By Larry West

Director, We Care Ministries

 

 

 

 

Here is a candid shot of what is normal in our We Care Ministries Campaign work.  In our ongoing campaign now, our team is "caring" for neighbors.  Just across the street from the church building where we presently are working a We Care Campaign our team, made up of a local Christian lady (from Oklahoma) and two brothers in the We Care Cadre (one from Texas and another from New Mexico) have found a neighbor who has come up on hard times and is accepting groceries.  We are showing WE CARE. 

 

Now, "people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."

 

So, next, usual procedure is, our team leader will say, "We are trying to get our neighbors to Heaven too!  How are you and the Lord doing?  What if He were to come right now?  Would you know, for sure, you would go to Heaven with Him?"  And that gets us into the Gospel Presentation!  We address it because we know "you will not convert unless you confront!"

 

In this campaign, one out of every three people we have found home has resulted in a Gospel Presentation and one out of every five of those Bible studies has resulted in someone obeying the Gospel!  And we have seen more than five thousand obey the Gospel in the last 12 years.

 

Jesus fed people and he taught them of the Kingdom of Heaven!

 

Please hear a word of caution:  Some older Christians have winced when they see our helping people physically, then our teaching them the Gospel.  They have asked if our first helping those in need is not  "bribing" their listening to the Gospel.  May we kindly defend.  If that be true, isn't God dangling Heaven in our eyes to get us to listen to the Gospel of Christ?  And we ask, what was it Jesus said in Mathew 25 about someone being hungry and those "sheep" feeding him?  Even when God's people feed "one of the least of these" He says it's the same as feeding Jesus? 

 

May our churches even reconsider!  How often have we seen churches residing in a neighborhood for many years to finally experience moving into their presence people of lower income.  In fact, they see so many moving in that they ultimately decide they need to move their church building to actually get away from it.  So, they buy land in a richer neighborhood, selling their building ofttimes to another church, and move to a more affluent, even gated-community location.  And they even think that by merely moving there they will grow!  And what they miss is that they are moving AWAY from the very people that are more sociable, more open to talking with them the Gospel of Christ, people who know they are in trouble, people who will admit they need the Lord, and who will obey the Gospel once the hear it and be saved!!  And they move TOWARD those who are rich, who need nothing, and who are thus more difficult to give audience to the Gospel!  And the church oft has built a building so large and so new they cannot even pay for it with their small number.

 

May God help us to get smart and find more who are hungry!

 

Brethren, may God help us to get more powerfully into the "people business," focused on bringing the simple, power GOSPEL of CHRIST into their precious lives!