Wednesday, February 4

churches and the poor

I had a startling conversation with a pastor at a conference recently. He was from a church of significant girth and status, replete with many staff and visions of grandeur. So I asked him what his church was doing for the poor. And I pressed him. Hard. The answer was – nothing. Oh sure they gave out a Christmas hamper or two and for all I know he donated to Unicef on Halloween; the usual deal.
Since that eventful conversation I have put the question to many other churches, maybe even your church. Usually the results are predictable. Here’s my conclusion – churches really don’t care about the poor. Jesus cared about the poor. In fact he was quite adamant that one of the hallmarks of holistic faith would be a passion for the lowly, the oppressed, the hurting and… the poor. He went as far as to say that taking care of such would be an act of worship to God. "As much as you do to the least of these, you do to me." He said. "True faith", Paul said, was to "take care of widows and orphans." So why is it then that churches have huge budgets, great facilities, wonderful programs, but no poor? You don’t see significant dollars given, there are few or no poor in the pew. Where did we go wrong?
The poor are messy. They are needy. They don’t tend to invest your gift. Many aren’t looking for work. They can smell. If you give them money they may squander it or worse – buy cigarettes. They don’t usually live in "the burbs".
He said to me, "we give something…" churches and individuals are notorious for giving a little something to appease their conscience. My take on this – it’s worse than giving nothing at all. It objectifies the needy into projects without beginning to care for the real person. It enables us to totally disregard true compassion and it actually increases the problem.
How much does your church do for the poor?
I think it’s time that someone called a lie a lie. It’s time we let the cat out of the bag, admit that the emperor has no clothes and owned up to the fact that we have become predominately a white, affluent ministry that is largely self-serving. Most churches I have known are too stinking lazy and selfish to do anything of real value for the people Christ came to seek and save. We love to spout off how committed we are; but try to get people to sell their car and give the money away. Most of us, myself included, are really selfish pigs.
Let’s be godly. Let’s be the church of Christ. Let’s put our money where our mouth is and spend some real time and real coin in real ministry for once. Let’s stop debating the issue and critiquing the fonts. Let’s change the church and change the world.

posted by Scott | 9:48 PM | |