I can only speak within an American context. I was heavily involved in my local “Christianity/Church” affiliated homeless shelters/care programs and after a couple years walked away from it. We were not helping the poor, but rather enabling a subset of people’s irresponsible lifestyles. I would like to know what the definition of poor is, in relation to being in the United States. I delivered boxes of food to families in the projects that were in possession of nicer cars, televisions and cellphones than what I had at the time.
I saw “Christian” agencies being soft on drugs and alcohol. The list goes on.
Are we scripturally called to care for the poor? 100%. How to do that in the world’s most affluent country, where our poor are rich compared to the rest of the world, is a quandary.
I definitely think there is a way to do it that puts relationships ahead of everything else. All help is contingent upon relational engagement. I know that flies in the face of some scripture, but it seems to me that continuing to enable lifestyles of extreme moral decadence is also a problem, scripturally speaking. We have to figure things out. We have to care for the poor, but that care has to be conditioned by actual affairs on the ground. To continue helping the poor in America as though they are the same as the poor in the developing world is tone deaf and will continue to do more harm than good.
I despise the "prosperity gospel". It sickens me to think people would actually agree that God wants to bless his believers with material wealth. Christ spoke often against this false doctrine. Christ said of himself, "foxes have dens but the Son of man has no where to lay his head." Those who covet money have no business calling themselves Christian.
7 “Two things I ask of you, Lord;
do not refuse me before I die:
8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God. Proverbs 30: 7-9 There is no evidence Jesus ever "touched" money. The one in charge of the money was Judas. The Bible said Judas "stole" from it. Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers and used a whip to clear them out of the temple calling them "thieves."
I had a guy come close to my men's discipleship group for a time who argued that Mary and Joseph took the gifts of the wise men and faithfully invested them, giving Jesus 'hidden treasure' that he kept with him throughout his life. I thought this was so ridiculous, but I never came up with a solid way to dissuade him. I just ended up saying that Jesus was a real jerk if he had the money to help folks and refused to share it, even while counseling the rich young ruler to liquidate his assets and give to the poor. The guy dropped our group. It wouldn't have been a good fit for him. We are all preparing for suffering; not affluence.
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
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.
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.
"Darwinian anthropology has so dominated our mindset that we cannot conceive of some humans being sanctified while others are not."
Straight to the depths of my soul, this one. This is one of the most challenging battles I am uncovering in my church - the idea that any could be sanctified to such a degree as we find in the Bible.
Jeffrey, It is unfortunate that comments are limited. I couldn't read the rest of Bob's comment.
I think Bob accidentally deleted the rest of his response. I can't see anything beyond the cutoff, either.
I can only speak within an American context. I was heavily involved in my local “Christianity/Church” affiliated homeless shelters/care programs and after a couple years walked away from it. We were not helping the poor, but rather enabling a subset of people’s irresponsible lifestyles. I would like to know what the definition of poor is, in relation to being in the United States. I delivered boxes of food to families in the projects that were in possession of nicer cars, televisions and cellphones than what I had at the time.
I saw “Christian” agencies being soft on drugs and alcohol. The list goes on.
Are we scripturally called to care for the poor? 100%. How to do that in the world’s most affluent country, where our poor are rich compared to the rest of the world, is a quandary.
I definitely think there is a way to do it that puts relationships ahead of everything else. All help is contingent upon relational engagement. I know that flies in the face of some scripture, but it seems to me that continuing to enable lifestyles of extreme moral decadence is also a problem, scripturally speaking. We have to figure things out. We have to care for the poor, but that care has to be conditioned by actual affairs on the ground. To continue helping the poor in America as though they are the same as the poor in the developing world is tone deaf and will continue to do more harm than good.
I despise the "prosperity gospel". It sickens me to think people would actually agree that God wants to bless his believers with material wealth. Christ spoke often against this false doctrine. Christ said of himself, "foxes have dens but the Son of man has no where to lay his head." Those who covet money have no business calling themselves Christian.
7 “Two things I ask of you, Lord;
do not refuse me before I die:
8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God. Proverbs 30: 7-9 There is no evidence Jesus ever "touched" money. The one in charge of the money was Judas. The Bible said Judas "stole" from it. Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers and used a whip to clear them out of the temple calling them "thieves."
I had a guy come close to my men's discipleship group for a time who argued that Mary and Joseph took the gifts of the wise men and faithfully invested them, giving Jesus 'hidden treasure' that he kept with him throughout his life. I thought this was so ridiculous, but I never came up with a solid way to dissuade him. I just ended up saying that Jesus was a real jerk if he had the money to help folks and refused to share it, even while counseling the rich young ruler to liquidate his assets and give to the poor. The guy dropped our group. It wouldn't have been a good fit for him. We are all preparing for suffering; not affluence.
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
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.
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.
"Darwinian anthropology has so dominated our mindset that we cannot conceive of some humans being sanctified while others are not."
Straight to the depths of my soul, this one. This is one of the most challenging battles I am uncovering in my church - the idea that any could be sanctified to such a degree as we find in the Bible.