What opportunities are there for Christian service outside of the church?

There are some real opportunities right on your doorstep. The Lord has opened the door for mass migration into many richer, nominally Christian countries. Many immigrants know precious little of the host language: the need for so many is to learn English – could you not start a free class in the meeting room? Use for example Luke’s gospel as a base textbook to start with … and with a little kindness your efforts will soon be rewarded. Invite the students to the meeting, invite them home for a meal. Perhaps there are single parent families in the area – could not a work with the children bring contacts and souls for your hire? Perhaps you have a room or two to spare, could these be made available for some energetic and faithful younger brothers and sisters to stay for a week or two in order to engage in street evangelism – tract distribution among the neighbourhood or in the town centre: 60,000 homes can be reached within 6 weeks of steady work by a team of ten. The scope and possibilities are endless. But who will go, who will give their spare time and resources for this good work? Will you give up a gap year to serve the Lord?

To enumerate the possibilities and spheres of this most precious service would demand a separate publication, but a few may be noted. There was the Christian woman, elderly and weak in body, who, indignant at hearing an atheist in the open air proclaiming against all that was of God, went up to him and boldly testified to the preciousness of Christ before all who were listening, particularly affecting a young man present. The Christian octogenarian who still delights to "go fishing." He fishes in many places, a favourite one the bus in which he happens to be travelling. A typical conversation is — directed to the man sitting next to him — "I was praying for you this morning." "Praying for me — you do not know me or my name." "No — but I was praying for you. You see I asked God to help me to speak to the man who would sit next to me in the bus — that is you." These and similar incidents, are not for imitation, but for stimulation. I delight to think of my own younger brother, now with Christ, preaching to scores of men in the communication trenches (1914-18) before "zero" hour. His own words to me "I look to see many of those men in heaven."

These may be exceptional incidents, but there are unlimited opportunities in the ordinary circumstances of every-day life. The people in our street; our neighbours! Is not this perhaps the most difficult of all gospel "fields," but how blessedly rewarding if, as moving in communion with the "Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort," we are given to "know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary." It is recorded of our blessed Lord in Luke chapter 4 that He preached the glad tidings in the place "where He had been brought up" (Luke 4:16).

The fact is that the great majority of Christians during the far greater portion of their lives are required to testify for the Lord amid the most ordinary circumstances. How many there are, for instance, who hardly ever step out of the routine of the family circle, or the round of relatives and friends, or the circle of business associates. In such cases are there no opportunities to testify for Christ? None, perhaps, that will bring the witness before the public gaze of man; but many the far-reaching influence of which will only be known at the judgment seat of Christ. Who can tell the effect of the loving word and the kindly deed done and said in the name of the Master?

Christian reader, let us diligently apply our hearts to all this divine instruction. It is most precious; but its real preciousness can only be tasted in the practical carrying out of it. We are surrounded by ten thousand forms of human misery, human sorrow, human need. There are broken hearts, crushed spirits, desolate homes, around us, on every side. The widow, the orphan and the stranger meet us, daily, in our walks. How do we carry ourselves in reference to all these? Are we hardening our hearts and closing our hands against them? Or are we seeking to act in the lovely spirit of "the Lord's release"? We must bear in mind that we are called to be reflectors of the divine nature and character, to be direct channels of communication between our Father's loving heart and every form of human need. We are not to live for ourselves; to do so is a most miserable denial of every feature and principle of that morally glorious Christianity which we profess. It is our high and holy privilege, yea, it is our special mission, to shed around us the blessed light of that heaven to which we belong. Wherever we are, in the family, in the field, in the mart or the manufactory, in the shop or in the counting house, all who come in contact with us should see the grace of Jesus shining out in our ways, our words, our very looks. And then if any object of need come before us, if we can do nothing more, we should drop a soothing word into the ear, or shed a tear or heave a sigh of genuine heartfelt sympathy.

On the other hand a man may pursue a path of quiet, unobtrusive, unostentatious service, unknown and unnoticed, and not wishing to be noticed. The stream of his benevolence may flow abundantly, unknown to all except to those who are refreshed by its influence, and for the most part, not even by them. The lanes, the alleys, the courtyards, the prisons, the hospitals are visited; the widow's tear is dried, her sorrow soothed, her wants supplied; the orphan is thought of; the sons and daughters of toil and misery are looked after; the precious tidings of salvation are sounded in many a room; the gospel tract is slipped into many a hand; and all the while, little is heard or known down here of the doer of these precious, these most fragrant acts or service and self-sacrifice. But the odor goes up to the throne. The record is above: it is all engraved on the Father's heart. He remembers it all and will bring it all out in due time and after such a fashion that the doer would not recognize his own work.

The variety of work is endless, and may range from pastoral care over hundreds of God's people to giving a cup of cold water in Christ's name. There is work suited to each and there is work suited to you. Take the most difficult possible position for active service—that of a young girl brought up in the seclusion of the family circle, which she has not yet left, it may be with no opportunities of visiting the poor (though this is very rare), what can she do? What can she not do? if she has a heart is rather the question. Has she unconverted relatives and friends, any for whose souls she particularly cares? Can she not do a real work for Christ by sending them regularly, it may be unknown to them, gospel books and papers, accompanying each with earnest prayers? And when that relative or friend is saved, none may know save the Master and the workman to whose instrumentality it is due. Prayer, definitely continued for others, is a very real work for the Lord. But all work involves some amount of self-denial, and above all steady perseverance. How many lives of service have been given up through want of this one necessary quality!

What a privilege to be sent by the Lord on His errands and with His message, it may be to distant China or India or Africa or South America, or the far-off islands of the seas, or it may be to your next door neighbour, the people that live in your street or town, or in the villages within reach of a humble pushbike, and the ability to purchase and scatter a few tracts.

Yet in many ways the teaching of the New Testament has been degraded to something merely earthly and social. Instead of repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus, only charity is preached, and this often with a political flavour. This, however, is not the meaning of the “Sermon on the Mount” or the gospel of the grace of God! On the other hand it is no testimony to the grace and mercy of our God if one thinks that preaching the gospel is the only task of a Christian with regard to the world. As our Lord Himself helped those in their different needs to whom He presented the good tidings, we too can tell our neighbours of Him and at the same time show them the power and blessing of our faith practically.

But let us not, in wrong narrow-mindedness, think only of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul writes to the Galatians: “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith” (Gal. 6:10). The power of our testimony for the Lord depends more on our actions than on our words! The world may not study Scripture, but often it knows how to judge our behaviour. How many a soul has been broken down, not only by the pure gospel, clearly presented, but also by the mercy shown!

Yet in many ways the teaching of the New Testament has been degraded to something merely earthly and social. Instead of repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus, only charity is preached, and this often with a political flavour. This, however, is not the meaning of the “Sermon on the Mount” or the gospel of the grace of God! On the other hand it is no testimony to the grace and mercy of our God if one thinks that preaching the gospel is the only task of a Christian with regard to the world. As our Lord Himself helped those in their different needs to whom He presented the good tidings, we too can tell our neighbours of Him and at the same time show them the power and blessing of our faith practically.

Through the mercy of God, you and I are not bound to anyone with a coupling-chain, but we are daily brought into contact with many. We go to school, or to the shop, or office, we do our shopping, the baker calls or the postman: I wonder is it manifest to each that we belong to Christ? Are these daily contacts for the furtherance of the Glad Tidings? Were Paul in our place, they surely would be. God may use even a child for this work. I recall a boy of 12 or 14 who was used to lead a man to Christ, by giving him a tract each time he left his films to be developed: at first the man laughed at him, but he told me himself, that child was really the means of winning him to Christ: and after he was won, he used to open his shop in the evenings for Gospel meetings, and who knows how many others were won?