THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR
A PRACTICAL BIBLICAL
THEOLOGY
Keith Wasserman, Founder/Executive Director
Good Works, Inc.
A COMMUNITY OF HOPE
www.good-works.net
goodworks@good-works.net
- Since 1981
“Some
people’s lives
are like a
revolving
door”
•We must ask “what is
the most loving think
we can do?
We must realize “there
is pain in loving others
into the kingdom.
“Developing a philosophy of ministry for long term kingdom thinking”
5 FOLD PHILOSOPHY
OF MINISTRY
• 1. BEING Worshipers
• 2. Ministry with the WIDOW, the
FATHERLESS and the STRANGER
• 3. Ministry of discipleship
• 4. Ministry in the neighborhood
• 5. Ministry in/with the community
What we DO emerges from who we ARE
WORSHIP
Matthew 6:33
• The ethic of
inefficiency and the
value of community
• Our work is the
offering of worship
• Worship ‘lifts us’ to
the place where we
can hear “you are my
beloved”
• The gospel must be
good news for us!
• Reconciliation: Walk it
out and talk it out
• Laying your gift at the
alter is not ‘figurative’
• The sin of Achan
(Joshua 7)
What’s your program? Our program is integrity.
WORSHIP & COMMUNITY
Colossians 1:9-14
• Being bitten surfaces
issues of hurt, anger,
resentment, bitterness and
forgiveness.
• Life-flowing ministry
must grow out of our
community
• We invite the poor into
what we are already doing
(with or without them)
• The power to share/release
our “stuff” is found in
community (Acts 2:44 &
4:32)
• In community there is a
check & balance system
on our “power”
• In community we can
prevent burnout
• In community, WE can
speak for the voiceless
(Proverbs 31:8-9
We can not see our neighbor properly
except through the lens of worship – Matthew 9:35
What is
your
theology
of Love?
-Understanding
our own power.
-Developing &
growing in the
FEAR OF
GOD.
“To love a person is to invite them into your network of relationships, a community”
–Jean Vanier
LOVE AS…
Luke 6:32-33
-
Kindness
Accountable love
Merciful love
Unwavering love
Suffering love (pain)
Flexible love
Advocacy love
-
Discerning love
Responsibility
Commitment
Motivational love
Supportive love
Empowering love
A father’s love
A mothers' love
“We loved you so much that we were delighted to
share with you not only the gospel of God but our
lives as well” – I Thessalonians 2:8
What does mean when we want to serve the poor but
we do not want to know the poor?
Wesley on
Face-to-face interaction with the poor
“One great reason why the rich in general have so little
sympathy for the poor is because they seldom visit
them. Hence it is that . . . one part of the world does not
know what the other suffers. Many of them do not
know, because they do not care to know: they keep out
of the way of knowing it-and then plead their voluntary
ignorance as an excuse for their hardness of heart.”
Sermon On Visiting the Sick Works:3:387-8.
Would John Wesley join the
Methodist Church?
• A gospel for the gaps.
A net for those who
were falling through
the cracks.
• Methodists went to
where the people
were. They “sought
out” the forgotten
people.
• Ministry beyond the
local church was
normative.
• His faith was
manifested in good
works.
• Eclectic – he took the
best of many
traditions.
Job 29:1-18
• “I was a father to the fatherless”
• “I made the widows heart sing”
• “ I took up the case of the stranger”
Do not oppress an alien, you yourselves know
how it feels to be aliens, because you were
aliens in the Egypt (NIV)
- Exodus 23:9
“So give your servant a discerning
heart to govern your people and to
distinguish between right and wrong.
For who is able to govern this great
people of yours?”
I Kings 3:9
• Wisdom (James 3:17-18)
• Discernment (Hebrews 5:14)
Principals of Discipleship
-- a long obedience in the same direction -• 1. Jesus never called us to be Christians. He calls us to
become and make disciples.
• 2. Making disciples is the primary lens through which we
view and do ministry with the poor.
• 3. Training believers to grow in their wisdom, discernment
and love for the poor means doing, reflecting, & redoing.
• 4. Discipline. There is no discipleship without internal and
external discipline.
• 5. All disciples are Christians but are all Christians
disciples?
The continuum of
success
A window into Christian Maturity
-- a long obedience in the same direction --
Viewing life redemptively
World-view: able to say “the Lord
gives…the Lord takes away, blessed be..”
Conviction: The Lord will deliver us… but
even if He doesn’t, we will still not ….
Forgiveness: The grace to receive and give
it both to ourselves and to others.
What we do when we are alone.
Matthew
7:24-27
How do
you know
what kind
of house
you are
building?
James 1:22-26 How do we know we are not
deceiving ourselves?
“For it is God’s will that by doing good
you should silence the ignorance of
foolish men” – I Peter 2:15
DOING FOR
•
-
DOING FOR – project orientated. The power is usually on the side of the doer. We feel like the
experts helping the powerless. A specific challenge is reached, a goal is met. The task is complete.
We feel good about doing something good for someone else. These are measurable and often task
orientated acts of service. These tasks open the door for a deeper relational life.
Evangelism with the not-yet-Christians can be activated through this effort!
Vs
DOING WITH
•
DOING WITH – is much more emotionally and spiritually challenging and much more complex.
This is relationally orientated and you are immersed into the life of a needy person. You are brought
to prayer and you soon begin to understand how much you don’t know and how much you need the
grace from God to BE in this relationship (WWJD). Your motives are examined by the Holy Spirit.
You often feel inadequate and you find yourself reaching out for others council, advice and support.
A small group is helpful at this point to “support you” as you walk with this VDP. This relationship
“tests” your faith and reveals what fruit you have in your life to surface. You are forced to trust God
in ways you have not had to in the past. You grow.
The danger of insulation and the reality of
our social circle.
“… do not be proud but be willing to associate with people of low position”
– Romans 12:16
• Teach the illiterate to read
• Befriend the mentally ill
• Become a friend to a child
in a single parent family
• Visit the elderly in your
neighborhood
• Volunteer your time at an
agency serving the
homeless
• Volunteer with Hospice
• Work at a crisis pregnancy
center
• Serve with Habitat for
Humanity
• Become a big brother/big
sister
• Provide transportation
(give a ride) to someone
How do you overcome evil? You overcome evil with
good! Romans 12:21
Three Aspects of doing good:
• 1. Love the stranger, fatherless, widow.
- (Job 29:12-17)
• 2. Recognize people’s suffering
- (Exodus 6:9)
• 3. Do not take the world’s point of view (James
1:27)
Q –what might be an example of “being stained” by
the world’s point of view of the widow and
fatherless?
“They
only
asked us
to
remember
the poor;
the very
thing I
was also
eager to
do”
-Galatians
2:10
GOD GOES THE DISTANCE
Lessons from
John chapter 4
Internships @ Good Works
•
Since the late1980’s, Good Works has been
providing both academic and non-academic
internship opportunities. Our goal is to provide a
context for discipleship to take place, educating
people about the issues surrounding service to the
poor and the oppressed. Our goal is to develop
godly servant-leaders who can carry on the
commands of Jesus to a lost and hurting society
(See Matthew 9:35-38).