Page 81 - Pastoral Ministries -Student Textbook

taken very seriously so that the enemy do not find chance to corrupt the young ones with wrong teachings.
There is much joy in expressing such love of God to the weak, strengthening their hand for the glory of God the
Father. This brings such a great meaning to our faith because we are living what we believe our God is.

The relevance of the above ministries to the preaching of the Gospel
The above ministry speaks of the love of Christ, knowing that the gospel is centered on love. Not just that kind of
love that helps someone from falling away but also that kind of love that meets the physical needs of the person
in need by any means possible pleasing to God. “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you (John
15:12, NIV).” Both the lives of the apostle and those they taught were characterized by this virtue of love.

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our
lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity
on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but
with actions and in truth (1 John 3:16-19, NIV).

The help that we give to others shows that we love God. There must be a balance on how we respond to the
physical needs of the people and their spiritual needs. We may not be able to provide all that they need but we
must be willing always to help them with what we have. Let the poor know that their God is on their side; let
those who are homeless know that they have a family; let the orphans know that they have a Father and let
those who are aged know that they have a hand in times of need. If the church is to fail to balance the preaching
of the gospel with the practical part of meeting the needs of people in accordance to how God has blessed us,
we expect the situations we see today of those who have become more and more selfish and those who do not
have keep on grumbling against God hence putting the name of God to the disgrace. We miss the big picture of
God’s love in that situation. We want to make sure that the name of the Lord is not put to the disgrace when we
know that we can help those in need. In most cases when people are grumbling against God, they are blinded by
their needs to the big picture of the promises of God in Christ Jesus.

The early Church

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own,
but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons
among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money
from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need (Acts
4:32-35, NIV).

Notice that the church at its beginning had a balanced ministry. The community of believers was characterized
with (1) believers united both in heart and mind (2) believers who were generous (3) with power the apostle
testified to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and much grace was upon them all (4) Believers whose
needs were met. We can learn from the early church of what we need to do today as a household of God.

Recommended step for the church to effectively minister to it members
It is recommended that the church develops a platform or a committee that will be able to record the widow,
widower, or aged people who are really in need and orphans. This will help the church to know how they can
consider such people in the church budget. The committee can also make sure that once the budget is out these
people are given what can help them sustain their lives. In terms of other vulnerable children, the church can
still set up a program that can help those children who are not part of the church. This can be a great step in
evangelizing to the vulnerable.

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