Is there any priority to these needs? So, if we are giving someone food because they are hungry, should we also talk to them about sin? If we are providing care to someone should we make sure they are pure of heart?
I believe that spiritual care stems from physical care through a deepening relationship. You and I don’t know what each others souls need to hear because we are not in relationship. That’s not a dig but just a fact (imo).
Our culture is ghastly at caring for people’s most basic needs-if we cannot even feed or provide very basic medical care, how can we speak to their deepest wounds? I feel it takes relationship to do that, and spiritual nourishment can come when we are physically and relationally nourished.
Michael, I'm not in any way suggesting we make their physical needs contingent on spiritual status, or anything horrible like that. All I mean is that if we offer the gospel, it shouldn't merely be gospel of physical needs. I see it all the time. People are hurting so badly! They have anxiety, they have regret, they live in terrible situations due to past decision and ongoing behaviors. To say 'sin' isn't to insult. It's to say people need to be made whole. The Greek for sin is metanoia, meaning 'to miss the mark.' An archer's term as I understand it. When we give them Jesus we give them a way to live better, thriving lives. And yes, relationship is part of this. But so many churches I know do just this. they offer help. Physical help with food and housing, but also offering them the chance to have spiritual help. Now, I think there are those who see Christianity as only a means of physical help. That's one way to do it, and it's compassionate, but it's incomplete and seems to fall short of the great commission, in which Jesus said "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Makes sense! I think for my generation the word sin is almost inseparable from shame, denial and all the worst bits of the church. So it’s hard to read it any other way. So much of on-the-ground religion is about telling people what’s wrong with them, not sharing in suffering and accepting people. That’s what I think I’m getting at-people seem to be highly aware of the concept of sin and judgement, and not of other things. Theologically or doctrinally I agree with what you are saying, but (my personal) experience and the experience of so many friends does not line up to that ideal.
Michael, I think that's a grave error the church has made. We make the faith about sin management instead of about being made like Christ. I think that the rules the God gives us are yes, about holiness but also about thriving. They're about how to live fully, with joy and power and love, in this life and the next. I've thought about this a lot and one day I hope to write my thoughts out on the topic.
Beautifully put. Thank you. I guess it’s always confounded me that there has not been a solution to this-not harming ourselves or others , maintaining a stable and predictable order in line with creation so that we can bring about a more rich and full reality (kind of a secular summary of Christianity if you will) does not seem to be a difficult message to sell but….
Is there any priority to these needs? So, if we are giving someone food because they are hungry, should we also talk to them about sin? If we are providing care to someone should we make sure they are pure of heart?
I believe that spiritual care stems from physical care through a deepening relationship. You and I don’t know what each others souls need to hear because we are not in relationship. That’s not a dig but just a fact (imo).
Our culture is ghastly at caring for people’s most basic needs-if we cannot even feed or provide very basic medical care, how can we speak to their deepest wounds? I feel it takes relationship to do that, and spiritual nourishment can come when we are physically and relationally nourished.
Michael, I'm not in any way suggesting we make their physical needs contingent on spiritual status, or anything horrible like that. All I mean is that if we offer the gospel, it shouldn't merely be gospel of physical needs. I see it all the time. People are hurting so badly! They have anxiety, they have regret, they live in terrible situations due to past decision and ongoing behaviors. To say 'sin' isn't to insult. It's to say people need to be made whole. The Greek for sin is metanoia, meaning 'to miss the mark.' An archer's term as I understand it. When we give them Jesus we give them a way to live better, thriving lives. And yes, relationship is part of this. But so many churches I know do just this. they offer help. Physical help with food and housing, but also offering them the chance to have spiritual help. Now, I think there are those who see Christianity as only a means of physical help. That's one way to do it, and it's compassionate, but it's incomplete and seems to fall short of the great commission, in which Jesus said "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Makes sense! I think for my generation the word sin is almost inseparable from shame, denial and all the worst bits of the church. So it’s hard to read it any other way. So much of on-the-ground religion is about telling people what’s wrong with them, not sharing in suffering and accepting people. That’s what I think I’m getting at-people seem to be highly aware of the concept of sin and judgement, and not of other things. Theologically or doctrinally I agree with what you are saying, but (my personal) experience and the experience of so many friends does not line up to that ideal.
Michael, I think that's a grave error the church has made. We make the faith about sin management instead of about being made like Christ. I think that the rules the God gives us are yes, about holiness but also about thriving. They're about how to live fully, with joy and power and love, in this life and the next. I've thought about this a lot and one day I hope to write my thoughts out on the topic.
Beautifully put. Thank you. I guess it’s always confounded me that there has not been a solution to this-not harming ourselves or others , maintaining a stable and predictable order in line with creation so that we can bring about a more rich and full reality (kind of a secular summary of Christianity if you will) does not seem to be a difficult message to sell but….
We have to have all of Jesus. Half of Him is the same as having none of him.
Yes, I agree with you completely.