Tag: mission work

Give Us This Day Our Daily Links

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Gingrich is in. How he’ll appeal to the social conservatives is anyone’s guess.  || As Speaker Boehner plans his commencement speech for Catholic University of America, dozens of prominent Catholics have written him a letter that calls his policies “anti-life.”  || Becky Garrison has pointed us to John Shore’s analysis of the Sojourner’s gay ad kerfuffle, “Mr. Wallis and His Big Gay Waffle.” || Today The Presbyterian Church (USA) joined the Episcopal Church (US), the United Church of Christ and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in permitting the ordination of gay ministers.  At least one Baptist thinks they’re all crazy.  ||  Speaking of Baptists…”But when it comes to disaster relief, the link between church and state has never been stronger than during the most recent storms in the South, say federal officials and the leaders of faith-based disaster relief work.” Continue Reading →

Have Missions Forgotten their Purpose?

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From Brent McCracken’s recent post at Relevant magazine about what he sees as a renewed need for old-school evangelism in mission work:

I’m all for social justice. I’m passionate about it. Christians have to be serving people and loving them not just in word but in deed. But man, if I hear another well-fed, Toms-wearing evangelical kid quote St. Francis (“preach the Gospel always, and if necessary, use words”) one more time as a justification for their unwillingness to utter a word to anyone about Christ as the one true hope, I don’t know what I’ll do.

It’s an ongoing debate in missiology: Should missionaries in foreign countries prioritize meeting physical needs (food, water, social justice, development) before they preach the gospel, or should evangelism always be given primacy?

To me, the debate is silly. Can’t we do both simultaneously? Can’t we serve others and meet their circumstantial needs while at the same time telling them about Jesus? Yes, we should be in Africa building water wells, or in Haiti building schools, but what’s the harm in mentioning along the way that we are Christians acting as the church, loving the world because God loved it?

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