grateful for Christ

Sometime in the last week or so, God gave me a quick, sky-view of Portland, with the emphasis on the people that are out-and-about every day there.  The meaning had something to do with going out and speaking with them.  As far as I was able to tell, He wants me to go to the people somehow face-to-face.  I let the vision fade for a few days while I worked on figuring out what to do about my thesis, and now that I have the opportunity to better balance my time, I am trying to figure out what to do about it.  My heart personally aches for the lonely and brokenhearted, so I want to be with them; however, I have also been given a gift, it seems, of words that can cut to the heart of a person–not from myself, but from God’s Spirit.  As I have been trying to reconcile that, I have been reading about homeless ministry, because it seems so applicable, and yet I don’t know that I am necessarily called to that only.

Regardless, in the process, I have stumbled across many blogs and such by Christians who have many different approaches to homeless ministry.  Some, like The Bridge and HomePDX, take a relationship approach, sans talk of repentance/salvation.  I don’t want to say much about them, because I have never seen what they do in person, but at least the sense that I get from perusing their websites is a sense that any verbal proclamation of the gospel is considered cheap, insufficient, or simply won’t work with their particular “demographic.”  On the other hand are the typical rescue missions and the churchfolk who volunteer there.  Their emphasis is largely on meeting physical needs and aiding in societal reintegration while preaching the gospel of salvation (often before every meal, according to the stereotype).  The charge levelled against them is a lake of engaging the homeless relationally.  I don’t know if this charge is true or not, since I haven’t been involved in a rescue mission either.  One thing that I did see while I was researching this was that Christians were divided over which way was the right way to do this or the best way.  Why can’t both be complementary?

Remember the famous body analogy of the church.  Everybody does something; nobody does everything; nothing is better or worse than anything else; everything is necessary.  Throughout history the church seems to have fallen into the trap of single-mindedly pursuing conformity and calling it unity.  Who are we to judge God’s servants?  Perhaps God is doing something different through the “relational” folk than he is doing through the rescue missions.  Both groups would be better served if they would all participate together.  (Actually, I would be surprised if the particular groups I have in mind weren’t already working together in some way, but I am sort of making an example by way of generalization.)

I believe that there is a place for simply welcoming people in and listening to them without judgment.  I also believe there is a place for speaking from the Spirit directly into a person’s heart, even if that brings about the division Christ said would occur.  As for when each is needed, seek God together on that, in actual unity.  Do not compete over whose method is better.  Instead, work together.  If you come across a person who, despite your preaching, claims there is no love in your message, send them to those who will love them unconditionally.  Likewise, allow the preachy guy to come to your “relational” meeting and speak the words of truth to them.  It’s a win-win.  :)

I don’t know if that made as much sense to my readers as it did to me, but whatever. As for me, I think I may be supposed to play a role in both approaches. My compassion is moved to bear the burdens of those who ache, but the Spirit within me jealously seeks the best for those people and will not always be silent.

Anyway, what inspired this post most immediately was the bickering between Christians on this site over here. We need real unity.

Disclaimer: In the brevity of this post, I made sweeping generalizations for the sake of making a point. I have no ill feelings and level no judgments at all against anybody I mentioned here.