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Hi Jeffrey. I agree that as Christ followers, we should be striving to have the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:1-7). Having the mind of Christ would naturally cause us to be mindful of the plight of the poor and oppressed humanity of the world. How we respond should be determined by whether or not our response glorifies God or not. There’s a book authored by Christian professor, John C. Nugent, entitled Endangered Gospel: How fixing the World is Killing the Church. The so-called Social Gospel is exactly what this is. In this book, Nugent is making the claim the the Church wasn’t called to try to make the world a better place. Rather, the Church was called to BE the better place. In this way the consummated Kingdom of God is on display as a preview of what will be. When the poor and downtrodden, see the peace and love of Christ on display, they will be drawn to it. The book of Act’s

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Yes, I reckon I would be right on board with Nugent's insights. Thanks for sharing these brief thoughts. I don't know that you got them all out. The last sentence, at least, seems cut off. The ideas expressed here dovetail with that book I'm always talking about, 'The Patient Ferment of the Early Church.' The author argues that the early church didn't care at all about making new disciples. They thought the Great Commission was only for the Twelve. Rather, they cared only about holiness. Their singular concern for holiness is what drew the world. Despite many barriers to membership, people were beating down the doors to become Christians. When we keep the main thing front and center, everything else lines up. But when we put the cart before the horse, everything gets messed up. That conviction very much undergirds this article I have published.

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Jeffrey, thanks for your response. I guess I may have deleted part of my own comment while in the process of editing part of it. I’m not very computer literate. What got deleted was an example from Acts on how the early Church treated the poor amongst them like family, and in the process, God added to their number the individuals who were being saved. In case you’re interested, I also came across a transcribed interview between Dr Nugent and a fellow named Karl Vaters on his blog on Christianity Today, July 25, 2022. Here Nugent gave details on how God uses the Church to display the Kingdom and thereby creates a magnet to draw in the lost.

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