Short Arm Sean

It has now been 5 days since Love Wichita - the corporate effort of 4000 volunteers representing 30 churches to perform various community service projects around the city. Today the city sits a little bit cleaner than it was this time last week. Some homes have a fresh coat of paint and there is less trash sitting curbside. What I am wondering though is, are the people of this city closer to their Creator because of it all? While vacant lots have now been emptied of the junk that had been allowed to pile up, do people remain empty because of the junk that has piled up in their lives? Has meeting the felt needs of the community really caused the community to feel their need for a Savior?

Please don't misunderstand what I am saying. Jesus was all about helping the lame, sick, diseased, hungry and poor. He tells us to love him by loving the "least of these". But Jesus was also all about verbally proclaiming the amazing news that God was bridging the gap between Himself and mankind. The former simply gave a platform that lent credibility to the latter.

We must not be so caught up in the idea of social justice and external community servitude that we forget that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The cross must be central and foremost in all we do and say. Without it, the perishing remain the perishing.

As Kevin DeYoung writes in his book, Why We Love the Church, "There is a danger in much of the missional (church) literature that the gospel of God's grace toward sinners gets swallowed up in urgent calls for world redemption and cultural transformation. There is a danger that we find our unity in doing good missional deeds for our community and not in the good news of the gospel."

In my view, just as the declaration of creation is enough to condemn, yet lacks the true power to save (Rom.1:18-22), so community action by believers draws attention to a spiritual deficiency, while not providing the redeeming power of the Cross. The common mantra is to "preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words." While I agree that we should live out the message of Jesus on a very practical level, let's remember that no one has ever entered into a relationship with the Eternal God because someone planted a tree or cleaned out a gutter. Those things can only ever be a springboard into the deeper conversation of repentance and forgiveness. May we find our strength, hope, passion, and most of all, our confidence from Christ and him crucified.