Mercy and Evangelism

I attended the Vital Life course on Saturday entitled Mercy Ministry, Not Mercy Fatigue. Doug Hayes spoke and did and outstanding job of not only giving a biblical view of mercy but also answering many questions I had related to evangelism.

I have to confess that mercy ministries are not typically the type of areas I like to serve in. I think there are two reasons for this. The first is my experience with liberal protestantism today. I've encountered too many people who preach only a social justice gospel and either attribute mercy as the only acceptable way to share Christ with others or they straight up deny that Jesus death on the cross was necessary for salvation and only see his life as a model for ours. In this case my tendency is to rebel against mercy ministry because I associate it with this type of Christianity. The second reason is that it's tough, not always strategic and often requires more sacrifice. Neither reason is an acceptable excuse for not doing what God has called us to do.

Here are some of Doug's main points. Mercy is something we are called to do as Christians. God's greatest gift of mercy is the giving of his son for the forgiveness of our sins so we should desire to share this and see it as an act of mercy. We should not see evangelism as the gauge of success. It is easy to become fatigued in mercy ministries when we only see evangelism as the goal and become discouraged when it doesn't always occur. Mercy in and of it self is good and reflects something of God's character. We can rejoice in God's common grace as well as his saving grace.

These are just a jumble of a few points that Doug made but I hope they help to communicate not Doug's, but God's heart for us in showing mercy to others.

rick