God’s Work and the Church
God’s Work and the Church
A while back, I was listening to a well-respected Christian preacher on the radio. I’d tuned in just as he was talking about the importance of giving money — tithes and offerings — to one’s local church. He went on to state that the reason it’s so important for people like me (lay people) to give money to their local church is so that “the church” can go out and use that money to do God’s work in the community.
Now, I’m not opposed to tithing, nor am I opposed to giving above and beyond ten percent of one’s income. Luke’s account of the early church in the book of Acts tells us that the earliest followers of Jesus shared all that they owned with one another, giving to each as he or she had need (Acts 4:32-35). Surely for some, that would have meant giving more than ten percent. (For others, it might have actually meant giving less.)
But there was something about this preacher’s message that rubbed me the wrong way: the implication that “the church” is something other than the people who make up a community of believers.
While he never specified exactly who “the church” was, it seemed as though he was suggesting that “the church” was the pastor, or the deacons, or the ministry leaders, or a group of people involved in a specific outreach run by a named church entity (e.g. First Church of My Hometown). But people like me, and like many of you — the people whom he was addressing on the radio — weren’t the church, and we didn’t do the work of God. We were simply the financiers of the people who do.
His message implied that God’s work is only carried out when facilitated by a “local church” under the direction of a pastor, deacon, or another church ministry leader.
His message implied that loving one’s neighbor — doing things like taking a meal to someone who’s sick, or buying groceries for a coworker who’s struggling to make ends meet, or mowing the lawn for an elderly neighbor, or anonymously paying next months rent for a friend who was unexpectedly laid off from their job, or sitting in silence beside a grieving widow — isn’t God’s work, because God’s work can only be done by and through the local church. And by that, I mean it is accomplished by and through the named entity (e.g. First Church of My Hometown), not by or through individual followers of Jesus who live in a community.
There was nothing in his message that talked about the importance of going out and doing — just “give us money, and we’ll take care of the rest.”
Interestingly, even before Luke’s mention of the early church’s practice of giving financially, we’re told the story of a crippled man who asked the Apostles Peter and John for money to meet his financial needs (Acts 3:1-5). Peter could’ve responded with, “Sorry, buddy, I can’t help you! Nobody’s donated to the church yet, and I can’t accomplish ‘the work of God’ without their financial support, so… Shalom.”
But that wasn’t Peter’s response, was it?
No! Peter gave the man an honest reply, saying, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” (Acts 3:6, ESV).
The work Peter did that day wasn’t facilitated by a local named body of believers (i.e. The First Church of Jerusalem). There was no “pastor” directing his ministerial choices on that occasion. Unless you want to argue that Peter was the pastor, but even if that were the case, it wasn’t funding provided by the lay people of The First Church of Jerusalem that made it possible for Peter to do the work of God in that crippled man’s life. It was Peter’s obedience to the Holy Spirit as he (as an individual) followed in the footsteps of Jesus, using whatever he had for God’s glory.
No funding, no human leadership, and no conventional oversight. Just good, old-fashioned hands-and-feet-of-Jesus stuff!
The point I’m trying to make is this:
You and I should absolutely be giving financially to support pastors and ministry leaders who are pouring into our lives and the lives of others (1 Corinthians 9:7-11; Galatians 6:6). We should be generous to use the financial resources God’s given us to bless other Christians in our community (Romans 12:13; James 2:15-16), and even to fund church-facilitated ministries and outreach opportunities where we live (1 Timothy 6:17-19). And we should be actively involved in financially supporting missionaries who are doing God’s work in other parts of the world, whether partnering with those missionaries through our churches or as individuals (1 Corinthians 9:14; Philippians 4:16-19).
But our churches are not enabled to “be the church” when their members provide the financial backing for their success. Our churches live out their mission as churches when those who are a part of the body of Christ love and care for one another, and when we go out into the world around us — even just one door over — and love people like Jesus with whatever means we’ve been given.
Our churches could be financially bankrupt, and made up of the poorest of the poor. But you and I, as part of our local churches, could still effectively do God’s work in our communities simply by showing up in our neighborhoods and offering others what we have in Jesus. Because in Jesus alone, we have everything we need to accomplish God’s work!
Want to read more articles like this one? Subscribe today for free, and you’ll get blog posts and updates sent straight to your inbox, so you’ll never miss a thing!
