A Church to Call Their Own
I use the term “church of the struggling class,” not “church for the struggling class,” because this is a church where members of the struggling class are not only welcomed and celebrated, but where the church cannot fulfill its mission without their witness, their gifts, their finances and other resources, their time, their participation in ministry, and their spiritual gifts. This is a church that recognizes that it cannot grow both spiritually in faith and good works, and in number of adherents, unless it extends its reach to the diverse classes that live in its shadow. By reaching out and discipling members of the struggling class and forming a diversity of small groups, the church can expand to new neighborhoods. In so doing, long-term members and those with greater resources are able to learn how to be like Jesus, seeing people as he saw them and ministering like he did. As believers open up their hearts to the mission of Christ and to the struggling class, they will discover how they themselves are struggling to throw off the allure and power of this world that brings them into spiritual bondage.
Further, the purpose of this book is to help the church fulfill its mandate to go and make disciples (Matthew 28:19). This is not about a mandate to alleviate poverty. Our prayer, however, is that people leave poverty as they overcome the destructive lifestyle that has pulled them into poverty for so long. We would love for everyone to be able to live in safe neighborhoods, but more than anything else, we desire for people not only to be safe to live with but also to be a haven for those around them who live in distress. More than earning more money, we desire that those in the struggling class learn generosity with what little they have, and to be grateful. In short, we desire for the church of the struggling class to be a church that makes disciples, winning the lost and helping them to follow Christ.