THE PRACTICE OF MERCY MINISTRY BY TIM KELLER

I listened to this talk by Keller at the Mercy ministry conference of the PCA, and really wanted to share it. So I decided to take notes and write them here and then encourage you to listen to Tim Keller as he speaks on mercy ministry because he is really wise in that area. He has sermons on the Redeemer Presbyterian NYC website, and he's also written books on the topic. You can find it all on the web.

In this talk, he states that the practice of mercy ministry is pretty grey and you have to work it out for your own ministry at your own church for it to be helpful. He also takes a lot of what he is saying from Jonathan Edwards, he says.
He gives 6 issues of the practice of mercy ministry:
1. who do we help? poor vs. POOR - Do we help those on the edge of poverty who aren't always struggling, or just those who are really destitute and almost living on the streets? Sometimes the word "poor" in Greek really means the working poor. You don't have to wait until its really bad to help them. But sometimes people say, "they are hardly worse off than some of us," and don't want to help then. The definition of poverty by Edwards is that we should love our neighbor as ourselves, and be concerned about them before they are in the gutter. Don't create a very strict guideline. The government can't come up with one, its not in the Bible. So have a policy but then love your neighbor as yourself. The gospel and the golden rule suggest that we are generous.
2. how much do we help? priority vs. leftovers - There seems to be a small group in every church who really loves mercy ministry, and they usually annoy the rest of the congregation because they always talk about the needy. They often turn their church off, but we need to turn our church on. Some of the church says that "we just can't afford to help," and then in reaction to that, the mercy members of the church gets hot and bothered. But the mercy team needs to simply show that mercy is one of the things a church has to do, equal to evangelism and worship. Its not an option to pick and choose commandments. The truth is that we need mercy ministry to be a burden on us for it to be true that we are bearing one another's burdens. When we say we can't afford to give then that is when we are finally in a position to do what the Bible says. We are commanded to sacrificial giving. Tell the church its not our leftovers but that it is a priority and tell them as graciously as you can, so that you don't push them away in haughtiness.
3. when do we help? standards vs. unrestricted aid - Do you put conditions on your help? You'll see that there are many conflicting views on this. What do you do when they don't do what you are asking? We always seem to be sure our way is right, and that its their fault that they are there and they aren't changing their behavior. This is also a political divide in our country: Is it social forces or personal responsibility as the fault of poverty? The Scripture emphasizes conditions and grace. In God's Word, there's justifying grace that is freely and fully given by God, and there's sanctifying grace that involves personal responsibility. We can look at this issue in this way and see that first we give mercy freely and then ask for there to be some personal responsibility to keep receiving "help." Be gracious in your conditions to the person and be humble as you set them. If a person begins to participate in the Body and come and transform, they usually naturally receive more aid from the Church Body anyway. If they take the money and run then they are knowingly placing themselves outside of the loop. But always remember how much work and time your own sanctification is taking. And always err on the side of grace. Prodigals need a lot of grace. If someone continues in his same bad course, that doesn't mean that we don't love and give grace to their families who are just stuck and not making bad choices of their own. The inner cities are filled with kids who are on their way to a dead end life, and it is not their fault.
4. how do we help? justice vs. mercy - You can give mercy to individuals and as you get involved then you'll see very quickly that there is a large systemic part to it all. Justice means changing social systems in this context. There is no way to only do mercy. You'll have to get involved in social policies and politics. Poor communities have few businesses that are thriving to bring in money, have bad schools, have unsafe streets, and all that contributes to why these people struggle. There’s pressure to join the gang of prostitutes, and the gang beats up and gang rapes a girl’s mom to threaten her into prostitution. Often the police use their power corruptly and that corruptness prevents the girl from going to the police. Things like that are all over. To help the individuals you have to do something about the system.
5. from where do we help? living vs. commuting – When you just commute then you don’t really know what its like to live there and you can never fully connect with the people. But if the whole church moves in there, then there will be gentrification and you won’t have a ministry then either. It takes good neighbors for there to be restoration of communities. So there must be people relocating to the inner city. There needs to be the ones who are gifted at living there, to move in, and the rest of the church totally support them so that they can do what they are called to do within the community. You just want to turn a poor community into a working class community, not a middle upper class community, or all those people are driven out. So be very smart about who moves in and who gives funds and resources and support and community and fellowship from further away.
6. with what attitude do we help? respect vs. pity - Almost all of our rhetoric assumes that the poor are helpless. The poor are unhappy with the situation already. They are also full of spirituality, usually. They resent a do-gooder attitude. They need help, not pity. You also must know them and be friends to not be a do-gooder. The gospel leads us to expect that others are often wiser, better, whatever because of common grace. We need to expect to learn from the people and be changed by them. We need to serve them and see where they see the first needs for change because they are smart and know their community. Listen to how they think the community can be best helped and changed. This is the one area of these 6 issues where there is no balance. You have got to get rid of the pity.