#3

 Point #3 “Helping the poor isn’t a priority”

This is a tough one for a few reasons.  

1.       1.   Because I agree that, as a rule, the church should be more involved in helping the poor.

2.       2.  The dichotomy between doing “church type” things and helping the poor is a false dichotomy.

3.       Many churches (and more importantly) Christian para-church organizations are helping the poor.

4.       3.  So much of how both “the church” and society has gone about “helping the poor” is turning out to be demeaning and unhelpful. 

4.  Again, I have to point out how hard it is to deal with the broad sweeping generalities.

“My heart is broken for how radically self-centered and utterly American our institutions have become.”

In a general sense, I’d tend to agree, but I’d argue that from a historical perspective it’s been much worse.  I’d also argue that there is a trend among churches in the US that is moving in the opposite direction.

This may be too fine of a distinction, but I would argue that if one looks at Jesus and the early church we see two things.

1.        1.  The job of the church is to make disciples and equip them so that they can most fully love God and love others.

2.     2.   Churches don’t love others, believers/disciples do.  

It seems like the better measure is not trying to impose an artificial, arbitrary standard regarding how churches spend their time, but instead look at what individual Christians do.   One thing we learned at our church is that in many cases the amount of money and time that went ministries and organizations we had supported, was vastly eclipsed by the amount of money and time our church members invested “outside” of the church.

The author suggests imposing a 50% rule, which he claims is Biblically supported/mandated.  Sorry, don’t see it anywhere. 

Suggestions

“Stop creating more Bible studies and Christian activity. Community happens best in service with a shared purpose.”

My experience definitely agrees that community, in service around a shared purpose, is often very powerful.  But, to suggest that this is the “best” way to achieve community, I don’t think that’s warranted.    If we look at the whole concept of Spiritual Gifts and how the Body works together, it’s clear that there is no one “best” for everyone.  We’re all wired differently and not everyone experiences community the same way.  Not that this is an excuse to avoid service, just to point out that Bible studies and discipleship, and prayer, and fellowship, and eating together are all valid and important parts of Christian community.

“Survey your members asking them what injustice or cause God has placed on their hearts. Create space for them to meet and brainstorm, and then sit back and watch what God brings to life.”

The assumption is that this is not happening, anywhere.  Clearly this is a mistaken assumption.  I see it happening in multiple churches as well as outside of specific individual churches.   To the extent that this is not happening, I agree that it should be happening, but even a cursory look around would demonstrate that this is not a universal problem.

“Create group serve dates once a month where anyone can show up and make a difference.”

Most churches I’m aware of have service opportunities far more frequently than once a month, in fact once a month seems a bit ungenerous.    I’m sure there are churches that don’t do this, but I can’t believe it’s anywhere near a majority.  

I’d suggest that if a group of millennials went to a church as had a service opportunity they wanted to spearhead and run with, I’d be shocked of the answer was no.

One last general thought, this doesn’t really seem like a “millennial” issue as service is and should be something that crosses generations.  Again, my personal experience suggests that millennials serve in lower percentages than other generations.