by Jesse Browning

I’ve recently come to the realization that the churches in my area who are the most unorthodox in their theology, the most “liberal”, and who hold the most distorted interpretations of Scripture, happen to care more about the people in our area than other more theologically conservative (evangelical) churches in our town. While the Churches with decent doctrine try ever so hard to draw the lost, white, middle class families into their buildings, the apostate “liberal” churches are out feeding the homeless, providing shelter for downtrodden families, running after school programs and providing counseling for drug and alcohol addicts. What happened? What an odd paradox this might be at the judgment seat. Is it the “circle the wagons” mentality that killed our passion for our community? Were we so worried about getting the doctrine correct and defending it, that we forgot to go and live out the love of Christ that we received through grace? Did we just get too comfortable? Or worse, did we just stop caring? If we’ve stopped caring about the broken souls in our community, then I suspect and fear the worst… that although we hold closer to 2000 years of Church orthodoxy, we’ve abandoned and stopped caring about Christ in the process. If we’ve stopped caring about Christ, our precious doctrine and theology is nothing but the food of swine. It is only by grace that it might once again, not only proclaim Christ within the walls that it is preached and taught, but lived outside of the walls in the same manner that our Lord himself lived, loved, and brought hope.

I was sitting around a fire last night with a local family from town who are deeply involved in an evangelical church right down the street from us. We were roasting marshmallows and talking about Christ, Church, culture, and how all these things affect or should affect the town and community we live in. We also discussed highly probable existence of Sasquatch (one of my favorite topics of discussion) and alien abductions… but we’ll leave these two topics for another day. I was lamenting on the issue of how the churches that have tended to stray from orthodoxy the most, ironically do the most to serve our town. My friend then asked a very wise question that I think every Church needs to ask… “If we closed our doors, or simply ceased to exist, how much would the surrounding community miss our presence and support?” The real kicker is this, “Would they even notice our absence at all?” It’s a wise question to be asked, and sadly, he admitted that his church would probably fall into the category of not being missed, whereas the other apostate church down the street would be dearly missed for all it’s hard work and dedication to the everyday people that live in Beverly. Would your Church be missed? Are the people of your Church community living the love of Christ alongside of people (especially the broken people) of your local community?

I leave you with the parable of the Sheep and the Goats found in chapter 25 of the Gospel of Matthew.

The Sheep and the Goats
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Jesse Browning is a student at Gordon Conwell Seminary.  He is an active leader at his church in Beverly, MA that focuses on showing God’s love through acts of service. He can also whip up a killer vanilla chai for you at Starbucks.