Guilty bystanders

Why would churches want their members to sit on the sidelines? | Marvin Olasky

Can other churches do what Leesburg's First Baptist (see "Doing well, doing good") has done? It depends on their theological understanding. In their book Meeting Needs, Sharing Christ: Ministry Evangelism in Today's New Testament Church, Charles Roesel (First Baptist's pastor) and Donald Atkinson state, "Evangelism that does not minister to the needs of the whole person falls short of the New Testament standard. . . . Evangelism that sees persons only as souls to be saved is deficient, at best; in light of the incarnation, it may even be considered unbiblical."

At the time of Christ, they write, "Jewish religious leaders certainly made no concerted effort to reach out to Gentiles with redemptive love. . . . Part of their hatred of Jesus grew from the fact that He was unaffected by the barriers they had erected. Gentiles, Samaritans, tax gatherers, prostitutes, lepers, women—all experienced Jesus' redemptive love." Today, though, some Christians "hide behind the church building's protective walls. This kind of siege mentality sees the real world as the enemy of piety and separation from the world as the highest expression of faith. . . . An unfortunate reality is that a person can use church activities to avoid a hurting world."