Evangelism to the poor is, and has been, so very popular. Churches love to send missions teams to Asia, Africa, India, and South America, and the vast majority of churches have homeless ministries, most likely because it's easy to see the needs of the poor and oppressed.
But what about the rich? Where are the missions teams that go to Europe? How can we send team after team after team to third world countries where Christianity is on the rise when Christianity is so rapidly declining in Western Europe? Because it's easier to raise money? Because we want to look like we're making a bigger sacrifice? The great churches and cathedrals of old now sit empty, like mausoleums of Western European Christianity.
Is it just that it's too hard to do missions work in France? Do we assume that because they have THINGS that they couldn't possibly have any use for Jesus? Do we think that people who have fewer things are more deserving of salvation?
What about closer to home? The wealthy have churches vying for their tithes, often being deceived by the Prosperity "gospel." But where are the people who are actively and boldly going out to them and preaching CHRIST? It is easy to be deceived by wealth, and it would take men of great faith to do this, but what if we had just as many people in the Church saying, "I'm going to do long term missions among the lawyers of Atlanta," as were saying, "I'm going to South Africa for two years,"?
If it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God, then how much more do those men and women need to hear the Gospel?
Should this be justification to pursue wealth and privilege over where you hear God calling you? Of course not. But perhaps we should rethink what our missions strategy is. A businessman living in a country club and a homeless man living on the street both still need the exact same thing: Jesus. Who are we to decide which one gets to hear the Gospel?
thanks for the reality check .....you are so right ....yet we so quickly forget when we want what we can't afford.....I suppose that is the place sin incubates.
