During Lauds this morning it struck me that,
for many Christians, the Church has become merely an organisation through which Christians make a collective material contribution to the world. The value of
the Church has been reduced to only the tangible activities that the Church engages in to make the world a better place.
In my humble opinion the charitable and
other similar activities that the Church engages in throughout the world are the natural consequence of the Church accomplishing its mission. They are however not the primary reason that Jesus established the Church. They
are not the primary reason for which the Church exists.
The truth is that Church exists to proclaim the good news
of Jesus so that everyone will have eternal life. That is the objective of the
Church. To get everyone to heaven!
Jesus says: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”[1]
The Church is not here to feed hungry people.
The Church is not here to heal physically and mentally sick people. The Church
is not here to give homes to homeless people. The Church is not here to give comfort
to victims of violence. The Church is not here to carry out any of these, note
very well, undeniably extremely important activities.
The Church is here so that everyone can be given the message of eternal life. That is why our Lord suffered, died and rose from the dead!
I am not for one moment suggesting that the
Church or anyone else should stop all the charitable activities that it engages in; not
at all. These works are the signs of our faith in action. They are signs of a
person who believes in Jesus. This is what Christians do when they believe in Jesus!
I am however suggesting that we need to ask
ourselves whether we may at times have forgotten, in our zeal to do good works, what our true purpose is. We must consider whether we have forgotten that our mission is to help
people get to know Jesus, so that they can inherit eternal life too. Are we so caught up with doing 'good' that we actually begin to miss doing the most important good?
What would the point be if we were to feed a man today, clothe him in warm clothes, give him treatment for his illness and then, when he dies tomorrow, we find or realise that we hadn’t got around to telling him about Jesus.
What would the point be if we were to feed a man today, clothe him in warm clothes, give him treatment for his illness and then, when he dies tomorrow, we find or realise that we hadn’t got around to telling him about Jesus.
Would that man be any better off tomorrow after meeting us, than if he had been the richest man in the world, without having any reason to meet and receive our charity before he died?
Honestly it was okey to have a activities like this, the youth is engage what is happen outside their environment.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
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