Bravus is right. I did mean church outreach...

"many conservatives abhor humanitarian outreach and will "preach" their hearts out but remain ineffective. Clearly, Jesus combined the two"

My statement was followed by a quote from EGW about outreach.

There has been much theological debate in Christianity about the role of meeting social concerns in the evangelical work of the church.

Walter Rauschenbusch, Social Gospel pioneer was is criticized by his contemporaries and modern writers, Karl Barth (darling of theological conservatives, I think) and Frederick Neymeyer (fan of Austrian economics) for example.

The conservative christian movement today is fervently anti the Social Gospel, that is self evident but more specifically...

Jerry Falwell regarded foreign aid as welfare
Jessie Helms opposed foreign aid
Ron Paul advocates an end to all foreign aid

Cato Institute
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6185

"It is not right that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables."



olger approves this message

Make sure you get the message right. I'm surprised at you Ollie.

Acts 6:2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

Us = Apostles

Seven men = Deacons

Deacons are not meant to just collect offering and open and close the church. They are to serve the needs of the community "within and without"

Well done Sir.



og out

Who was that teacher guy who fed 5000 people? Can't quite recall at the moment...

I think we need to distinguish between the church and the state. A person can be opposed to the state giving foreign aid and yet favor the church doing so. Politically, I have no problem with the US providing foreign aid but for me that political position has absolutely nothing to do with my faith. Religiously I believe the church should extend aid to other countries - like ADRA does. I personally do work in Mexico and many of my dollars go directly into the Mexican work. I have no trouble distinguishing the difference between my politics (what I believe the government should be doing) and my religion (what I believe the church should be doing). It looks like some in this thread are mixing the two together.

I think it was the same guy who had the ability to feed every poor person in the entire country (and world)and didn't.The same one who could have healed every sick person too,and didn't. Maybe His priorities were off? "you seek me, not because you saw the signs,but because you ate of the loaves and were filled."

[quote=lazarus deacons are not meant to just collect offering and open and close the church. They are to serve the needs of the community "within and without"


[/quote] Without?? (Acts6:1-4)Don't forget work bees and seating people.

It just means that those of us who have a passion and a calling to humanitarian or social concerns will feel that we do not belong in such churches...

...and eventually, worn down by constant admonitions that we should stop wasting our time on the "social Gospel" and do "the Lord's work" instead, we either lose our passion or drift away from the church and join with other like-minded people (whether religious e.g. liberal churches or Quakers, or those godless atheists at whatever secular charity we end up supporting)...

Why don't we simply recognize that some of us are called to preach the gospel, and others (like Martha, or Dorcas) are called to meet practical and social needs?

Surely the two can co-exist - like the Biblical example of deacons being specifically ordained by laying on of hands to look after the widows and serve tables so that the apostles could get on with doing the work they were called to do.)

When was the last time the church ordained somebody by laying on hands in order for them to do humanitarian work on behalf of the church? That would be revolutionary...it would actually demonstrate that we regard "social gospel" work as important.

aldona

Memory is the second thing to go..



og