New ministry at our church

[steadfast7]

Hi all, I wanted to get your take on a new ministry being started in my non denom church in Seoul. There is something of a movement in social justice happening in the area of sex trafficking. It's become a theme of interest in evangelicalism and many 'missionaries' are being sent to help in this cause in countries like Cambodia and Thailand. A group at church began praying and doing awareness related work for trafficking in our city, and now the leadership has decided to make it an official church-recognized and sanctioned ministry. We should expect the church to start promoting involvement in this enterprise. They may start diverting funds as well.

What are your thoughts? Is this part of the mission of the Church that ought to be supported by members? Is this the beginnings of liberalism and/or social gospel in my church?

 

[earl40]

I see no reason at all why this would not be a legitimate ministry the church SHOULD be involved in which includes ALL the church throughout the entire world.

 

[Unoriginalname]

I am not educated enough to have a valid opinion but this does make me suspiciously interested. What is the goal of this ministry, is it to truly bring redemption both circumstantially and spiritually to these horribly abused people or is it simply to do a nice thing? I do not think it is proper to call humanitarian workers missionaries. I think that term should be saved for evangelists sent by the church. Yet again remember I really am going on gut and do not have a solid reason for this.

 

[AThornquist]

If this ministry is deliberate in its proclamation of the Gospel, there is no reason why it couldn't be a legitimate ministry of the church. There is an unnecessary fear of "liberalism" if you avoid a ministry because it helps your neighbor. What ought to asked is, does this ministry work to fulfill the great commission? And if it does, all the better if it helps your neighbor in physical ways!

 

[rbcbob]

This is a very much debated subject now in Reformed Churches. I would highly recommend the following book:
View attachment 2577
What Is the Mission of the Church?: Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom, and the Great Commission [Paperback]
Kevin DeYoung (Author), Greg Gilbert (Author)

 

[raekwon]

There is an unnecessary fear of "liberalism" if you avoid a ministry because it helps your neighbor.

Yep.

 

[Rufus]

Evangelicalism ended England's save slave and foot-binding in China among other things. When social justice is promoted and kept in it's proper place in missions beneath the gospel than it is a glorious thing. The social gospel only happens when you replace the gospel with social justice, that's when you have a problem.

Also, sex slavery is so blatantly wrong that it would be unfortunate if our churches didn't help with ending it.

 

[steadfast7]

Thanks for the responses so far.
No Christian should be against social activism. In fact, Christians should be heads of every social justice and humanitarian work, for these are good works. The question is whether the local church should make this or that particular cause an official ministry of the church.
Where evangelicalism is going is in the direction of "don't preach the gospel ... BE the gospel," "redemption is more than being forgiven of one's sins, it is the totally of being healed and restored. Therefore, if we end slavery, it is the equivalent of the preaching of the gospel and expanding the kingdom of God." I'm not yet entirely sure of the vision of the ministry, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is along these lines of thought.

 

[Leslie]

It is very much for God's glory that exploited people should be set free. There is a ministry like this in Addis Ababa. People there have found the girls they deal with in deep spiritual bondage that needs to be dealt with. Physical freedom and reeducation for employable skills are not enough; they are only the start. They simply enable the spiritual issues to be addressed.

 

[Unoriginalname]

Dennis are you in a position where you can ask about the the motivation and intention of this new ministry? As a group we can speculate all day but if you can why not ask those involved what the goal of this program is.

 

[steadfast7]

Well, I did a few events with them when they were just a group members that met in the church. We went out to pick up illegal prostitute calling cards that are common in Korea and brought to the police station. This also leads to encounters with pimps and other personnel in the prostitution rings, which they are documenting on video. They are possibly planning a demonstration to raise awareness of the illegal nature of this business. Note, that this is not humanitarian. We have yet to engage the girls themselves and share the gospel with them, and may probably never will. This is social JUSTICE that they are after. I wonder if this is something that the church should officially adopt into its ministries.

 

[Pergamum]

If there is no accompanying proclamation of the Gospel, then this should not be a main priority of your church using missionary (proclamation) funds.

Individual Christians, for example, may campaign for fair housing, etc, but that is not the church's job as a whole; the Great Commission speaks of making disciples. Of course individual Christians ought to be very active in all spheres of life (but as individual Christians, not as the official ministries of the church). I see no mandate for churches, too, to be active in every sphere of life, the church's role is more narrow.


Think of the church in two ways; the church as all the gathered believers, and the church as a formed assembly (institutional). We are the Church in one sense, and so the church SHOULD be doing good in all spheres of life. But as the church, the gathered local body, we shouldn't be and should guard our narrower focus of Christ and Him crucified and the Great Commission (which must include proclamation).

If you are making disciples, then I would expect also for social changes to happen. But no proclamation = no mission = not the church's job.

We have yet to engage the girls themselves and share the gospel with them, and may probably never will.

Is there no way to incorporate teaching, discipling, follow-up, conversation, with these girls? Gathering them together and preaching to them need not happen, but your quote above is troubling if this is truly supposed to be an evangelistic work. If it is not supposed to be an evangelistic work, why is the church doing it?


p.s. as a single man, what is your role to be in ministering to prostitutes? I know of two men who fell doing this very thing.

Summary: This is a good thing you are doing. But "the good is the enemy of the best" very often. With limited missions funds, ministries which include proclamation and discipling should be prioritized. A foundation led by Christians outside the church might be a good way to perform this work if no proclamation is included. Or, you could add intentional ways to disciple these girls...which shouldn't be hard to do.

 

[Raj]

"If there is no accompanying proclamation of the Gospel, then this should not be a main priority of your church using missionary (proclamation) funds." Agree to this.

Concerning the single man involved in this kind of work, I would add that married couples (30+ years) would be a better option.

 

[rbcbob]

I see no reason at all why this would not be a legitimate ministry the church SHOULD be involved in which includes ALL the church throughout the entire world.

Earl, you have used an absolute [SHOULD] and a universal [ALL] in affirming what the ministry of the church is. Have you read the book that I recommended in my post above? [WHAT IS THE MINISTRY OF THE CHURCH- DeYoung & Gilbert] I ask because these two ministers (one Presbyterian, one Baptist) have painstakingly taken up the task of answering the popular trend of naming a plethora of "good and worthy causes" to be biblically mandated elements of the Mission of the Church. They carefully show from Scripture just what the Mission of the Church is, as well as articulating what the proper relationship of Social Justice is to the Church.

 

[Pergamum]

The definition of "missions" has greatly expanded in the last few decades. Many are advocating a variety of activities be added under the category "missions" - some even stress that everything that a church does is missions (which is why I don't like the term "missional" - often, it is not very "missionary" to be "missional"). One's mere presence is not missions.

As Stephen Neal, the church historian once said, "If everything is missions, then nothing is missions."

Joshua above very succintly wrote Word and Sacrament. Though not every missionary needs to be directly involved in dispensing these two things, they must be involved somehow in helping others do so (i.e. there may be "auxillary tasks" to our church-planting priority..but it is still a a priority to fulfill Matt 28 and make disciples). I will, however, concede that the relief of poor saints is another area where churches in the New Testament appeared to make efforts (though some will say that the funds sent to Jerusalem are not normative of our continuing "missions" practices but was a one-time event to fulfill the prophecy of the nations sending tribute to Jerusalem).


So, again the question: How is this effort making disciples or relieving poor saints?

William Wilberforce, due to private conviction, used his role in government to help limit slavery. And I know several Christians who are active in anti-trafficking activites and are paid by humanitarian orgs to do such a thing. And they bear witness to the name of Christ even if they are not officially sent by a church in a missionary effort to these poor people. Sex trafficking is, indeed, an area that Christians ought to be heavily involved in opposing. How we do it, and what we call it, however, and through which means, is the question.

Dennis, you wrote:

We went out to pick up illegal prostitute calling cards that are common in Korea and brought to the police station. This also leads to encounters with pimps and other personnel in the prostitution rings, which they are documenting on video. They are possibly planning a demonstration to raise awareness of the illegal nature of this business. Note, that this is not humanitarian. We have yet to engage the girls themselves and share the gospel with them, and may probably never will.

Is there anything that can be done to make this into more of a missionary effort? Or, if your efforts involve no direct religious counseling or Gospel witness, are you handing the girls off to others who are doing so? This seems a great opportunity for Christians to exercise pastoral care and to disciple needy souls. Rather than discourage such activities in your church, is there a way to add some elements that will transform this effort into one which will proclaim the glory of Christ, spread His fame, build the church, disciple others, connect needy young women with Christian families who can bond with them and mentor them, relieve poor saints, etc? If the girls can be pulled out of their distructive circles of oppression where will they be sent? How will they be counseled?

Or, if this is not a fitting activity for the church as a corporate whole to endorse, can this group do their work as private citizens and private Christians? Many Christians are activistic, even if their efforts might not be a fitting priority for a church's missions funds.

Which, of course brings us to another related topic -that of US Churches using large amounts of church missions money to support pro-life efforts if those efforts do not involve a Gospel witness.