don’s blog
Created for Good Works
by pastor don
September 1, 2010

Acts 16:31 Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Galatians 6:10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

“In the early 1900’s a subtle shift occurred in America.  One faction of churches focused their attention on social and humanitarian needs, the ‘do unto your neighbor’ kind of things.  The other faction, rejecting the emphasis on social issues, focused more on evangelism, calling people to Jesus Christ.  With that shift, the social needs group served a wider audience but some of them weakened their message of Jesus.  The evangelism group maintained their evangelistic zeal and call to Jesus but many lost their audience.  Since both paths of ministry are biblical, Christianity in America suffered with that split!  Jesus calls us to decision, to believe in him.  As believers, then, we serve the poor and needy in our society, just as Jesus did.”

The social action churches described above are often labeled “mainline” and the evangelism churches are often labeled “evangelical.”  Each focus, in itself, falls short of what Jesus intended for his people, the church.  To perform all kinds of good works and yet not have the love of God in our lives, Paul said, is to make nothing but noise.  Nor are we being Christ-like if we preach the gospel only to each other, to those who have already believed, and miss the lost.

Many mainline churches (thankfully, not all) have lost the message of the gospel, of the good news about Jesus.  And many evangelical churches have lost their audience, unaware of social needs and trends and the painful and empty lives around them.

I wrote that paragraph about the shift, etc., and read it as part of the eulogy at my Dad’s funeral.  Here’s the paragraph that followed:

“Just recently I began to realize that our Dad, probably because he spent so much time in his Bible (he wore out several copies), tried to keep these biblical balances.  Dad donated approximately 6 gallons of blood over the years, probably saving lives.  He became involved in planting trees and recycling not because he was ‘green’ but because he believed God created this earth and we must take care of his creation.  Many of you came to Dad with your struggles and he gave you time and attention and counsel.  While he wasn’t often overt and vocal about his faith, neither did he shy from it in conversation.  PLEASE KNOW THIS:  ALL OF THIS WAS THE OUTWARD DISPLAY OF DAD’S DEEP AND ABIDING FAITH IN GOD THROUGH JESUS.”

I began to see my Dad’s life as his attempt to balance exactly these two truths from Scripture.  He gave his heart to Christ in his late teens or early twenties.  But God did not lead him to preach or to take the gospel to other countries.  For sixty years he lived out his faith in Creighton, Nebraska.  The people and projects he involved himself in, including church leadership and teaching, were the result of his faith.  I am eternally grateful for that heritage of faith.

But what I saw in my Dad is happening across the country in churches.  Many evangelical churches are awakening to the painful, heart-breaking needs and empty lives around them.  Their renewed social action, resulting from their faith in Jesus, also attracts their community and neighbors to the church to investigate what these people believe and why they believe it.

Those churches are not just preaching the gospel over and over again to themselves.  They are proclaiming that good news to new faces, to people with problems, to people whom God loves, to people who need Jesus.

That is also the primary theology and philosophy behind EBC’s Lifepoint Ministries, a Bible Institute to teach students to read, study, and live the Bible, and a Life Learning Center to teach the basic skills of living well.

Having been called to serve Jesus, my Dad tirelessly did what he could.  And Jesus, standing there at the end of time, declares that when we clothed and fed and visited and served others, we served him.

Thanks, Dad!