Where Are All the Poor in Our Churches?
Why are we not appealing to the rejected and outcast people in our communities?
I know the title of this article is a general, blanket statement. That means it’s not true in every single case. But I think it highlights a problem that tends to exist among congregations of the Lord’s church in the “Bible Belt” of the United States.
Where are all the poor, disenfranchised, outcast, and rejected members of our communities? Because all too often, that’s not who’s in our churches.
Now, why does that even matter?
Because that’s who often surrounded Jesus and “soaked” up His teaching.
Jesus came for the outcast.
At the beginning of our Lord’s earthly ministry, He read Isaiah 61:1-2 at His hometown synagogue and applied Isaiah’s prophecy to Himself.
“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” (Luke 4:18-19)
As you go through the book of Luke, you find Jesus surrounded by people with many problems - the demon-possessed, diseased, lepers, and many others all come to Jesus for help.
When Jesus calls His first followers, He doesn’t turn to the highly educated or people in the upper echelon of society. Instead, He calls fishermen (Luke 5:1-11) and a tax collector (Luke 5:27-28).
When the Pharisees and scribes grumbled about the sort of people that came to Jesus and that Jesus spent time with, He replied:
“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Luke 5:31-23)
In a time when women were often treated as mere possessions, Jesus was willing to do the socially unacceptable to forgive a sinful woman who came to Him (Luke 7:36-50).
In a time when Samaritans were the hated and despised race of people by the Jews, Jesus made a Samaritan the one who loved His neighbor (Luke 10:25-37) and intentionally traveled through Samaria to reveal Himself as the Christ to a Samaritan woman (John 4).
Jesus taught the Pharisees the importance of caring for those who could never repay them.
When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” (Luke 14:12-14)
The implication was that God had shown them great mercy and kindness they could never repay. They ought to have recognized this and shown the same sort of kindness to others.
The rich man died and went to Torments while the beggar Lazarus - who desired the leftovers from the rich man’s table - died and went to Paradise. What Jesus implies in this story is that the rich man failed in his obligation to help his fellow man. He failed to show the kindness of God to others (Luke 16:19-31).
Jesus describes the tax collector who depended upon God’s mercy as going down to his house justified rather than the Pharisees who exalted himself and trusted in himself that he was righteous (Luke 18:9-14).
We could go on - but I think the point has been made. Jesus came to this earth to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10), and the ones who came to Him most often - as well as the ones He spent the most time teaching - were the poor and outcasts of society.
If these people surrounded Jesus, then why are they practically non-existent in our churches?
Who are these people in our communities today? Who are the ones on the “fringes” of society or the ones society seems to forget?
We still have the poor - you and I might not see them all that much because we probably don’t live in the same part of town as them.
What about people whose skin color is different than ours? In some communities, because someone looks different, they are viewed as an outsider to the community.
What about the homeless? Or the people who are fighting an addiction to drugs or alcohol? Or the children who come from a broken home - or the ones who have no home?
These people - as well as other groups you could probably name - are considered “outcasts” or “rejects” of “acceptable society” today. And yet, these were the types of people that Jesus searched for, taught, and helped. People who had once been the “rejects” of society even made up part of Jesus’ own apostles.
Think about your home congregation - think about yourself. What are we doing to actively reach out to groups of people that our communities treat as outcasts? What are we doing to show the ones the rest of the community would rather forget about that we care?
The first church of our Lord in Jerusalem was known for helping those in need (Acts 2:44-45). They helped many of their number who were widows with daily needs (Acts 6:1-6).
What was the result of this?
Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. (Acts 6:7)
Something to think about.
If we are not imitating our Lord, then are we really following Him?
If the same sort of people attracted to Jesus are not being drawn by the gospel we preach and live - then are we actually proclaiming the gospel of Christ, or are we proclaiming a perverted gospel? (Galatians 1:6-9)
Have we exchanged what the gospel of Christ is really all about for something that allows us to feel comfortable in our complacency? Have we exchanged the cross of Christ for a comfortable pew with climate control?
What would our Lord say? What would He do?
I know I’ve raised more questions than answers I’ve given in this article. There are at least two reasons for that.
First of all, this is a question I’m still “chewing on” so to speak. I don’t have all the answers - but this is something I’ve noticed in my life, and I’ve observed it fairly often in churches of Christ. It’s bothering me and so I’ve put my thoughts from Scripture down here. Writing is how I work through things and think through various questions.
Second, the answers to some of these questions will look a little bit different from community to community, church to church, and individual to individual. Certainly, some things will be true across the board - but since all communities are a little bit different, the solutions will look a little bit different as well.
Keep pressing toward the mark (Philippians 3:12).
I'm a weird kind of guy...money and material things aren't what I'm looking for. Maybe that's because I never had much growing up and I never caught the fever for the things people call being successful. And all I've ever wanted is just what I need...not much more. But I need Christ I need to be closer to him...but I'm not good enough...I know nobody is but I'm less then not being good enough. But I know God gave us Christ and I don't want to miss out...I NEED HIM.
Agreed, and thank you. I point out the above to add a needed perspective as to a reason (one of several, but certainly not the only reason) as to why it seems there are not that many of the poor, outcasts, disenfranchised, etc., in the pews.
You also mentioned skin color. All but the first of the 5 congregations I've preached at have been in the South. The first church I preached for was in the St. Louis area on the Illinois side, where I spent the majority of my childhood. There was and still is an all-black congregation in that area, whereas the congregation I preached at was predominately white (with one black man placing membership towards the end of my tenure there), and the congregation where my dad preached during my childhood was all white (before it ended up merging with my congregation after I left). I left that congregation in 2003 with it having only one black member. In 2018 I came back for a gospel meeting, and I attended there just a couple of weeks ago during the holidays. Now the membership of that congregation is about 70% white, 30% black. In 2018 when I visited they were on the verge of hiring a black minister and had already hired a black youth minister.
During my childhood I remember going with my family to attend the gospel meetings of the all-black congregation, where we were the only white people there. One of the families at that all black congregation lived 4 houses down from me, and I played street basketball in the neighborhood regularly with one of the sons in that family and was in chorus with another. Both of them were good friends of mine. Both them and I would always join up with the youth group of another predominately white congregation congregation in the area to go to Harding's Spring Sing (since neither of our congregations had a youth group).
When in 2003 I moved to Columbia, SC, the congregation I preached for was about about 60% white, 40% black, with both ethnicities prevalent in the eldership and deaconship. After I left, from what I can see on their website the ratio between black and white at that congregation is now about 50%. In Columbia there is at least one, but I think maybe 2, all-black congregations. During my time in SC I also was a teacher at a nearby preaching school overseen by an all-black congregation, and the majority of my students were black.
From 2005-2015 I preached in northern SC at an all-white church. The eldership invited black ministers to speak with regularity, and rebuked the one member who objected out of bigotry to the point where he publicly repented of it. During my ten years there, a single black woman placed membership, followed soon afterwards by a black family. The former stayed for about 4 years until her job took her elsewhere, and the latter stayed for about 3 years before they decided to place membership with the local all-black congregation. From what I could tell, everyone got along well with everyone.
I then moved to GA where I preached for 5 years at a congregation where the ratio starting out was about 80% white, 20% black, but by the time I left it was around 70% white, 30% black as several black families placed membership. Everyone got along well with everyone.
Where I am now in Murfreesboro, TN, it is an all-white congregation that had only 1 black member when I arrived. I've been there for 2.5 years, and have since seen another older black woman place membership, an older black man place membership about a year later, followed by another black man placing membership about 6 months ago. From what I can tell, everyone gets along with everyone. I'm still getting to know the Nashville area churches, but I'm almost positive that there are certainly all-black congregations within a 30-mile radius. At our Men's Days we do have attendees from an all-black congregation that I would guess is from somewhere in middle TN.
From my experience and observations as described above, I would say that segregated congregations still exist with our brotherhood in this country, but I would also say that integrated congregations are on the rise. It also seems that whatever segregated congregations exist seem to do so by choice as opposed to being forced to do so via the racist laws and culture of the past. I got the sense from that family who left us to attend the local all-black congregation that they didn't have a problem with us or feel unloved by us, but simply would feel like they had more in common with an all-black congregation. Thus, ethnic culture probably also plays a factor here.