Most, not all, evangelicals I know are Republicans (I typically vote that way) and as such are duty bound to despise the welfare system. Whatever good it may do could never outweigh the horrific and crippling results of people becoming dependent on handouts… or so the line goes.
Failure to work for oneself corrupts character and that internal collapse becomes the context and culture for generations, spreading like yeast through the dough… again, so the line goes.
Yet the same evangepublicans will consistently expect a centralized process for all things related to church. Preschool Program, Children’s Progam, Youth Program, College Program, Music Program, Evangelism Program, Missions Program, Singles Program, Senior Adult Program, Benevolence Program… etc. If it happens in the Christian life, the staff of the church should work it and drum up volunteers.
And I tell you that many of the things that can be said of the welfare system can be said of the program driven church. The individuals of the church don’t have to do the work, so they don’t and they get used to it, come to expect it, pass those expectations on to their kids…
And the church in the West declines because the context and culture that we have bred is one of dependence. Laziness. Presumption.
And the best thing we can do for this church is to stop it. Stop doing everything for them and put them into a situation where the expectations placed on the body of Christ are that these individual members must do it or it won’t get done.
Because, regardless of whether the church is centralized and program driven or decentralized and personal engagement driven… it’s not getting done without them doing it.
You buy that?
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Joe Kennedy
on Sep 28th, 2009
@ 2:52 pm:
Art, with too many posts like this, you’re going to get run out of the SBC. =) Well said, man.
art rogers
on Sep 28th, 2009
@ 2:57 pm:
Thanks, Joe. And thanks for the FB note.
Mark Gstohl
on Sep 28th, 2009
@ 3:25 pm:
It’s also like welfare because…
I’ve worked with a couple of hundred clients on welfare. The reality is that most of them DO work, but the jobs they are qualified for (due to a very poor education) can’t fully support them. Writing welfare recipients off as lazy may help our consciences, but it’s simply not true in most cases.
Church folks work too! Many times, their work is actually a ministry. Because many Southern Baptists have limited ministry to evangelism, all that good work we do to help others doesn’t really seem to count as “real” ministry. What a shame. Too many times, persons are asked to do church work that really isn’t about evangelism or helping people either. That’s why many won’t do it. They see it as a waste of time and in many cases it is.
My two cents…
Bart
on Sep 28th, 2009
@ 3:49 pm:
Mark you nailed it. “Most” welfare clients you dealt with worked. “Most” church folks work too, but it is usually the 80-20 rule. Then they wear out, fall out, and get out. Programs do benefit those who consider it their ministry. Does it benefit the lost community?
art rogers
on Sep 28th, 2009
@ 9:37 pm:
Mark,
Much as I love Bart, I think you missed it in a couple of places.
First, this is about the evangepublicans and our hypocrisy, not about actual welfare recipients. I turn the political arguments against welfare back on us because the things we decry there we embrace in the church.
Second,and this was pointed out by our Worship Pastor, David, your observation that church members don’t work because they don’t see it as valuable supposes that they are actively pursuing Kingdom work and can’t find it in what we offer.
If that were true, then they would find it elsewhere if they don’t find it in us, but they don’t.
We have created a culture of non-engagement. We aren’t engaging anywhere.
art rogers
on Sep 28th, 2009
@ 9:40 pm:
Sorry, that’s not true. We are engaging.
We are not engaging much and not many of us are engaging.
Bart
on Sep 29th, 2009
@ 8:01 am:
My kind sarcasm went unnoticed.
The church has become very program based, to the extent that members take a personal stake in them. It becomes the perception then that 20 percent is doing all the work. In the best scenario the precentage engaging the lost community is probably less. We are reluctant, scared, or stuck in tradition in regards to being a full time missionary outside the holy walls. Until we engage our members either by example or one on one I don’t see a viable change happening quickly.