Both in India and in my travels around Western countries, I constantly uncovered a preoccupation with so-called “ministry” activities operated by Christian workers, financed by church monies, but with little else to distinguish them as Christian. . . . Social concern is a natural fruit of the Gospel. But to put it first is to put the cart before the horse; and from experience, we have seen it fail in India for more than 200 years. Yet while I realized the intrinsic nature of the Gospel involved [in] caring for the poor, I knew the priority was giving them the Gospel. Meeting their needs was a means to share the love of Christ so they would be saved for eternity.
- K.P. Yohannan
From Defending/Contending blog
A great resource for exploring the relationship between evangelical and social action is “Evangelical and Social Responsibility: An Evangelical Committment,” which is a result of Lausanne:
http://www.lausanne.org/grand-rapids-1982/lop-21.html#4
They suggest several biblical ways of thinking about this relationship: social activity as a consequence of evangelism, social activity as a bridge to evangelism, and social activity as a partner with evangelism. But whereas these two things should never be separated, this Lausanne document affirms the logical priority of evangelism: “The very fact of Christian social responsibility presupposes socially responsible Christians, and it can only be by evangelism and discipling that they have become such.” I would recommend the entirety of this essay for the readers’ edification.
I would recommend K.P. ’s book “Revolution in World Missions” to stir a Christian to change his/her lifestyle to further the gospel.
Mark Cahill in his newsletter writes, “One thing I do now when I hear quotes from Christian people is to see if the quote can be backed up with Scripture. One pastor told me one of the mistakes we regularly make with Christians is that when we listen to them we put our guard down instead of putting our guard up.
From an article in _USA Today 10-10-07 Andy Stanley, a pastor in Atlanta, said: “If we were able to rewrite the script for the reputation of Christianity, I think we would put the emphasis on developing relationships with non-believers, serving them, loving them, and making them feel accepted…Only then would we earn the right to share the gospel.””
(Andy, where is the scripture to back this up?)
Andy states above that only after doing certain things for lost people do we earn the right to share the gospel with them. I have been hearing this a lot more lately that we must earn the right to witness to people. The only problem is that I cannot find that teaching in the Scriptures and that is where we must go to find truth.
Jesus speaking in Mark 16:15 states,
“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”
Where in this verse, or anywhere else in the Bible, does it tell us that we must earn the right to share our faith? Once you are a Christian, you have the right. We are compelled to share the gospel with the lost. We know hell is real, and it is our responsibility to try and stop all people from going there.
We need the missional heart of Jesus, unity like never before, a church that disciples, sound doctrine, as well as being a community that with the purpose of reaching out to the world around us.
References:
http://www.markcahill.org/news/0208news.html
http://missionaryroad.com/2008/02/13/share-the-gospel-of-jesus-christ/
http://www.gfa.org/