A key question churches struggle with is what missional outreach looks like in their local area. Many Christians feel their church is not doing "evangelism" OR "social justice" well. I think that there needs to be local analysis. Is violence, water, food, housing, medical, employment, education a major need in the local community because government is failing? Or is the locale wealthy and therefore struggling with meaninglessness, depression, loneliness, and broken relationships? These local realities and needs will shape the nature of local church outreach. In other words, biblical and theological convictions will not be the sole factor in what a local church's local outreach looks like. The context will also factor in. Paul's Gentile churches reached out to wealthy Roman citizens differently than James's Jerusalem church's care for the poor. Paul also collected offerings from the Gentle churches for the Jerusalem church. This is an example of churches reaching beyond their locale.
This is a Twitter thread by Andy Rowell
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