(Selected lines from "The Hole in Our Gospel" by Richard Stearns)

Our post 9/11 world seems both too big and too hard for most of us; it's so much easier to retreat from them to take them on. On Sunday morning, safe in our church pews and surrounded by friends, it can be all too easy to leave the world's violence, suffering, and turmoil outside--out of sight, out of mind.

But wait--as Christians, are we really given the option of turning away from the world's problems? Does God permit that?

Belief is not enough. Worship is not enough. Personal morality is not enough. And Christian community is not enough. God has always demanded more. Living out our faith privately was never meant to be an option.

Christian or not, you must not read this book dispassionately, as if you are somehow exempt from caring. All of us who live in this world share responsibility for takling the world's problems and showing compassion to our fellow man.

Jesus' heart was continually moved to compassion as He encountered the lame, the sick, the widow, and the orphan.

Despite what the Bible had told me so clearly, I had turned a blind eye to the poor. Now my heart was filled with anger, first at myself, and then toward the world. Where were the headlines and magazine covers about Africa? 12 million orphans, and no one noticed? Where was the Church? Where were the followers of Jesus Christ in the midst of perhaps the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time? Surely the Church should have been caring for these "orphans and widows in their distress" (James 1:27). Shouldn't the pulpits across America have flamed with exhortations to rush to the front lines of compassion? Shouldn't they be flaming today? Shouldn't churches be reaching out to care for children in such desperate need? How could the great tragedy of these orphans get drowned out by the choruses of praise music in hundreds of thousands of churches across our country?

I have to admit that my own view of evangelism, based on the Great Commission, was about saving as many people from hell as possible--for the next life. It minimized any concern for those same people in this life. It wasn't as important that they were poor or hungry or persecuted, or perhaps rich, greedy, and arrogant; we just had to get them to pray the "sinner's prayer" and then move on to the next potential convert. Yes, it first requires that we repent of our own sinfulness and totally surrender our individual lives to Christ, but then we are also commanded to go into the world--to bear fruit by lifting up the poor and the marginalized, challenging injustice wherever we find it, rejecting the worldly valued found within every culture, and loving our neighbors as ourselves.

Christianity is a faith that was meant to spread--but not through coercion. God's love was intended to be demonstrated, not dictated.

When we become involved in people's lives, work to build relationships, walk with them through their sorrows and their joys, live with generosity toward others, love and care for them unconditionally, stand up for the defenseless, and pay particular attention to the poorest and most vulnerable, we are showing Christ's love to those around us, not just talking about it. Jesus clearly cared about addressing poverty, disease, and human brokenness in tangible ways.

"Preach the gospel always; when necessary use words." - Saint Francis of Assisi