Christians are making a remarkable contribution to the social welfare and transformation of their local communities, according to a new report launched Thursday.
The report, two years in the making, is the joint project of the Churches Regional Commission in Yorkshire and the Humber and Faithworks and confronts the widely-asked question of “If your church disappeared tomorrow would anyone notice the difference?”
The charities looked at 19 innovative “presences,” or expressions of Christian work, from across the Yorkshire and Humber region in the United Kingdom to find out what makes or breaks an effective Christian presence in the local community. They discovered that churches are making a substantial financial contribution to their communities.
The report, funded by governmental agency Yorkshire Forward, also identified seven key components of an effective Christian presence. These included partnership or collaborative working between organizations, team work and simply “keeping the fire alive.”
It added that volunteers were “crucial” to effective community engagement, but added that “churches need to [get] better at managing them.”
Liz Carnelley, chief executive of the Churches Regional Commission for Yorkshire and the Humber, said the report’s findings were of national significance when it came to promoting the effectiveness of Christian engagement in local communities.
Carnelley was at the launch of the report along with Malcolm Duncan, leader of the Faithworks movement, and Fran Beckett, head of Church Urban Fund.
“We can learn from what has made these presences effective, and there are real lessons here that churches need to hear,” she said. “Lives are being changed and communities transformed by what Christians are doing across the region.”
Duncan, meanwhile, paid tribute to the work of the projects featured in the research, which included church-run Fairtrade cafes, conference and drop-in centers, after school clubs, and alcohol and drug abuse recovery programs.
“In these 19 presences we see true examples of Christian-motivated community work that are demonstrably making a tangible difference to the lives of all kinds of people,” he said.
“Through this report we hope to highlight these projects, as well as [draw] attention to the thousands more who are putting their faith into practical action for the benefit of their communities.”
RSS
Jesus said that Christians are to be the salt of the earth, I'm amazed that the theatre owners understand this command better than most Christians. When we go to the movies we buy popcorn and it appears we get as much salt as we do popcorn, why is that because they want to sell us their drinks as well and they know that given enough salt we'll be thirsty and that is exactly how Christ wants us to live our Christian lives, to live them in such a way that we make others thirsty for what we have, a genuine intimate growing relationship with God through Jesus Christ. And while ministering to the needs of others is important we must never lose sight of the fact that what a person needs more than anything else is to be born again and that through these acts of kindness we earn the right to present the plan of salvation to the very people God has given us the opportunity to serve. And while I firmly believe we have a responsibility to share the Gospel I also believe if we are to be effective in presenting that Gospel we in a majority of cases must earn the right to be heard as well.
James 2:15-17//If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
@pburwell - You make it sound like it's easy to do social work, while only a few good Christians are out "doing what Jesus told us to do" by preaching the gospel. I propose that it's easy to stand on a street corner and annoy passers-by with your theology, and hard to actually be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ in love.
I believe it was Dr King Jr who said, "You'll preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips." And Francis of Assisi is credited with "Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary use words."
The truth is, in our society, people write off (or worse) "Christians" who just want people to subscribe to our beliefs, but don't seem to care about people at all. They call us hypocrites, judgmental, and "too focused on getting converts." Christ calls us to love our neighbors - even our enemies - and to be the slave of all.
Doing social work opens doors and hearts to the gospel. If we're not transforming our local communities, we've failed.
When you read a story like this you are likely tempted to think how great a job Christianity is doing. But you might be making a mistake
Ask yourself what Jesus commanded us to do. Was it to feed the poor? No. Did Jesus command us to make coalitions to fight aids? No, He didn't.
No, the command of Jesus was to "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every person."
So, let me ask you, how may strangers have you gone out of your way to preach the Gospel to today? This week? Month? YEAR?
If you are like I was then the answer is dismal. But isn't that what Jesus COMMANDED us to do?
When you see those professing Christ tooting horns over the "contribution to the social welfare and transformation of their local communities" Christians are making you can know they have missed the mark.
Have you too?
Read "Too Scared or Too Lost?" here: http://onlyjesussaves.com/PatrickArchive/20080610-patrickcolumn-TooScaredOrTooLost.html
And when you are ready to obey Jesus go to http://livingwaters.com/wdjd.shtml and learn how to correctly share your faith, the way Jesus did and taught us to do.
Oh, it's much more than that Tx2626. Anything that reflects positive in our society isn't considered real news. This is why the media isn't reporting on the positive impact we are having in Iraq. They don't report on the impact of groups like Prison Fellowship on keeping men from being repeat offenders (Jesus has that effect on people). Mainstream media is about how bad things are when a republican is in the White House. Our country was going "great" when Clinton was in office but the very day Bush got into office the media was reporting our country going off in a hand basket.
We Americans are just gullable. The Muslim countries want a change in our policy so gas prices go up. Just watch history. They view democrats as being easier to control. It's just history.
Why aren't the great works done by Christians ever reported on by the main stream media? Doesn't Christianity deserve as much ink as Islam? Oh, I forgot.....Chrisitan Love is considered hate speech.