Reprinted with permission from Voice magazine (Jan/Feb 2010).
Recently I was visiting one of my elders’ friends to whom he has been witnessing for about thirty years. In a three hour time period we must have presented the gospel to his friend at least five times, in different ways. His friend just nodded and agreed but never made a decision to trust Christ as Savior. I was along for the ride this time, but this elder in my church faithfully does this every Thursday and has for years.
During our ride I got at least three phone calls from people requesting financial assistance from our church. I shared with them the different non-profit groups in our community that can help them. But, and how can I say this tenderly, I had to reject their request. We have several families in our church who have fallen on hard times because the economy in Michigan is terrible and if you lose your job, they are hard to find. Three families in our church were on the verge of losing their homes and so we took a special offering through the month of July to give those families a boost. Our small church gave $2,600 in addition to our normal giving.
Our church is involved in organizations like Right to Life and the local pregnancy center. We try to help our friends and neighbors as much as we can. But many people in the American church have started to think that those kind of activities are what make us relevant to the world in which we live. And that is not biblical. read more»
