Over the past year or so Donnelly Bible Church has had the privilege of working with the Calvary Christian Center Food Bank in Donnelly. Mostly through the regular efforts of pastor Brian and a few very faithfully committed individuals whom I won’t mention by name because I’m not sure if they would want me to or not, but you know who you are; thank you! Although not all of us have had the opportunity to work in a hands on kind of way at the food bank, most of us have helped with cans of food, bags of rice and beans and so on. The need has been great here in our community, and God has been amazingly good!
About a month and a half ago, due to shortages in the food supply from the Idaho Food Bank in Boise where we get much of our supply at greatly discounted rates, Brian thought he would reach out to the churches in the valley and ask if they would be willing to consider taking us on as a mission of sorts to collect canned goods and such. He contacted six churches and I have to say it was a bit disheartening. Out of the six he received only one response. The response was a list of questions, they are as follows:
How does this effort connect with the Donnelly Bible Church in evangelism and follow up? In other words how are they connecting with these individuals/families on a spiritual basis also? Is it a gospel centered ministry effort?
How often do they need to have this support for these areas of food and other necessities? Weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly?
Is Donnelly Bible Church affiliated with a denomination or any other churches that you know of here or elsewhere?
It was questions 1. and 3. that threw me a bit. Are we doing ourselves and the name of Christ a great disservice when we begin to separate caring for our community and evangelism and connecting with people on a spiritual basis? That we begin to see these as separate practices and not profoundly intertwined, hopelessly entangled even? As to whether or not it is a ‘gospel centered ministry’, I suppose that would be answered by your definition of the gospel. If your gospel is limited to the forgiving of your sins so you don’t have burn in hell, then no, this is not ‘your gospel’ centered. Feeding a family who is hungry doesn’t cause them to fall to their knees and beg forgiveness of God. But if the gospel is defined as the good news of God’s Kingdom being available to everyone, then this is a deeply gospel centered ministry in where we are demonstrating the reality of God’s Kingdom being here and accessible and available to all and this is what it is to be a citizen of this Kingdom. A community of the redeemed caring for one another. Which, by the way, generally has the affect on people of causing them to reconsider their life and see that life in this community, life where trusting Jesus, following Him, learning from Him, is a far better way to live their own life.
As to our affiliation, who we are affiliated with is the body of Christ. We are brothers and sisters in the family of God.
How do these questions strike you?
Here was my response to Brian, I’m curious if anyone is thinking I am making too much….
“Brian,
My first response was that my heart just sank. My second response was if I were not already a Christian, I don’t know that I would want to be. I’m not so sure that Christians really know Jesus. Third it makes me feel as if I need to apologize to our community. The embarrassing kind of apology like when you’re at a nice restaurant and you’re loud and obnoxious uncle decides to join you for dinner and you’re looking over at the other tables who are all looking at you, without really looking, and it’s not your fault that he’s here and annoying and offensive, but because of that family link you feel responsible……that kind of apology.
These questions are great…for a corporation engaged in philanthropic ventures. Not for the living blood and flesh of Christ though. How about a simple yes or no? That would have been so much better than questions to determine our worthiness to receive their food. And the other churches who just ignored you…..I am simply speechless… You’re asking for help to feed people who have no food, right here in Idaho, would it have been better if you were to ask to send resources to Haiti or Mexico or even better yet Africa!
It is no wonder that this generation is being lost, the ‘church’ is failing to show them anything of value. This is why so many of our youth today can say, “Yes, I believe in God, I just don’t like to go to church.” Even they recognize that God has left the building. And what is the alternative? It is the spiritualist who tells them to see God in nature, the buddhist who tells them to be at peace with everyone, the mormon who tells them that family is everything and the atheist who tells them that we must care for the sick and hungry. So they settle for a portion of God that is tangible….AND ALL ALONG IT IS US WHO SHOULD BE DEMONSTRATING THE GOD WHO IS!! THE GREAT I AM!!
No wonder He will say to so many, “Depart from Me, I never knew you.”
I am loving more and more what it is that we have been so generously gifted to participate in together here at Donnelly Bible Church. I desperately want our people to not see it as church as usual, because it is not! We are engaged in something magnificent here, something resplendent! (I had to look up that word. :) I hope I used it right!) And it is not of us, I wouldn’t dream to try and grab at this explosion of light, but it is in us and flowing through us and transforming us so that we might be able to handle and do even more. Definitely not church as usual though.”
So…….any takers? Feel free to call me out if you find it necessary. Feel even more free to join in the active community of Kingdom citizens who are demonstrating the good news of the gospel. This truly is the best way to live! This truly is the abundant life!
Fernando says:
ReplyDeleteJuly 7, 2010 at 5:33 am
Well brother, it is truly commendable to do kind acts in the name of Christ! All Christians would do well to demonstrate the fruit of the Gospel with their lives and validate the audible proclamation of the Gospel. A word of caution- the the fruit of the Gospel (the Christian life) should never be confused with the Gospel itself- it only shows the power of it as well as validates it!
The Apostle Paul writes to the Thessalonians, “For you remember, brothers,our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. you are our witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers.” (1 Thess. 2:9-10). Note how Paul audibly proclaimed (literally to herald) the Gospel and their lives aligned with their message. Paul’s holy, righteous and blameless conduct was not the Gospel (see also 1:5). So then what was the Gospel Paul preached to the Thess.? While he doesn’t lay it all out in a couple of verses he does disclose what he audibly proclaimed. Ch. 1 v. 5-10 with v. 10 being extremely helpful as is v.13-18 of ch.4 (emphasis on v.14) and also ch. 5 v.9. The whole of the N.T. is full of a vocal Gospel as is written in Rom. 10:14, “But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe on him whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” It is interesting that Paul spent the first three chapters of Romans discussing God’s wrath and humanity’s sinfulness and he spends the next 3 or for chapters explaining how man is to be saved- through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died mfor our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day pin accordance with the Scriptures.” (1 Cor. 15:3-4 note what was said to be of firs importance). Thus I believe the that the first question is very legitimate! Feeding the poor and doing community service is not the Gospel for even non believers do these things! Lastly we need to be careful not to publicly announce all our good works before others to show that we are being active in the ommunity of Kingdom citizens” To not participate in your ministry does not make one non active. Many other churches and believers are doing things for the glory of Christ (not community) that do not disclose what they are doing (this is a blbical principal see Matt. 6:3).
In Christ,
Fernando Ramirez
Soli Deo Gloria