If we can have the right focus and understand what being a minister is all about, then we can begin to make sure that people are not neglected. How do I know people are being neglected? You say your church has five thousand members, and most drive luxury cars, own homes, and wear expensive suits and dresses, so how is any of the members being neglected if everyone is prospering? Hmmm…..let’s see:
****************
Deuteronomy 26:13
Then thou shalt say before the LORD thy God, I have brought away the hallowed things out of mine house, and also have given them unto the Levite, and unto the stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all thy commandments which thou hast commanded me: I have not transgressed thy commandments, neither have I forgotten them.
*****************
In this scripture, it does not stop at just taking care of the priest, but also the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. Throughout the old testament do we see God placing the responsiblity of the care of the sick, elderly, single parents or those who no longer have a spouse, and orphans upon us; the Body of Christ, not the government. And it turned my stomach upside down when I once heard in one of my former churches, that we turned away help because the person was “not a member”, or the member that got turned away because their “tithe report shows they don’t give enough”. I am also reminded of the time I met a member of a mega church on the streets that asked for prayer. When I asked him what to pray for, he told me that he was getting ready to get on the bus to go back home, but when he gets there, he has no job and nowhere to stay. I asked him if he let his church know, and he said yes. When I asked him who his Pastor was and the church name, I almost fainted when he told me he was a member of (***edited for obvious reasons***) and that his pastor’s name is (***ditto kiddo***). I can celebrate God in how He has blessed those inside the walls of the church, but what do we do about those that our outside the walls of the church?
