Is Missions words or deeds?

According to a recent news article, Bradford is the second poorest city in the country. The city has seen a lot of hard times over the past century: industrialization, pollution, unemployment, massive immigration, riots, etc. Today the city still bears these scars.

Last week a little girl in my class told our teacher her instructor at Mosque hits her with a stick. I held back tears as she explained what it's like being sent to learn about God in a place she doesn't feel physically safe.

It occurred to me in my "adult" brain, this teacher obviously does not speak for God. However, in this little girls mind, God is a bully with a big stick. Think about it - how much of our opinions about God are based on our experiences with His/Her followers? You and I - You could be the only Jesus someone ever knows. And if that's true, how will our presence in Bradford inform people's opinion of Jesus? What will it take to show His love? After so many centuries of colonization and inquisition, I (like lots of other Christians) have become uncomfortable with proselytizing, choosing instead to share the gosple through actions. But is that really enough?

I may have thought so before an article I read this week from RELEVANT magazine. In an column by Brett McCracken, Is Mission about Words or Deeds, he says this about "works-only" mission:

"I’m all for social justice. I’m passionate about it. Christians have to be serving people and loving them not just in word but in deed. But man, if I hear another well-fed, TOMS-wearing evangelical kid quote St. Francis (“preach the Gospel always, and if necessary, use words”) one more time as a justification for their unwillingness to utter a word to anyone about Christ as the one true hope, I don’t know what I’ll do."

Being one of those well-feed-TOMS-wearing-St.Francis-quoting- Christians, this hit pretty close to home, lol.

Poverty, racism, kids being hit by people they should be able to trust... the world is broken. Here's where your brain automatically replies: Thanks captain obvious. It's true, everyone on the planet will tell you, all is not right with the world. The good news of our God is that someone came to set it all right again, and we get to play a part in the restoration project. I think God wants us to be the announcers of this glorious thing He's done, in word and deed. If we don't, it's likely people will never know why it is we do the things we do. For all my class knows, I am just some mysterious American who came across the ocean to spend my days joking around with them. And while it's always fun to be the mysterious visitor, I should want everyone I meet to know just who it is I serve. I want the little girl in my class to know the Jesus who gathered little children to himself... I want her to experience his gentle love... His forgiveness and grace...

I'll end with a quote from my pastor's sermon this past week.

"While it sometimes feels like evil, distortion, wrong always win, in the end it is God's perfect justice that always prevails."

-Phil Roughtin