Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

36 • P LANTING C HURCHES AMONG THE C ITY ’ S P OOR : V OLUME 1

If the young church sees the example of the missionary church-planter who is eager to grant independence in response to church maturity, the church will more likely accept church reproduction as its inheritance. Self-Giving The indigenous church seeks to serve the needs of its community. It sees itself as the hands and feet of Christ in its location. When asked which was the greatest commandment Jesus replied that two commandments are equally great, “To love the Lord your God with all your heart . . . ,” and to “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30-31). We cannot separate our relationship with God from our relationship with people. Evangelism and social action are like the wings of an airplane. The gospel cannot fly without both wings being intact and operational. Jesus preached the good news, but he also healed the sick. Rene Padilla asserts that good works are not just something added onto mission work, “rather, they are an integral part of the present manifestation of the Kingdom.” 36 He concludes, Neither seeing nor hearing will always result in faith. Both word and deed point to the Kingdom of God, but no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 12:3). Every human need, therefore, can be used by the Spirit of God as a beachhead for the manifestation of his kingly power. That is why in actual practice the question of whether evangelism or social action should come first is irrelevant. In every concrete situation the needs themselves provide the guidelines for the definition of priorities. 37 The need for ministry of both word and deed is especially important in the inner city. Veteran urban missionary Roger Greenway says, “Neither a deed-only nor a word-only strategy is adequate in the city. Poor people need more than bread and more than verbal truth if their lives are to be changed and made whole.” 38

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36 C. Rene Padilla, Mission Between the Times (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985), p. 198

37 C. Rene Padilla, p. 198

38 Greenway and Monsma, p. 178