Being a Christian is hard work.
I recently went to a conference on mission where the speakers were speaking about the good that individuals and churches could be doing in their community. They encouraged us to invite the poor into our homes and our Churches, make them feel welcome in our neighbourhoods. Each speaker got up with stories about how they had done their “good deed” by taking care of a homeless person, or going over sea’s to help a poor person in some far off place. They then began to tout organizations that do “good deeds”. Honestly, what they were talking about was great. It was stuff that needed to be heard, to their credit they were right in everything they said. However, it was what they did not say that left me feeling a bit empty and cheated. I felt as if there should be more.
So at the end of the conference I asked during the question time “To what end do we do this?” I expected answers like “to Glorify God”, to give people the gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ?”, to “be obedient to God and to live out our spiritual act of worship.”, or simply to “live as brothers and sisters?”. But the answer I received was that “there did not need to be an end or a purpose”.
I worked for many years in social service working with homeless adults and working with at risk youth as a counsellor. I remember my boss telling me something that changed the way I looked at what we did and how I saw doing good. He said to me “eventually we are to do our job so well that we make ourselves redundant”. He said this one night after I complained that one of our programs suddenly found itself closing its doors, because it wasn’t needed anymore. Unfortunately, one worker was laid off and a great program that was a pretty fun program was ended, but it was not because we didn’t do our job, it was because it was no longer needed. Our success rate was so high at housing people, partly with the help of the local combined Churches effort, that we found ourselves with few clients.
See to this there was a point. It was not some Airy Fairy practice in “doing good” so that we could feel better about ourselves and have some great photo ops. It was hard work. It was hard work with a purpose. Hard work that required planning, organization, effort, and very little recognition. We even had the world’s most famous morning news TV program come and feature our program. None of us wanted to be interviewed or go on television to the extent that even attending the filming had became something that was required (not to mention that filming was at 4am) for certain staff. See it didn’t matter who did it, or which organization helped the most, it simply mattered that we got the Job done and we set goals and reached those goals.
The same should be true of Christian ministry. Our goal above all else is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength and love your neighbour as yourself”. This is hard work. First, is to to love the Lord. Jesus commands in Matthew 15 that we are to love one another as he loved us. So this means that we have to know how he loved us, and in order to know how he truly loved us, we have to study his Word, and yes this is hard work. We have to talk to him, hold meetings with Him in prayer to be directed by Him and for Him. We have to set goals, based on His Word not on our own aspirations. And we have to do the “Work” that he requires us. To us comes the Biblical command to “do the WORK of an evangelist.” And it is "work".
And the second part “to love our neighbour as ourselves”. This is hard work that goes, often unrecognized”. Jesus tells us the story of the good Samaritan, a man who worked to help his neighbour. No recognition is given this man, we don’t hear of a photo op being held between the beaten man and the Samaritan, or a sum of money being given in thanks. Just simply someone doing the work that is required.
But it’s more than just taking care of the hurt and needy. In all reality anyone can do that. Having worked in non-Christian organizations I can attest that I’ve seen wonderfully loving non-Christians who do amazing work. There are non-Christian organizations that do awesome work in helping people and we should support them. But we should do more. We should have a purpose, as Christ commands that we have a purpose to all that we do. How, unloving would it be to simply comfort someone who is dying, give them hugs and speak softly to them, when all the while you have the medicine that is required for them to live. That is us. When we do mission, when we help people we dont just take care of their physical and emotional needs we take care of their spiritual needs, needs they may not have even known existed. We give them love and encouragement in this life, but we take it a step further and we share with them Jesus Christ so that they can have eternal life.The Bible says that there is an “end” and a purpose to all that we do, it is to “make disciples of all nations.”
I recently went to a conference on mission where the speakers were speaking about the good that individuals and churches could be doing in their community. They encouraged us to invite the poor into our homes and our Churches, make them feel welcome in our neighbourhoods. Each speaker got up with stories about how they had done their “good deed” by taking care of a homeless person, or going over sea’s to help a poor person in some far off place. They then began to tout organizations that do “good deeds”. Honestly, what they were talking about was great. It was stuff that needed to be heard, to their credit they were right in everything they said. However, it was what they did not say that left me feeling a bit empty and cheated. I felt as if there should be more.
So at the end of the conference I asked during the question time “To what end do we do this?” I expected answers like “to Glorify God”, to give people the gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ?”, to “be obedient to God and to live out our spiritual act of worship.”, or simply to “live as brothers and sisters?”. But the answer I received was that “there did not need to be an end or a purpose”.
I worked for many years in social service working with homeless adults and working with at risk youth as a counsellor. I remember my boss telling me something that changed the way I looked at what we did and how I saw doing good. He said to me “eventually we are to do our job so well that we make ourselves redundant”. He said this one night after I complained that one of our programs suddenly found itself closing its doors, because it wasn’t needed anymore. Unfortunately, one worker was laid off and a great program that was a pretty fun program was ended, but it was not because we didn’t do our job, it was because it was no longer needed. Our success rate was so high at housing people, partly with the help of the local combined Churches effort, that we found ourselves with few clients.
See to this there was a point. It was not some Airy Fairy practice in “doing good” so that we could feel better about ourselves and have some great photo ops. It was hard work. It was hard work with a purpose. Hard work that required planning, organization, effort, and very little recognition. We even had the world’s most famous morning news TV program come and feature our program. None of us wanted to be interviewed or go on television to the extent that even attending the filming had became something that was required (not to mention that filming was at 4am) for certain staff. See it didn’t matter who did it, or which organization helped the most, it simply mattered that we got the Job done and we set goals and reached those goals.
The same should be true of Christian ministry. Our goal above all else is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength and love your neighbour as yourself”. This is hard work. First, is to to love the Lord. Jesus commands in Matthew 15 that we are to love one another as he loved us. So this means that we have to know how he loved us, and in order to know how he truly loved us, we have to study his Word, and yes this is hard work. We have to talk to him, hold meetings with Him in prayer to be directed by Him and for Him. We have to set goals, based on His Word not on our own aspirations. And we have to do the “Work” that he requires us. To us comes the Biblical command to “do the WORK of an evangelist.” And it is "work".
And the second part “to love our neighbour as ourselves”. This is hard work that goes, often unrecognized”. Jesus tells us the story of the good Samaritan, a man who worked to help his neighbour. No recognition is given this man, we don’t hear of a photo op being held between the beaten man and the Samaritan, or a sum of money being given in thanks. Just simply someone doing the work that is required.
But it’s more than just taking care of the hurt and needy. In all reality anyone can do that. Having worked in non-Christian organizations I can attest that I’ve seen wonderfully loving non-Christians who do amazing work. There are non-Christian organizations that do awesome work in helping people and we should support them. But we should do more. We should have a purpose, as Christ commands that we have a purpose to all that we do. How, unloving would it be to simply comfort someone who is dying, give them hugs and speak softly to them, when all the while you have the medicine that is required for them to live. That is us. When we do mission, when we help people we dont just take care of their physical and emotional needs we take care of their spiritual needs, needs they may not have even known existed. We give them love and encouragement in this life, but we take it a step further and we share with them Jesus Christ so that they can have eternal life.The Bible says that there is an “end” and a purpose to all that we do, it is to “make disciples of all nations.”