Joy In Serving: Devotions From Time Of Grace MinistryНамуна

Three: My Community

Christian missionaries in Third World countries will tell you that a teaching ministry is much more effective if accompanied by a mercy ministry (clinic, agricultural training, disaster relief, etc.).

In post-Christian America, we have come full circle. Christians and Christian churches would probably do well to envision themselves as missionaries and mission outposts once again. Their words can have an impact, but their words plus kind and authentic acts of joyful service make their overall witness much more powerful.

My Community: Do good for all people

Christians were persecuted as enemies of the state for almost all of the first three centuries of their existence. The irony is that Christianity can indeed flourish in a political climate of great freedom, but sometimes it does even better in times of great oppression.

In those early centuries, the Jewish and Roman states were missing a great resource. Christians actually make the best citizens. Our God commands us to care about our civic community, not just our church community. The God who loves us unconditionally trains us to love all the people around us, not just other Christians, unconditionally too. “As we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (Galatians 6:10).

Of course God wants us to take care of our church community. But sometimes we can worship God better on our own streets than in church. When Christians act like Christ in the world, they give honor to the One whose blood actually paid for the world’s sins. When we love people as Christ did, with real and authentic caring, we destroy the caricature of Christians as hypocritical and judgmental snobs.