“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27).
Historically, evangelicals have struck a good balance between personal piety and social action. Recently, however, we’ve slipped to one side: stressing piety and purity to such an extent that in some cases we’ve even withdrawn from the world, thus leaving the gritty work of social engagement to the more liberal wings of Christianity. We need to return to a religion that is indeed pure and undefiled, balanced and holistic.
9 comments ↓
Pastor Todd,
I’m wondering if both personal piety and social action have slipped to the side.
According to this Barna research study (http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=271), American Christians are Biblically “incoherent”. David Kinnaman, who authored the study, indicated that the trend is significant and summarizes this way:
There is another recent study that I could get into later, that demonstrates that it is the most religiously conservative who are the most involved in charitable works and donation, which is the exact opposite of what most people believe.
I looked at this week’s items under ‘church news’ on the church website – I think this is the same as the announcements/opportunities section in the weekly church bulletin.
In addition to announcements I saw these opportunities –
3 conferences/seminars to attend (improve your marriage, improve your finances, learn more about what the Bible says);
dedicate your children/pray for your children who are going into the military;
help with the Calvary Kitchen (which serves people who come to church, I think?)
have dinner on Wednesday evening with other people who come to church
I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with these – but are any of them opportunities for social engagement/social action with ‘the world’?
Helen, there are other things going on in addition to what you see in the bulletin. For instance, each of the Life Groups (comprised of 8-12 people each) are involved in their own ministry projects, like donating time at a food pantry. Calvary also works with the Oak Park Vineyard to collect and distribute grocery donations to needy families on the west side. About 10 of us went out into the cold weather yesterday to distribute about 50 bags or so.
Normally, we deliver more like 80 or 90 and have more volunteers than we did yesterday, so maybe someone reading this post will jump in and volunteer next time we go out! Please consider it, Calvary and Vineyard friends!
Derek thanks for your response. I’m very happy to hear about those social action projects. I think it’s awesome that you and others are collecting and delivering food to needy people on the west side.
I think it would be neat if visitors to the church website or a Sunday service strongly got the message ‘this church is committed to social action/engagement’. When I used to go it wasn’t something that came up in Sunday services and I still am not seeing anything about it on the church website. For example, if I go to the ministries page there is nothing on there about social action/engagement.
How do people find out about Calvary projects like helping the needy with groceries? (Apart from by reading this blog
)
Helen,
A big part of the issue here is that the church has been looking for a communications coordinator for a while. There has been some positive developments in that area recently.
The other thing is that the organization of these types of events seems (at least to me, anyway) to work most effectively in the context of the smaller groups and adult Bible fellowships, rather than as a general appeal to the entire church. Though I agree with you that we should do both. The ABF (Life Trainers) that my wife and I attend is really consistent about encouraging and mobilizing people with our “yellow bag” program (the one I described above).
Still, we want more volunteers, Calvary members out there! We have a lot of room for improvement in this area.
Helen, there’s a fascinating book – “Who Really Cares?” by author Arthur Brooks – that came out a couple years ago, on the topic of charitable service and giving- have you heard of this?
http://www.arthurbrooks.net/whoreallycares/statistics.html
Derek no I hadn’t heard of that book – thanks for the link!
Good discussion on this point. This is a needed priority for us to understand and grapple with as a church. We have not communicated well to the culture around us that we care and that we are willing to engage and help others without strings attached. Rightly or wrongly, we have been perceived as being in our own world, and concerned about ourselves and our own point of view. We need to change. I need to change.
Randy thanks for your comment – I know that you and Derek and many others do care.
I think it’s interesting that this is the current church mission statement:
Glorifying God by making disciples who love God and one another
Not that there’s anything wrong with these goals but wouldn’t it be even better if Calvary’s mission was to make disciples who love God and their neighbors
(other people inside or outside the church)? Since those are the two greatest commandments?
I remember when I was just born-again, and still very post-modern:-) that I wanted to go to a church and just volunteer with a project. I was still cynical about Christians and churches, and wanted to feel and do good by getting involved with service. I didn’t care much for theology or piety. I think social service is a good way to help shepherd people into a church environment, not that that is the goal, but it is a corollary benefit. I think you’re right Derek that smaller groups are effective at acting and responding to the Spirit better than a top-down approach, so maybe with the help of a new communications coordinator, newcomers and even someone like me could benefit by being able to jump in something that is happening that we didn’t know about. When and where do you meet for the yellow bag program? I miss too many announcements so my bad if it has been announced there!
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