Why do we serve the poor? To download this message click here for Mp3 for Itunes click here M4a
to order Justice Matters click hereThe work that follows was born through the ministry at Military Ave. Church in southwest Detroit. In 1885, a group from Second Presbyterian Church in Detroit started a church on the outskirts of Detroit. They met in a home for the first seventeen years until they constructed the current facility and received their first members in 1902. Military Ave. Church ministered to working and middle class members who lived in the community.
During the forties, Henry Ford built up the Rouge River with his Rouge Plant, which at the time boasted that it was the largest industrial complex in the world, General Motors also built three manufacturing plants in southwest Detroit: Fisher Guide, Fleetwood, and the Cadillac plant. All these created jobs and livelihoods for the community around Military Ave. Church. In the fifties, with four hundred members, the church held a prominent position among its peers. Donald Barnhouse once graced this church on a Sunday morning. During this time of prosperity, the congregation gave as much as fifty percent of its budget to missionary causes and several missionaries were sent out from Military to serve in various fields.
The sixties altered southwest Detroit and the church began a struggle for its very existence. Riots, bussing, factory closings, and the flight of the middle class to the suburbs changed southwest Detroit by transforming it into one of the poorest communities in America. In the late sixties, Pastor Shaw was pastoring a church of under one hundred members. The neighborhood and people surrounding Military Ave. Church were now different from its white, middle-class congregation. Pastor Shaw warned the congregation that the church would die unless they learned how to reach the people in the community. Military Ave. Church almost closed its doors. In the seventeen years following Pastor Shaw's ministry, the church had only one ordained minister who pastored for a period of two years. Lay leaders and lay ministers kept the light burning during this time. Some members questioned whether the Church should be closed.
In 1987, the small congregation conducted a pastoral search - to which only two ministers responded. I was one. In 1989, I came to southwest Detroit and began to learn. Amazed at the sights of poverty and overwhelmed by the presence of apathy, we started to reach out to one of the poorest communities in our nation. Now, nineteen years later, Military Ave. remains a small church that conducts a large ministry. We distribute food to families in need while we share the Gospel of Christ. We mentor children and teens at our tutoring program. We reach out to men through a basketball outreach. We train leaders through discipleship. We send kids to camp as well as operate summer and winter youth programs. In everything we do, we share the gospel of Jesus, knowing that it is the power of salvation to all who believe (Ro. 1:16)
In our entire ministry, we attempt to involve suburban Christians. At first, our suburban friends were a means to an end - we wanted to reach our community and we needed help. As we learned about God, His character, and what the Scripture teaches about justice, we became aware that God's purpose for the interaction between suburb and city was the spiritual health of His Church.
Our hope here is to encourage those who would come to come to the inner city. Our goal is to help Christians examine their Christian experience in light of God's word in the area of justice. Such examination should lead to action on the part of His church.
We have three goals in our study:
A Biblically Based Study on Justice
In the postmodern struggle to maintain a significant presence in America, Evangelicals strive to build mega churches and to create an atmosphere of comfort for contemporary Christians. Often our churches like our culture remain isolated from the poor which may reside only a few minutes away. We assume God is pleased because we are "successful" in massing humanity in major centers of "worship". Yet, relatively little of our Christian resources are spent on behalf of the poor, either in finance or time and energies. Justice matters was written to help Christians study Scripture's assessment of the importance of Justice in both our personal lives and in the life of our institutional Churches.
1. A Matter of Sheep & Goats
The current trend among American churches is to keep our resources in our local church which does not prepare us to stand before Jesus at the end of the age. Jesus assesses our lives with one question, "When you saw me hungry, what did you do? Christian institutions and leaders should prepare us to have an answer to that question.
2. Compelled by God's Compassion
Hundreds of Scriptures call Christians to share God's compassion for the poor. Here we look at the biblical record and trace God's revelation of His heart and the expectation that His people share His heart for the poor.
3. Are We Responsible for the Poor
Here we consider the failure of the Old Testament people and the prophetic witness and final judgment that fell on them. For us this serves as a reminder and an encouragement to do better, and so please God.
4. Poverty is a Sin Issue
Several opinions exist in our society about why people are poor. But current sociology and our history proves that Scripture offers the correct answer, poverty is caused by sin. Both social sin and personal sin cause poverty.
5. The Poor are With Us Always
Spending resources seems to be a waste of time because the problem just does not go away. In this chapter we learn that Christians face poverty differently than our secular counterpart, our goals and strategy for addressing these problems are based upon divine purposes and process.
6. Grace, God's Healing Response
God's grace provides our motive for reaching out to the poor with compassion. We trace Jesus' ministry as well as the first church in Jerusalem and the first century church. And we learn that grace motivates believers to care.
7. Equity - A Matter of Church & State
God's desire for human society contains the idea of equity or an even playing field. In American society we have relegated the work of establishing equity to our government, but our government does not support the Christian message. This calls for Christians to ensure that the Christian message and Christian institutions receive equitable support.
8. Worship Our Best Response
Ultimately our expression of God's grace among the poor is an act of worship. Old Testament worshipers lost sight of this fact and heard a condemning message. Those who follow Jesus should learn this old message and worship beyond the walls of our churches.
to order Justice Matters click hereDr. Randall Brown grew up in an affluent upper middle class home, but he came to know Jesus among the urban poor. Most of his twenty eight years of ministry have been among the urban poor. For the last nineteen years he has pastored Military Ave. Evangelical Presbyterian Church in southwest Detroit. He also lives in southwest Detroit with his wife Barb and three teenaged children. Through his experience in urban ministry, a constant study of Scripture, and belonging to a predominantly middle class denomination, Dr. Brown developed the message contained in "Justice Matters."
Dr. Brown received his BA from Southeastern College, a M. Div. from Gordon Conwell Seminary and a D. Min. with an emphasis in Hermeneutics from Gordon Conwell Seminary. He also studied at Trinity, Westminster, and Concordia seminaries.