THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR A PRACTICAL BIBLICAL THEOLOGY

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THE GOSPEL TO THE POORA PRACTICAL BIBLICAL
THEOLOGY

• Keith Wasserman, Founder/Executive Director
• Good Works, Inc.
• A COMMUNITY OF HOPE
• www.good-works.net
• goodworks_at_good-works.net

- Since 1981
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Some peoples 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.

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Developing a philosophy of ministry for long
term kingdom thinking5 FOLD PHILOSOPHYOF
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

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WORSHIPMatthew 633

• 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)

Whats your program? Our program is integrity.
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WORSHIP COMMUNITYColossians 19-14

• 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 244 432)
• 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 318-9

We can not see our neighbor properly except
through the lens of worship Matthew 935
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What is your theology of Love?

• Understanding our own power.
• Developing growing in the FEAR OF GOD.

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To love a person is to invite them into your
network of relationships, a community Jean
Vanier LOVE ASLuke 632-33

• Discerning love
• Responsibility
• Commitment
• Motivational love
• Supportive love
• Empowering love
• A fathers love
• A mothers' love

• Kindness
• Accountable love
• Merciful love
• Unwavering love
• Suffering love (pain)
• Flexible love
• Advocacy love

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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 28
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Wesley onFace-to-face interaction with the
poorOne 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
Works3387-8.
What does mean when we want to serve the poor but
we do not want to know the poor?
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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.

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Job 291-18

• 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 239

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• 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 39
• Wisdom (James 317-18)
• Discernment (Hebrews 514)

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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?

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The continuum of success
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A window into Christian Maturity-- a long
obedience in the same direction --

• Viewing life redemptively
• World-view able to say the Lord givesthe Lord
  takes away, blessed be..
• Conviction The Lord will deliver us but even
  if He doesnt, 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.

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Matthew 724-27 How do you know what kind of
house you are building?
James 122-26 How do we know we are not
deceiving ourselves?
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For it is Gods will that by doing good you
should silence the ignorance of foolish men I
Peter 215

• 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 dont 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.

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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 1216

• 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 1221
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Three Aspects of doing good

• 1. Love the stranger, fatherless, widow.
• - (Job 2912-17)
• 2. Recognize peoples suffering
• - (Exodus 69)
• 3. Do not take the worlds point of view (James
  127)
• Q what might be an example of being stained by
  the worlds point of view of the widow and
  fatherless?

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They only asked us to remember the poor the
very thing I was also eager to do -Galatians 210
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GOD GOES THE DISTANCE

• Lessons from
• John chapter 4

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Internships _at_ Good Works

•      Since the late1980s, 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 935-38).