people could do the same at home in their pajamas at just about any time of the day, and the church could spend a lot less money on overhead in the process.  Last I checked, putting up video's on YouTube was free.

That's not exactly a visionary way to reach people. That's probably just bad stewardship.

There are better ways of reaching out to people and changing the world for Jesus. What is needed is not for a church to pump and prime God's people to tithe and give more and more, so that we can build more and more buildings.  God's people give plenty already.  We already have plenty of buildings.

What is needed is for us to adjust our vision, and to be aware of the opportunity that is all around us. We need to redirect where we give our money.

We need to see the single mom who is having a hard time making ends meet, and give to her.

We need to see the children in our nation who experience hunger on a regular basis, and buy them something to eat.

We need to see neighbor that we know was recently laid off from work, and help him make ends meet for his family.

We need to see the wife, who stays with her abusive husband only because she has nowhere else to go and find safety, and help provide a place of refuge for her to flee too.

We need to see the countless others, whom we often refuse to see, and deliberately make them the recipient of the grace God has given us, so that we can enrich their lives through our joyful and generous giving.

We need to stop being so lazy, and simply dropping our offering in a plate.  We need to reach out of our comfort zones, and really begin to minister as God would have us as the church to minister to those in our community.

We need to give less to God, and more to others.

And in the process, if we find some preachers who are exceptionally gifted and make a regular difference in our life and the lives of others, and help equip a lot of people to do such things, we should consider supporting such men and women. They are worthy of our support... if they will take it.

(Note: I have called out Elevation Church and other churches in the Charlotte area for illustrative purposes only. It's the church I go to. I am not attempting to smear them or otherwise malign them. If you think I'm trying to pick on them, may I kindly advise you to think about something else... like puppies, or whatever else makes you smile.)

Critiquing those who Critique the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Today at work, I saw the CEO of the bank I work for do the "ALS Ice Bucket Challenge." 

I take this as a strong cultural indicator that the challenge has reached its climax, and that within a few months, the challenge will be all but over.

The demise of this challenge will undoubtedly inspire some spin-off challenges that seek to emulate the social media phenomenon. I only hope with the winter months coming up, we don't take our clue from the movie, "A Christmas Story," and start sticking our tongues to frozen poles and video taping it because we received a #TripleDogDareYou hash-tag on Twitter.

I personally enjoyed and participated in the challenge.  Although I didn't give my money to ALS, instead, I  chose to give to another local charity that I already have a strong knowledge of, and find worthy of support.

Some people offered various social critiques of the challenge.

Some people found it simply silly; others refused to participate because they already make it a habit of being counter-cultural and going against the grain as a regular manner of life; others looked down their long noses at those participating in it, and dismissed them as being nothing but shallow and mindless lemmings who always get carried away in what the masses are doing; and yet others were people simply craving attention, and used the challenge as a chance to take a glorified "selfie."

Such criticisms, while they may have some validity to them, I think are a bit unfortunate, and really miss the bigger picture.

I think a lot of cultural critiques of this phenomenon have been made by people who have a tendency to over-think things.

Honestly, it reminds me of the Jewish leaders who used to slander Jesus because He performed miracles on a Sabbath day.  Crippled and blind people were healed miraculously right before their eyes.  Yet, instead of celebrating the miracle, the leaders of Jesus' day had the audacity to question if it was the moral thing to do!  After all, they were worried that He might have broken one of the Ten Commandments by choosing to do a good "work" on what was a commanded religious day of rest and worship.

Jesus was amazed at the callousness of such people in His day.  This callousness caused the leaders of His day to over-think the good thing they were seeing, and in my opinion, critics of the practice today are over-thinking the phenomenon that is happening in their own day.

Let us be careful to not become like the religious leaders of Jesus' day, who hardened their hearts to the good work that was being done right before their eyes.  Let us rather rejoice that something good is being done, and encourage such behavior in the future.

Seriously people, let's stop over-thinking the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.  If you are critiquing it, you are thinking too hard about it.

Receive the challenge for what it is:  a friendly "dare" that exists to inspire others to do something good.

Critique it no more than you would some kid selling lemonade on the side of the road in your neighborhood, or a Girl Scout selling cookies door-to-door. Stop to buy the lemonade.  Fork over the money and buy some cookies.  Take 5 minutes and use your phone to video tape yourself taking a nice wet icy dip, and cut somebody a check already!

Let's stop questioning if the people who are doing it are of the right mindset.  Instead of having a hard heart, let us simply rejoice over the fact that people are enthusiastically finding joy in challenging others to do a good deed, and help those in need.

Likewise, instead of using our intellectual powers to decry the Ice Bucket Challenge as somehow being morally suspect or bankrupt, let us soften our hearts and employ our minds in ways that inspire others to do good deeds.

Let's challenge as many people as we can to become givers instead of critics, and let us find creative ways to enrich those who are in much need.  Let us not be like the leaders of Jesus' day, who sat on the sidelines and ran their mouths, while Jesus reached out to heal those who He saw were in need.  Let us be people who seek to make a difference, and change the world around us.