An Alternative to Being Marginalized

Hearts Connected through the Spirit

Last summer, I was invited to a remote place in China to meet with some local church leaders who joined a program for supporting underprivileged students. However, there was a scheduling conflict. I had to sit for an examination to build a skillset for serving in a new ministry. Despite this, my heart remained with the ministry there. I believed the presence of volunteers from Hong Kong would be very encouraging to the participants. After a long travel ban due to the pandemic, nothing can be more joyful than gathering face-to-face again. To compensate for my absence, I decided to personally record a video to motivate the participants. The video summarized the blogs I had offered to ChinaSource over the past years.

The church leaders from a few small churches responded very positively to the video. They were inspired to consider forming a non-profit organization to reach out to the community through serving the needy. I was fascinated that our hearts were connected in the Holy Spirit although we were far apart. We shared the same hope that outreach actions could provide a breakthrough in a restrictive environment for sharing the good news.

Among the church members, some had experienced police intervention when someone reported that worship was held in their apartment. We all sensed that the house churches there had become more and more marginalized in society. House churches dared not welcome new acquaintances, creating an obstacle for spreading the good news.

We believe that the situation should be reversed. The love of Christ should be brought to light, not confined to the four-walled gathering venue. Therefore, we must find an alternative to restore the momentum for preaching. An outreach approach acceptable to the government and public interest will be a solution. The police can block a venue, but charity, merciful actions, and care for neighbors can gain societal support. Personal virtues resulting from a transformed life speak louder than words. A believer’s love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are never subject to any prohibition of the law (Galatians 5:22-23). In other words, there is a much bigger space outside the church to proclaim Christ’s love, even in a religiously restrictive environment, as long as we know how to do it prudently.

Eventually, I went there in winter to meet with them when they planned to set up a committee for the application for a non-profit organization under the Civil Affairs Bureau. We exchanged ideas to find practical ways to form such a missional organization in compliance with the regulations. During the course, I have found that there are a few critical frameworks we must go through before the commencement of the application. I am listing the headings as an overview below, and this article will cover the first item while the others will be discussed in the subsequent write-ups in this series:

1. Preaching in words and actions as Jesus did
2. Relationship between the charity organization with the government
3. Unity among stakeholders in various churches

Preaching in Words and Actions

Jesus provided a great model for reaching out to preach the kingdom. In the gospels, a few paragraphs mention that Jesus went to various places, villages, and towns to reach out to people. Among them were the rich and the poor, officials and teachers of the law, Jews and gentiles, the sick and the healthy, the disabled and the demon-possessed, the supporters and opposition, and many others.

As a non-profit organization, we are interested in what he did. There will be some similarities between our situation and the circumstances in Jesus’s day. We bear a missional purpose when we reach out to the towns and villages where we will meet different classes and kinds of people: the marginalized grassroots, volunteers, donors, government officials, and maybe even complaining parties. What Jesus did among the crowds revealed his wisdom for our application.

We may look at two very similar verses in Matthew to find out more:

• In Matthew 4:23, Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.
• In Matthew 9:35, Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness.

Interestingly, these verses look very much alike. It seems that these verses form an opening and closing bracket to mark what Jesus did from place to place in an integrative theme. These five chapters between these brackets can be divided into two main parts: (a) Sermon on the Mount (the truth), and (b) a series of caring ministry (the practice).

Teachings Like Seeds Spread on Soils

The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5–7 provides groundbreaking explanations of the teaching in the Old Testament. For example, Jesus redefined true blessing. Those poor in spirit are much more blessed than the rich. Those who mourn for their own evil will become much more joyful than those with earthly happiness. He also redefined murder and adultery beyond the understanding of teachers of the law who took the surface value only. After a long discourse, approaching the end, Jesus invited the audience to make a value-based volitional option on whether they would make a dedicated effort to enter the kingdom. The choices are expressed in four allegories:

• Going through the wide gate or narrow gate (7:13–14).
• Following true or false prophets (7:15–20).
• Serving God with lip service or with actions (7:21–23).
• Becoming a wise or foolish builder (7:24–27).

The truth and value in the sermon are so daunting and enlightening that Matthew concludes with the observation that everyone was convinced of Jesus’s supreme authority (7:28). This is an important reference for us. As a non-profit organization, we should strive for a chance to speak about the truth. The truth in the Bible can be a sharp sword piercing into the soul (Hebrew 4:12). However, we have to find an appropriate way of presentation. In a prohibitive environment, we cannot cite directly from the Bible. We need to exercise our wisdom to use parables and stories just like Jesus did. We just need to put the truth in an inoffensive form and trust that such seed will fall on good soil.

Holistic Blessings in Action

After the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew continued with a series of miracles Jesus performed in chapter 8–9. All such miracles pertain to a theme of holistic blessings for restoring bodily health, mental health, spiritual peace, and social harmony. He restored the health of people with leprosy, paralysis, fever, hemorrhage, blindness, and deafness. He also healed many patients and even raised a girl from death to life. He drove demons out of two men who threatened the safety of the people passing by. He forgave the sin of the paralyzed man apart from curing his disease. To sum up, he provided all-round healing ministry and established a personal relation with all those receiving his compassion.

As a non-profit organization, although we cannot perform miracles as Jesus did, we may be able to bring holistic blessings through different community services such as improving health, integrity, filial piety, parenting education, and so on. We do not only offer help on our own, but we also encourage volunteers and donors to join the actions for building shalom in the community.

Conclusion

Matthew concluded the long description of Jesus’s ministry with a brief recap, telling readers that words and actions went in parallel in Jesus’s outreach ministry. After the long journey, he looked with compassion on a crowd that was like sheep without a shepherd. He also saw a harvest and asked his disciples to pray for the Lord to send more workers to the field (Matthew 9:35–38). The next action was sending the twelve to the harvest. But before commissioning, Jesus empowered them to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness (Matthew 11:1). Look, Jesus equipped his disciples to teach in words and to serve in action in parallel in the harvest. As disciples ministering in a non-profit organization, we do the same.

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