Friday, April 25, 2008

Church or Charity?

I understand. Malaria is a bad thing. Each year 515 million people get malaria and 1.3 million die. It's bad. We need to do something about it. As a church we should be concerned. But should it be our top concern? It seems like ever time I look at anything from the United Methodist church there is something about "Nothing but nets." I know this is a great program, but it's almost as if this is all that our international mission is about - buying $10 nets. Shouldn't we be giving them something more?
To put in perspective, roughly 66% of the 6.6 billion people of the world do not claim Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. That's 4.4 billion people who are dying without faith in Jesus Christ. A 200 member church giving $10 a month could probably support a missionary to share the gospel to these who are destined for eternity without God.
The question comes down to this - Are we a church or are we a charity? Sure, we are to "do all the good that we can," but we must realize that the greatest good is to share Christ. Christ calls us to a greater mission than just handing out mosquito nets, we are called to make disciples. That's the mission of a church. Otherwise, we're just on our way to becoming an offshoot of the United Way.

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