Ministries of Mercy – Session X
Preparing The Church

Teaching: John Bennetch

Excerpt:
“ ‘Fertilize’ the church for mercy by motivating the whole church. Then do the ‘spade work’ of meeting some basic needs within the church and of surveying the community for felt needs.” (Keller, p. 133)

The Church as a garden…
“If you are a Christian convinced of the importance of mercy ministry, you may be quite unhappy with your own congregation! Very few evangelical churches do much in the way of deed ministry outside of the annual donation of food at Christmas or Thanksgiving” (Keller, p. 133)

Instead of rushing the local church into beginning programs for the needy, Keller’s suggestion is that we (like the Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 3) look at the church as a garden. The soil needs to be prepared, fertilized, seeds and plants selected, etc.