Should they tell them about Jesus or not?

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Note how it starts out:
====
Many Christian ministries help the homeless people who hang out around Moore Square in downtown Raleigh.
Love Wins is best defined by what it doesn't do.
It doesn't invite homeless people to church.
It doesn't distribute pamphlets describing the way of salvation.
It doesn't even talk about Jesus.
====

Don't people ultimately need Jesus more than they need food or clothes? I'm not saying we shouldn't serve people if they don't become Christians. I'm not comfortable with the idea of not even mentioning salvation, though. What do you think?

I think this is tremendous.

They're ministering to them by 'showing them Jesus', by 'being Jesus to these homeless people. This will definitely open doors for future ministry opportunities.

The article says that the ministry is all about 'relationships' - and nothing could be more true.

The last thing most people want/need is some pompous, high-and-mighty Christian shoving 'words' about Jesus down their throats. They need to have someone meet their needs - to show the love, acceptance and compassion.

God will call them when the time is right. These people are 'serving' - tilling the ground and planting seeds.

Great stuff! The world needs much more of this and fewer religious zealots handing out tracs. The world needs 'real' Christians who serve others as their Savior did/does.

You've probably hear this - 'You may be the only Jesus these people ever know.'

I think it depends on the situation. There is a homeless shelter here that requires their guests to sit through chapel before they can be served breakfast or dinner. When I would serve them at the line I would routinely hear them talk about "putting up with the Jesus stuff" being a small price to pay for food and clean clothes.

But then when we do Washington Project we rarely mention Jesus outright or give them the salvation story. We simply tell them we're serving weekly with our church and if they ask a follow up question inviting us into a dialogue we tell them that we believe Jesus loves them and wants a relationship with them and cares about even their smallest need or desire. So we're trying to express that to them tangibly (or something along those lines)
We handed out water & coffee at a marathon a few months back and a couple asked us the follow up questions and we told them that. They didn't engage us anymore so we said have a great day and moved on. As they were walking past another member of our group they were talking to each other and were saying they wouldn't mind knowing a Jesus that had followers who acted like we did instead of assulting people with condemnation and judgement.

Again not every one does that I"m just giving you these examples.
When I would go back to the shelter from my 1 example there were definitely times that myself and other servers would wander around the tables and talk to people and engage them and we were able to talk to them on a more specific level about Jesus and that worked much better overall than forcing them to "put up" with Jesus for a meal.

In Under the Overpass (which I can't recommend enough) Mike Yankowski said that when he was starving he and his friend attended a shelter where they had to sit through a chapel. In the chapel the pastor talked about the feasts and bounty in heaven and all he could think about (he already being a follower of Jesus) was that he didn't care about the bounty in heaven and the feasts in heaven when he was starving right now.
There's a quote from that book that I can't think of offhand that says something about how people don't care about our theology however well founded or true if we don't care about their immediate needs like basic food, shelter, clothing.

The samaritan didn't stop and preach to the naked and wounded man on the side of the road he picked him up and took him to safety, he clothed him and fed him.

At least with WP we pray that the light of Christ is shown through our small actions and for the words to speak when we can about a God that is so big yet cares about the finest details of our lives.

Oh, also in Under the Overpass Mike talks about sleeping in a park one night and seeing a church come and evangelize with no food, no blankets nothing. Then another man told him to put up with it because Jesus was coming tomorrow. Half thinking the man was mental he asked what that meant and the other homeless man said a guy showed up every Saturday and brought dozens of pizzas with him to feed anyone that wanted food and they called him the Jesus man.

I think there is absolutely always a time for people to talk about Jesus. I think that people need Jesus more than food and clothing but like bobbo said, sometimes food and clothing is what softens peoples heart to get them to even want that relationship with Jesus, and if people are so hard they don't even want Jesus in their life than all of that theology and good intention just falls on concrete and doesn't grab hold of the sinners heart

Very cool, TB.
I would think that this ministry also prays the same prayer.

So many see ministry as 'preaching' or 'sharing the Gospel' when it's so much more. And too many would opt to 'shove the Gospel down their throats' at any cost because they think that's their calling - to 'save' them, when more often than not they are chasing them away.

Show them Jesus - show them love and compassion - and look for the openings to share Jesus (the Gospel) with them. He will make it happen in His time.

Good post, TB.

I guess my problem with it is that while it's true that we are to serve, not only preach, this seems to go to the other extreme: serve, but don't preach. And Scripture makes it clear that we are to do both. Jesus sent them out in pairs and specifically told them to do both. Paul did both. The Great Commission mentions telling people. Lots of other examples.

I agree with that. I also think that there have been so many churches/believers that however well intended preached and didn't serve and the salvation story was lost in translation.
Have a lot of churches/people swung to far to the other end of the spectrum? Probably. But there are also a TON out there that are doing it right.

I think (but don't know for sure since I've read nothing on the subject) this is a lot of the brew ha ha around the Glen Beck social justice argument. That in reality churches should be involved with social justice when coupled with bringing the story of the one true judge God but in reality some people and churches throw the gospel out with the bathwater

After reading the article, I'd have to believe that the Gospel comes into play when the opportunity presents itself. They just aren't into 'shove it down their throats whether they want it or not'.

I think it is cool. Most people who preach while serving are also people who say, "I saved that person!" I have heard that so many times....and they wonder why I laugh.

Angie wrote:I think it is cool. Most people who preach while serving are also people who say, "I saved that person!" I have heard that so many times....and they wonder why I laugh.

Most? Seriously?

I have heard it a lot...I find it annoying. And I know they are well intentioned, but I guess what I am saying is that forcing something doesn't do anything...God has it all together....His ways aren't mine.

Angie wrote:I have heard it a lot...I find it annoying. And I know they are well intentioned, but I guess what I am saying is that forcing something doesn't do anything...God has it all together....His ways aren't mine.

So I've never heard anyone say they saved anyone, but putting that aside, yes, God does it all, but what do you do with all those verses where He tells us to tell people the gospel? It's all over the NT.

But I think acting it out is a way to preach the gospel...who was it that said, "preach the gospel at all times, when necessary, use words?"

Words tend to get in the way for me, because there are so many pov's, and they aren't all right or wrong....but love is the one thing I am sure is right....so, then I can't go wrong....but if I start to talk....that can get dicey.

I think what they're doing is pretty cool. I know, though, in my own life, when I have tried to just live out the gospel, I have lost track of it and wandered into the 'worldly' lives of those I was trying to minister to with just actions. It is more difficult without clearly defined objectives like the Salvation Message drawing you down the Romans Road.

But, I guess the same thing can happen when we are preaching the gospel and wander into the worldliness around us too. And I guess that is why so many people are turned off by Preachers--because they talk idealistically, but live very human lives.

I think it boils down to how you define the word Preach, MT. Preach with actions, preach with words, preach with relationships, preach with objectives. It is different for everyone.

Recently, I have been contemplating something God said to David after he slept with Bathsheba and had Uriah killed: "Because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die." Those outside of belief can come to blaspheme God's holy name by the actions of those within belief. David was a man after God's own heart, but when looking upon these specific actions of his, others who did not know God could very well ridicule him.

Angie (and I think others here too), I think what you're getting at is being fed up with 'Preachers" whose lives give cause for outsiders to despise the name of God no matter that their words are calling these same outsiders to come to know God and follow him.

I don't think the gospel message was ever clear and concise--a 3 point sermon with alliteration and all the ends wrapped up tightly in well-trimmed bows--when it was being 'preached' by Jesus. He left Lazarus to rot in the tomb for 3 days before raising him to foreshadow his own death and show the wonder and might of God over death to the people mourning him. He used riddles and allegory to express the most important characteristics of God and our relationship to him. He suffered and died to show love to the world. Yes, he spoke. Yes, he preached. But, it was nothing like what the American church of 2010 could ever 'preach.' Because, you know, even though I regularly sit under the preaching of ministers (in church and in my own seeking of God) the truth of the matter is that the most innovative 'preaching' done in my life is through experiences and hints, small samplings of the whole that I can barely grasp and can only see in periphery or with hindsight that only comes from walking daily with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. A sermon didn't save me. Jesus' broken, risen body did. A message didn't redeem my soul, the beating of Jesus' heart called to me in my darkest hour. A man here on earth with eloquence and charisma didn't transform my life, Jesus did that with his powerful call to something more that was placed in my very soul before I was formed.

As humans, His workmanship, it is our job to be mirrors reflecting that love, that wonder and might, those important characteristics of the most gracious God into the lives of others. If it is done with action, great! With words, great! With action and words, great! Seriously, just get it done!

How different this world would be if we all really embraced and realized the Glory of Jesus Christ who sits on a thrown being worshiped by thousands and ten thousands of heavenly beings crying, "Worthy is the Lamb Who Was Slain!" All these questions and nit-picking debates would be out the window, I would imagine.

I mean, really, who is to say that what a group of people wants to do as the outpouring of that gospel message in their own lives is wrong? I just really don't get it.

I mean, did Jesus have the same ministry as John the Baptist? Did Paul do it the same way as Peter or even Jesus himself? Why do we think there is a set way of doing anything in this life?

great post Melissa! Spot on!

I have really just been blown away by the image of Christ lately. And I am not trying to be angry or bitter about the religiousity of the Church as it stands right now, but I feel it has done a lot to cloud that image in my life. As I have sought God on my own, surrendering all I have (weakness, strength, job, dreams, frustrations, joys, relationships, trials), I have come to see Christ in a new light amd while it's just a glimpse of all that he is, it has me reaching for more and more. I want to be filled to the very extent of who I am, and then stretched and filled again. I want, on the last day, to not be surprised by Him who welcomes me into heaven, but to know who He is already and to just be overjoyed at seeing Him face-to-face.

Thus far, I haven't come to know him by following a prescription of faith laid out by one person, or even by following multiple prescriptions given by different people. Yes, I do participate in certain traditions of the church and religion, but only to the extent that they bring me closer to knowing Christ. What really has made all the difference in these last few months is a change in my attitude toward God. I agreed to give all I have to him, believing through faith for the first time, that he is indeed Good. In giving everything to him, I have sought him regularly. Not perfectly, but regularly. And in seeking him, I have come to know more about him and his love for me. My faith boils down to this: The Lord, who created and saved me, loves me more than I can ever imagine and longs to have an intimate relationship with me to whatever extent I will allow it; as I participate in that relationship, my life will shine the wonders of who He is into the lives of others that they may come to know Him as well.

Have sermons affected that belief? Most definitely. But, so have actions and deeply personal experiences.

But, really, if others are coming to know Christ in such a way, that's all that matters to me. Or, if others are shining the light of Christ into lives around them, that's all that matters to me. This 'new' ministry seems to be doing both of those things, so I think it's great. Will they have troubles and be imperfect? Totally. As we all do and are.

My faith boils down to this: The Lord, who created and saved me, loves me more than I can ever imagine and longs to have an intimate relationship with me to whatever extent I will allow it; as I participate in that relationship, my life will shine the wonders of who He is into the lives of others that they may come to know Him as well.

Bingo!