Mission articles
At the Grace Baptist Mission annual meetings last October, Keith Underhill reported on his trips to remote unevangelised tribes in Kenya. He said that he is sometimes asked, ‘What do you do there?’ ‘I preach’, he says. ‘Is that all?’ they reply, as if that was not enough. ‘Isn’t that what we are supposed to be doing?’
Do we feel that preaching the gospel is the most important thing? Or are there signs of a shift in our thinking, that the church should be more concerned for people’s practical needs? Perhaps we feel we have no right to preach to the poor unless we help them materially first. Are we even inclined to think that preaching to people is not doing real good?
Are such considerations as these leading to a shift in our giving from missionary work to humanitarian concerns? The frequency of disasters in recent years is unprecedented, and some of them have been massive in scale, such as the SE Asian tsunami and the earthquake in Kashmir, but have contributions to mission suffered as a result?
Patterns in giving
It is often difficult to assess the factors that
might affect giving, but I have spoken to a number of missionary agencies to see
if they have spotted any trends. They all agree that raising sufficient funds is
a constant challenge, but thankfully most have not noticed a significant impact
on income because of recent disasters. Only one responded that they saw income
suffer in the months following the tsunami.One financial administrator felt
that, although major disasters do not have much impact as Christians give extra
money at such times, there is a gradual shift towards particular humanitarian
projects. Although they are all worthy causes, he thought that at least some of
this money is probably being diverted from general missionary giving.
Is it because people like to give to something specific, rather than because it is humanitarian in nature? When one missionary society launched an appeal for an AIDS orphanage, they were amazed to raise £50,000, but when they had an appeal for a pastors’ book fund, £80,000 came in! However, some find it easier to raise money for missionaries when there is a compassionate aspect to their ministry.
Pressures on giving
In talking to both missionary agencies and churches in our constituency it is reassuring to find that gospel mission still has priority. Whether this is so beyond conservative evangelicalism is another matter. Still, I believe we need to be watchful in this regard. We are living in days when there is great pressure to divert funds to practical relief work.
This comes from several directions.
• Firstly, there seems to be a growing number of humanitarian crises and, if the scientists are right, global warming will only increase this trend.
• Secondly, there is the influence of the media. When a crisis gets a lot of media coverage it places on us a strong emotional pressure to respond. Where there is a missionary agency working in the affected area it may actually increase our giving to it. We might respond by additional giving. But does it sometimes influence our priorities away from compassion for the lost out of compassion for the suffering?
• Thirdly, there is the guilt factor. When we see non-Christians responding to these needs we do not want to be outdone or appear indifferent.
• Fourthly, we must be aware of the materialistic view that pervades our society today. The importance of the soul and eternal things has all but disappeared from man’s thinking, and the only thing that counts is this life and what you can see. Therefore, relieving temporal suffering and poverty is the only real good we can do. As one pastor said to me, ‘Preaching the gospel is an act of faith’. So is missionary giving. We are in the realms of the unseen and the eternal. It is so much easier to respond to the visual. But we must never forget the eternal misery awaiting the unsaved. True compassion will move us to preach Christ to them.
There is another factor – we may not be giving to either cause as we should, because we have become too tied to the material things of this world ourselves. Why do the missionary societies struggle to raise enough money?
Priorities in giving
I am not suggesting that compassionate giving is wrong. God forbid! Of course it is right for us to show practical love to the needy. This is often emphasised in scripture, for instance 1 John 3:16-18; Luke 12:33; 18:22; Galatians 2:10. Indeed compassionate giving and gospel work do not have to be mutually exclusive. Sometimes, giving aid in times of crisis can provide openings for the gospel, especially when channelled through local churches in the area (we should be careful which relief charities we support).
During the Kosova war Christians were able to visit refugee camps with aid and the gospel, and churches in India and elsewhere have been able to preach to tsunami victims while bringing help. In other circumstance we might rightly be regarded as hypocritical and our preaching of the love of God in Christ as rather hollow if we are indifferent to the physical needs of the people.
Even with compassionate giving there is a priority to be observed. Although we are to do good to all, our fellow Christians should be our first concern for they are our brothers and sisters in Christ (Galatians 6:10). This is evident in Acts 2:44-45 where funds were distributed to the believers, and Acts 11:17-30 when, although the famine was general, relief was sent to the brethren dwelling in Judea. The preaching of the gospel thus led to the alleviation of poverty – an interesting system!
Patrick Sookhdeo, of the Barnabas Fund, highlights the ironic and painful situation in some Moslem countries where relief sent by Christians is used to help Moslems, while the Christian minorities are passed by. He says that if relief is sent to the Christians they, in turn, will help their Moslem neighbours and thus act as a witness to them of the grace of Christ.
In conclusion, my concern is that we should not allow our priorities to be overturned. It is easy for practical matters to become all-absorbing. After all, there was much poverty in the world during the days of the apostles, but what did they do as they went from place to place? Christ’s commission to the church is not the elimination of poverty and suffering, but the preaching of the gospel.