The Debt Limit, Government Spending, And The Church

As our government nears a fiscal deadline of potentially significant proportions, I'm amazed at how much of the conversation and rhetoric hangs on social issues. People groups like the poor, homeless and elderly have been turned into political objects to be championed or cast aside.

At the office yesterday, I received an email with a very brief update from our food distribution that takes place every Monday at our Rescue Mission downtown. We had served 243 families and distributed over 19,000 pounds of food. I'm continually amazed at how God is working at our downtown mission, so I decided to share these great stats in a post on Twitter.

A few hours later I discovered that Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church and author of The Purpose Driven Life, had re-tweeted my post to his nearly 400,000 followers on Twitter. He attached an insightful bit of commentary to my original post, he tweeted:

"@RickWarren: If our 335,000 churches paused all our services,the govt couldn't cover it. @tom_messer: Yesterday served 243 families 19,440 lbs of food."

I appreciated him weighing in on the issue because, now more than ever, churches need to rise to the challenge and embrace these kinds of opportunities for Gospel ministry. He and I messaged back and forth and he indicated they had seen hundreds of spiritual decisions this year through their food bank ministry. I could share a similar report from our mission in downtown Jacksonville. 

This follows the example of Jesus where he would meet physical needs of people and provide for their spiritual needs. Our goal is not meeting a hunger need only, as important as that is, we are committed to ministering spiritually with everyone that we have the privilege of serving in our community.

While we have no idea what is going to happen with the debt limit in Washington, I am convinced that the government is ill equipped to meet the real needs that exist in our communities that must be met by compassionate and committed Christians and churches.

In the Book of James, scripture is clear regarding "true religion": The church has been called to minister to the poor, the fatherless and the widowed.

 

Comments

[Terry Lange]

I can remember during my college years preaching at the Rescue Mission and Farm and was thankful for those ministries because they helped so many people in time of need and preached the Gospel also. A question that I have always had regarding ministries like the Mission and Farm. How do you avoid the label of the "social gospel" when you are meeting needs in this manner?

[Tom Messer]

Terry,

Thanks for the comment and question. I think that this is something that I wrestle with mostly because of what others think and not because I am all that concerned about what I am doing or why I am doing it. The reality is that Jesus met needs in people's lives (healing, feeding, etc) as a platform for preaching the gospel. I think that we are commanded to show the love of Christ and proclaim the gospel by word and deed. Most of the criticism that comes our way in regard to this, is generally from people that are not reaching people with the gospel or as deeply invested in meeting needs. Gospel ministry requires you to get your hands dirty and will invite criticism especially from the religious crowd.

Hope that this helps.

TCM

[Randy Everist]

Pastor, I agree with your statements here. We should give our brethren the benefit of the doubt. I can only think of one reason to criticize someone in this ministry: if it is the case they are not at all preaching the Gospel of Christ. If they are, not only is meeting physical needs helpful, it's morally better and fleshes out the ideals and actions of Jesus better than those who are merely content to take potshots from the sidelines. I'm glad you brought attention to it.

[Joshua Margerison]

Great points Pastor Messer. From a political perspective, we have been all too willingly robbed of the opportunity to care for the helpless and needy by a government that has learned to translate dollars to votes. For the fiscal health and integrity of our nation and and its political process, we must take this back.
From a religious perspective, there is no greater context in which to share the gospel than one of love and giving. I have found in our own church that we have seen more saved and lives changed through our benevolence ministries than anything else we do.
What we call our "Helping Hands Ministry" has brought many into the church and has opened many doors for the gospel. When the list of needy gets long enough, we schedule an entire service for outreach, sending the church out during the evening service time slot to take food, flowers, blankets, toys, etc. to specific families or people in need. What a thrill now to see those who were once the recipients of this help, participating and going our during one of our Helping Hands services!
These were saved and baptized and are now ministers of the gospel. I don't like the term, "social gospel" because it puts me in mind of a gospel-less social ministry, but if the gospel is central, how can we not couch it in its most powerful context?

[B Callahan]

Challenging and convicting to me. I am pursuing how we can be more involved in our own community this way. Thanks, Bro. Tom.

[Jim]

The government might not be able to absorb the services that our churches provide, but I think that the converse is also true. Churches wouldn't be able to cover the social services that the government provides. One of our political parties wants to lessen government spending and cut back taxes, (so that those with a conscious will provide it!). It is a social problem, and shouldn't solely be a burden for churches.