This evening at church we had another guest speaker – Rev. Ken Brown. He is the founder/director of an inner-city ministry in Washington, D.C. called “Urban Outreach”. It’s an amazing ministry with amazing results and fills a deep need for ministry to take place in an area where the “church” seems to be MIA.
Ken Brown spoke from his heart and shared some personal stories of folks whose lives have been changed as a result of God working through their ministry.
The message was clear – God is working through “Urban Outreach” and we as a church have an opportunity to “pray”, “give”, and even “serve” with their ministry.
What struck me tonight was a simple fact that I have a problem with “short-term missions work”.
That sentence needs some explaination…
I struggle with folks (myself included) who JUMP at an opportunity to minister “outside the box”. Those who would raise a hand and say “I’ll Go” on a 1-week-long ministry in a “foreign-to-them” situation, and yet NOT share the Gospel with those around them on a regular basis.
I called it “Convenient Evangelism” and “Easy Christianity”…
Why is it EASIER to go “somewhere else” to share the “Love of Christ” with this “lost world”?
Shouldn’t those who GO ELSEWHERE be those who are ALREADY “maxed out” in their evangelism capabilities where they currently reside? Shouldn’t they have already “ministered” to the needy in their own town, shouldn’t they be the ones who radiate with an “abnormal” love for Jesus that our Americanized Christianity seems to have forgotten about?
Why is it that the ones who seem to get the most excited are the ones who are the least “vocal” about their personal faiths. Even sometimes the ones who aren’t vocal at all about a “conversion to Christ” that has taken place in their lives.
I’m chewing on these thoughts and I’d love to know what YOU think!
