Jesus Christ showed and taught His followers how to preach the Gospel, heal the sick, and care for the poor and brokenhearted, then He sent them out to do the same. It seems, however, that many Christians think - "I don't have the gift of healing, I'm not a great evangelist or a pastor, so I guess I'll just be an ordinary layperson, sitting in my cushioned pew, singing hymns and listening to sermons." Why do people think that way? And what should we do about it?
We've been conditioned by centuries of social pressure, for example, under the Moslems who in the seventh century conquered the Middle East, North Africa, Spain, parts of France, Italy, Russia, the Balkans and Hungary, and who at best consigned Christians to second-class "dhimmi" status and forbade them to have any social outreach - only Moslems were allowed to do that. Christians were limited to only hold religious observances within four church walls. At worst, Christians were persecuted and killed if they wouldn't convert to Islam.
Then in Western Europe, after driving the Moslems back and after several religious wars that decimated the populations, the various Edicts of Toleration reinforced the notion that people should stop fighting and show "tolerance" to those of other religious convictions, not pushing their religious beliefs on others.
But in the Christian East, shortly after the collapse of the Moslem Turkish Empire, in the 1917 Russian Revolution, Communism took hold and at best strictly limited the Christian faith to only religious observances within four church walls, they were forbidden to have any kind of social ministry: only communists were allowed to do that. At worst, Christians who wouldn't meekly comply were tortured and killed.
And in the West it's just a bit more subtle: the ever-expanding secular humanism under the guise of "democracy", "freedom" and "tolerance" exerts strong social pressure against living out one's Christian faith in the public square. Nowadays, if any Christian suggests, "We ought to be taking care of 'the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind' like Christ did and taught His followers to do! - the standard reply is - "Oh, that's not our job: let the government do it." But government-managed "healthcare" doesn't care about your health, it's motivated by power and money: if the patient can't pay, shove him out the door. Don't think so? We've seen it happen!
And leftists now push the idea that religious freedom means only the right to attend the worship service of your choice, not "the free exercise of religion" as the First Amendment clearly states. Do you see a pattern developing here? They want to take over the Social Ministry of the Church - see our six short courses that will help you break out of these cultural stereotypes!
How often have you heard, "Don't shove your religion down other people's throats!" and Christians being labeled as "intolerant" or "bigoted" or "haters" if they speak of or live out their beliefs in public? We've internalized these social pressures, accepting them as "normal" and even come to believe in them almost as religious dogma. We must break out of this "psychological box" that we've been shoved into, and reclaim the free exercise of our religion in society, as Christ commanded us to do.
You likely don't have the gifts of healing or exorcism. Perhaps you're not a great evangelist: you get real nervous if asked to speak in public. It's OK if you don't have those spiritual gifts. Remember Christ's parable of the ten talents, five talents and one talent? The person with just one talent buried it, so the Master took it and gave it to the person who had ten.
But actually, you most likely have ten talents already! What are those things attached to your palms? Ten fingers! You have ten spiritual gifts, called the gift of helps! Learn how to start using them, and perhaps the Master will entrust you with some of the greater gifts. Break out of the box!
Our next free (← click) begins soon, and the enrollment deadline is coming right up! So please click on the link and check out the next course: login as "guest" and ENROLL, or try out our lessons to see how they work! You can also download a brochure in PDF format of all our courses here: SMC-brochure.pdf to print and distribute at your church. So enroll in our free courses to see how YOU can do diakonia-ministry. And Join "The ARC" Chat/Video Forum to Build the ARC!
Yours sincerely,
"Dr. Bob"
Robert D. Hosken, M.Min., M.Th.S., D.Min.
| ←prev. | next→ |