That statement has had a long history but it is true. The nature of the social ministry enterprise is often that it substitutes good works for preaching the Gospel. Ideally, we do not have to choose. We preach the Gospel through works that accompany our words. But today, especially when the government is toting the financial freight of our good works, it is increasingly true that we much choose. The sad truth is that too many church operating social ministry organizations and enterprises have decided to silence the spoken word for the sake of the works. Whether it is the requirements of silence or of acquiescence to government policy, we are severely tempted to believe that the work is too important to be hindered by the refusal of the government to allow us to speak the Gospel or be faithful to its truth.
Now, I am NOT saying that we should not do social ministry. What I am saying is that perhaps we need to get off the government's dime so that we can speak and act faithfully, so that our words can accompany our works on behalf of the poor and those in need. I am NOT suggesting that our charity be contingent upon folks listening to our spiel first as some do. I am NOT suggesting that every ecumenical endeavor must be abandoned. I am saying that we are in a time of sifting, sifting to determine what we can do faithfully and what we cannot. This faithfulness is not primarily designed to keep ourselves pure but to make sure that Christians do good not as do gooders but as those whose good flows from Christ and is itself witness to the good that Christ has done for us and for the sake of the whole world.
This is what faithful Christian churches and ministry must do. We no longer have the option of letting the status quo continue. From scouting to social service agencies to social work, the world is pressing down upon Christians to step up but shut up. This cannot be accepted as the shape of our future service in the caring and compassionate ministries so richly attested to in our history. But the cause is not only the impingement of the government. It is also our laziness and complicity to the aims and rules of secularization. We have grown fat on the teat of the government and it is time that we bellied up to the table with all the financial and people resources needed to be effective in the areas of feeding and clothing the needy, providing medical care to the sick and suffering, housing for the homeless, support for the pregnant out of wedlock, adoption, etc... These will and always remain the domain of the Church but in more recent times we have convinced ourselves that the only way to do them was to do them with the federal or state government signing the check. That is a false assumption. It may mean we do less and it may require us to do more with less but the less we do will more recognizably show the hands of Christ reaching out to those in need....
Just sayin....
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