MERCY MINISTRY AT MY CHURCH

I wrote this to my session as a report of the conference I went to last weekend - the PCA Mercy Ministry conference. And so I thought posting in here would be a good thing.


PROBLEM:
I went to the conference realizing that we as a church:
1. don't have many people who are involved in Mercy ministry
2. have a lot of people weary of those who are continually taking and manipulating at the same time
3. when we do Mercy we are more reactive than proactive - as a team, we mostly deal with those coming to ask for money - I wonder if as a church that is the majority of most members' individual mercy as well as the experience of the team as a whole - we deal with those who walk up to us, who generally have their own agenda in mind and are not teachable and do not really want change, they just want their version of a quick fix - we developed Sunday Nights at Crossroads for Kids (SNACK) trying to be proactive, but I often wonder if this is a program that the community in Maplewood really feels like they need - if they did want it, wouldn't they use it? - its not that simple I know, but I'm not sure we made the best use of our time and resources in developing SNACK as an outreach to the community (its great for our church for sure, I'm not saying its not a good thing somewhere) - and even more, if we come to someone saying that we've decided that they need a certain outreach, isn't that insulting to that person that we think we know what is best for them? - that certainly doesn't help class or race relations

WHAT I LEARNED AT THE CONFERENCE
1. We have to get in the community in relationship with others there- of course there are some moral lines that we shouldn't cross, but if we decide that we are not going to relate to anyone who sins, then we'd just have to get out of the world- just like Paul the apostle says when he says that yes we are to stay away from immorality, but if we refuse to associate with any sins ever, then we may as well leave this world - and then how does that fit with all the commands to love and help the needy and the unsaved? - obviously its a both/and
2. people come to the church because of relationships - our God is relational and the pattern he sets for evangelism and outreach is relational
3. 5 barriers to igniting a Mercy ministry movement in your church (very applicable to us, but so long that it would make a whole nother e mail!)
4. a continual reminder of how Mercy must be grounded in the cross
5. when people (like me) have different kind of boat rocking views, like this, then often we feel like we are just being critical - but actually, it can mostly be coming from the fact that there are different members of the body with different views, which is a good thing - so we must listen to each other

HOW I APPLY IT TO CROSSROADS (correlated with the #'s directly above)
1. getting in the community - for example, we have had a great opportunity to meet and minister to and earn the trust of single moms with the baby showers we've had and the help we've given - if we refuse to do this because they had sex out of wedlock and we don't want to condone their sin, then we may as well just get out of the world and be our own self righteous moral little church who doesn't relate to others
2. relationships - listen to this e mail I sent my Kingdom Group and the Goodman KG dealing with this topic:
Way to go people, about the cookout at Douglass Manor last night! It totally reinforced what I learned at the Mercy Ministry conference this last weekend. At the conference, we talked about how mercy ministry has to be done through relationship. Here's an example, imagine this - what if a German woman (a different culture) came knocking on your door and said, "You have to come to this German dancing every Monday night - it will change your life." We would be polite, but we really probably wouldn't consider going. An invitation from a complete stranger seems whacky. That is similar to how it probably is when we go door to door handing out fliers or invite people to church. I am not trying to be disrespectful to when we have done that, and to those who decided that we do that, but I just wonder if it is an effective use of our time and people, and I am realizing that more and more I think it is not the best use. Why do people outside our church start coming to Kingdom groups? Its usually because they have relationships with one of the people in the KG. Karen and Dessie are coming to my KG because they know me, and Tony is coming because he knows Dessie. Relationships are the key to reaching Maplewood for Jesus. And you all did that so well last night. You entered into conversations. You let your kids go off and get dirty playing with the kids that we didn't know well. People in the lower class expect middle class people to keep their kids away from the lower class kids, as if the middle class kids are too good for them. But there the kids were, playing soccer in the middle of the parking lot while the adults looked on and had some great conversation. The entire apartment complex came out, even those "tough" guys who got their food and then went away to eat it on the stoop. We advanced those relationships where we've had baby showers or helped with other needs, and we developed some new relationships. This is how we wisely and effectively advance the Kingdom to reach those non believers who are culturally and/or socioeconomically different!
3. I came away with practical ways for the Servant Ministry Team (SMT) to work to overcome the barriers to igniting a movement of mercy that I am going to discuss with Matt and we can start implementing as it is right
4. let' s begin within the SMT to check on each other spiritually and help each other grow spiritually so that we can be even more effective and stay grounded in the cross
5. strive to make the SMT more diverse of different kinds of people in the Body