By Paul Thigpen
When the Christian faith exploded onto the international
scene in the first century A.D., the pagan culture it
invaded was often startled by the heroic efforts of the
churches to serve their local communities. Churches
quickly established generous traditions of caring for
the needy, both in their midst and beyond. Early on,
deacons were set apart to care for “the daily
distribution of food” to widows and others (Acts 6:1-3).
Each congregation had a treasury for relief of the poor,
and special efforts, such as famine relief, were made in
times of crisis (see Acts 11:28-30, Gal. 2:10).
Among the needy who were specially targeted for
assistance by the early church were widows, orphans, the
sick and the elderly. Those who died penniless were
provided with a decent burial. Many ancient pagans
practiced infanticide by abandoning unwanted babies, so
the church rescued such children and gave them homes.
Exiles and travelers received gracious hospitality.
Prisoners were visited and comforted, especially those
who were condemned – often for political or religious
reasons – to the inhumane conditions of labor in the
imperial mines. At times, relief was brought to such
prisoners from a distance of hundreds of miles.
Church leaders thundered from their pulpits against the
injustices of their day: excessive taxes and the harsh
methods employed to collect them, the oppression of
tenants by landowners, extortion by usurers, enslavement
of freemen, cruelty to slaves, favoritism in the courts
and the tyranny of public officials. Even before
Christianity became the official religion of the Roman
Empire under the emperor Constantine, influential
Christians were active in the political arena, offering
new standards of justice and helping to shape
legislation introducing moral reforms, such as a more
humane treatment of slaves. Constantine himself
abolished the cruel gladiatorial sports, which had
forced slaves and prisoners to fight brutally to the
death while bloodthirsty crowds cheered. The church
demanded and eventually received other kinds of civil
legislation as well: the privilege of Sunday rest for
all people, even slaves; the abolition of the right of
life and death that fathers had possessed over their
children; and the right of the churches to serve as a
place of asylum for those who were pursued by the
authorities.
By the end of the 5th century, the church in nearly
every city administered diaconia, or ministry houses for
the poor, and xenodochia, institutions that were
originally intended for the care of travelers but soon
took on the combined tasks of a hospital, hotel,
almshouse and asylum. Monasteries sprang up throughout
the empire, which provided surrounding communities with
evangelism, poverty relief, education, vocational
training, hospitals and refugee shelters for those
displaced by war. The 6th-century collapse of the Roman
Empire in the West left the church as the only
institution extensive enough and sufficiently well
organized to take its place in maintaining social
welfare programs, relief services, public works and even
peace negotiations with the invaders.
The Middle Ages
Throughout the Middle Ages in Europe, the primary burden
for Christian outreach to the larger community shifted
from churches to the monasteries. In addition, new
religious orders emerged, each with a special mission:
some were evangelists; some were teachers; some were
given to medical care or alms for the poor. New
“brotherhoods” or “sisterhoods,” as they were called,
and even military orders emerged as Christian
associations for maintaining hospitals, orphanages and
leper houses.
One medieval brotherhood provided burials and maintained
cemeteries for indigents. Another specialized in
building bridges and roads, erecting inns for travelers
who were poor or sick and protecting merchants and other
wayfarers against robbers on the highway. Yet another
Christian organization collected funds to ransom
prisoners and slaves held by the Muslims in the East –
some Christians went so far as to offer themselves as
slaves in exchange for captives! Perhaps the greatest
gifts of the medieval church to the wider community were
schools that soon became some of the finest universities
in the world.
American Ministries
Let’s make a giant leap forward in time to the
immigration of Christians to the Western Hemisphere. The
establishment of the first orphanage in the English
colonies by the revivalist George Whitefield was a sign
of things to come. The fruit of several spiritual
revivals known as the “Great Awakenings” included an
intense refocusing of concern on the larger community.
Just think what bridges we could build if we truly followed the
example of the New Testament Church. We would go beyond being seeker
sensitive, to a new frontier of being community-admired. We would be
known, not just by the corner we inhabit, but by the city with which
we interact. And people would be drawn to God, not because of the
weekly show in our churches, but by the irrefutable lifestyles we
incarnate.
-Robert Lewis, The Church of Irresistible Influence,
p.48 |
Out of these revivals emerged countless
interdenominational “voluntary societies,” whose
activities included efforts to care for the needy, call
for justice and reform the morals of society. Stirred up
by the preaching of social activists such as the
revivalist Charles Finney, Christians lobbied
successfully for the abolition of slavery, suffrage for
women and the reform of mental health institutions and
unjust labor practices. They worked hard to extend
religious education throughout their communities by
establishing Sunday schools and distributing Bibles and
religious tracts. They fought the spread of alcoholism
and provided Christian fellowship and healthy recreation
for lonely young people moving to the cities, who might
otherwise have been seduced by gamblers, prostitutes and
bartenders. They cared for the growing ranks of the poor
in urban centers where floods of immigrants often
arrived with hardly a penny to their name. And they
established hospitals, asylums, orphanages, homeless
shelters and soup kitchens that still serve millions
today.
Christians today have thus received from their
spiritual forebears a rich tradition of outreach
ministries. In each generation, those who took seriously
Jesus’ command to “love your neighbor as yourself” have
gone looking for new ways to care for their communities,
establishing a host of Christian institutions that have
displayed remarkable vitality and longevity. When the
last page of history is written, what will be said about
our generation’s contribution to this wonderful heritage
of service?
Paul Thigpen is the senior editor with Servant
Publications in Anarbor, Michigan. He has Ph.D. in
Historical theology from Emory University.
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