Throughout Scripture, the people of God are called to love and serve their neighbors and care for the poor, hurting or alone. Our culture currently places a great deal of value on community service, so what makes the church any different from the culture in this area? The reasons and the ways the church participates in mercy ministry must be unique from those of the culture.

Why do mercy ministry?

• Mercy to others overflows from and responds to the mercy we have received from God through Christ (1 John 4:7-12). The primary motivation for mercy must be the greatness of God’s mercy to us. If God showed mercy to us, who are not only needy, but wicked and rebellious, how can we not show mercy to those in need around us? Tim Keller, in his book Ministries of Mercy, explains it this way:
  

  “Spiritually I was just like these people, though I never was where they are now…

  “The person who knows that he received mercy while an undeserving enemy of God will have a heart of love for even (and especially!) the most ungrateful and difficult persons. When a Christian sees prostitutes, alcoholics, prisoners, drug addicts, unwed mothers, the homeless, the refugees, he knows that he is looking in a mirror. Perhaps the Christian spent all of his life as a respectable middle-class person. No matter. He thinks: ‘Spiritually I was just like these people, though physically and socially I never was where they are now. They are outcasts. I was an outcast.’ “Mercy is spontaneous, superabounding love which comes from an experience of the grace of God,” (Keller, 60, 63). When the believer begins to realize he did not need God’s grace only once for salvation but needs it constantly and desperately, he will begin to truly relate to those in physical and emotional need around him. We will never truly love someone who is drastically different from us, but only when we see they are exactly like us, (Paige Brown, RUF Summer Conference, 2004).

• NOT to earn favor before God or others. – We must guard against mercy ministry becoming a work. God calls us to mercy and love for others in response to the mercy and love we’ve already received from Him. In all of the passages where God calls His people to mercy, He motivates them by reminding them of His mercy to them and their status as His people. All of the favor due Christ already rests upon those who believe in Him, so mercy ministry cannot possibly earn anything for us. Rather, it will flow naturally out of a changed heart and will evidence of a healthy relationship with Christ, not cause it.

  Subordinate to and depending on this experience of God’s grace, the following reasons further explain why mercy ministry is important:

  • We must preach the Gospel in word and deed. – Without deeds, our words will be meaningless (James 2:14-20). The natural outflowing of a heart changed by God will be love and mercy for our neighbors. Likewise, deeds of love and grace act as a barometer for how we have understood the Gospel. “As the very nature of the gospel is grace and mercy, the primary evidence of having received and believed it is the showing of mercy,” (Glenn Hoburg, Grace DC website). The apostle John says, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth,” (1 John 3:16-18).
  • Mercy is a central aspect of the Kingdom of God. – Christ inaugurated the coming of God’s Kingdom to earth. When the Kingdom spreads on earth, the fall is rolled back, the earth is redeemed and all things are made new.
    

    Without deeds, our words will be meaningless.

    Spreading mercy and justice is a key part of spreading the Kingdom. In fact, Jesus defined His role as Messiah in terms of mercy to the poor and oppressed. He said to John the Baptist’s disciples, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me,” (Matthew 11:4-6). As Christians, we too must be about the business of spreading the Kingdom. Sharing Christ’s good news is central to this, but the spread of the Kingdom will not stop until the fall, in all its spiritual and physical manifestations, is undone completely in the new heavens and the new earth.

  • We are commanded to love and serve those in need. – Throughout redemptive history, God has called His people to care for one another and for the stranger in their midst (Leviticus 19, 25). Jesus found acts of mercy to be such an integral part of life and worship that He equated service to those in need with service to Him. In fact, in the final days of His ministry, He says that He will withhold mercy from those who withhold mercy from “the least of these” (Matthew 25:31-46). Of course, a simple “because God says so” will not change hearts, so this truth is more a check on our lives than a motivation.

How do Christians do mercy ministry?

The Church has a call distinct from that of culture. We are called to be Christ’s witnesses on earth (Acts 1:8). Mercy ministry is part of this call, but must never be divorced from the Gospel of Christ, whether this Gospel is preached in word or deed. Jesus’ ministry on earth was one in which word and deed were constantly paired. His deeds illustrated and fulfilled His words, and His words explained His deeds. Our mercy must be a mirror of God’s mercy through Christ to the world, which is:

• Sacrificial - Showing mercy to others will require a sacrifice of our time, resources and emotional energy. Bearing one another’s burdens means taking some of the burden on oneself (Tim Keller, Ministries of Mercy, 74-75). But Christ, who loved to the point of death, not only inspires our sacrifice, but enables it through our union with Him.
• Relational – In the most incredibly relational act ever, the God of the universe chose to come down to earth personally through Christ to pour out His mercy on His people.
  

  Treat people with the respect befitting an image-bearer of God.

  Once on earth, Christ was extremely relational with those to whom He ministered. He touched the leper who had probably not been touched for years (Matthew 8:1-4), sat down with the woman at the well without concern for the cultural rules He was breaking (John 4), and endured scorn by spending time with prostitutes, tax collectors and social outcasts (Luke 7:36-50, Luke 19:1-9, Matthew 11:19). Even now, Christ desires a relationship with us, not simply a series of impersonal religious acts. Our mercy to others, therefore, should be relational if we are to mirror God’s mercy.

• Honoring - God’s mercy to us through Christ gives us a completely new status. It clothes unworthy wretches in Christ’s righteousness and makes orphans children of God. Our mercy to others must also restore dignity to those made in the image of God. We must treat people with the respect befitting an image-bearer of God.
• Not based on merit – People often make a false distinction between the “deserving poor” and those who are not. There has never existed a Christian deserving of God’s mercy, yet He chose to lavish it on us anyway to His glory. Christ met people where they were, whether they were prostitutes, tax collectors or Pharisees.
• Transformational – Christ met people where they were, but He also did not leave them there. As God’s love and mercy are transformational, so should ours be. Our mercy should not breed dependence or be a crutch, but rather should help heal the person toward wholeness. The unexpected aspect of mercy ministry, however, is that it transforms not only the person being serve but also the one serving. Loving others as Christ loved, through the power of the Holy Spirit, finding that those seemingly very different are really the same, and seeing people through God’s eyes cannot help but change us.
• Habitual - (Matthew 25) “Mercy is a lifestyle, not a project.” (Duke Kwon)

As a church and a community, Grace DC Downtown considers how to pray – both corporately and individually. Praying together as a church community helps us as we individually struggle with unbelief, forces us to be honest with God and one another, and changes our perspectives. We come to him humbly because we know our faith, our lives and the life of our community depend on Him. We pray because we have glimpsed the power of God at work in our lives and the lives of countless others, and we long to see God’s grace radically change our lives, our city and the world.

Corporate Prayer Opportunities Include:

• Weekly for the City: Tuesday mornings from 7:15-8:15am at the Church Office. Join with others from our community in praying for the needs of Washington, DC and for the ways we can extend God’s mercy to this place and its people. Contact Joe Kaufmann

Equipping for Prayer

Want to learn more about how to pray? Look into our Course Offerings.

Can we pray for you?

• Email your prayer request to prayer@gracedc.net so that the Prayer Team can be praying for you. We want to respect your privacy, so please include “confidential” in the subject line if you’d like your request to be for the Elders only.
• Write your prayer request on the Keeping Connected sheet in the front of your bulletin and put it in the offering basket during the Sunday worship service. Follow the instructions on the sheet to indicate if your request is confidential or for the Prayer Team.
• Meet with a member of the diaconate at the front left of the sanctuary, immediately following the Sunday worship service to pray with them.

Nursery:

• Nursery Schedule: January–April 2012
• Nursery Instructions
• Child Protection Policy (CAPP)

Children’s Church:

• Children’s Church Schedule: Winter – Spring 2010
• Click on the WINTER’10 lesson to download (pdf):Lesson 1; Lesson 2; Lesson 3; Lesson 4; Lesson 5; Lesson 6; Lesson 7; Lesson 8; Lesson 9; Lesson 10; Lesson 11; Lesson 12; Lesson 13.
• Children’s Church Contacts (pdf)

Parent’s Parking:

• Sign up for parking each month using the calendar; reserved for parents with kids only (click “open registrations”)

Every member gets to serve as an usher on a rotating basis. You will receive an email in advance with the schedule so that you can make arrangements accordingly. If you can’t serve on your assigned Sunday, contact Elizabeth with the name of your sub as soon as possible (even months in advance). Your best bet is to try and trade with someone else on that season’s usher schedule (January–April 2012 Usher/Reader Schedule).

Communion Flow Chart:

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Please be at church no later than 4:50pm on Sunday to pick up your bright yellow “usher card” at the Info Table, and your name tag (if you cannot find your name tag, write one on the sticky tags available at the Info Table, and email Rick to get a permanent replacement made).
• If you are assigned to the “middle” right/left aisle for the offering, don’t forget to pass the baskets for your respective side and the middle sections.
• If you are assigned “Headcount,” count the entire congregation’s attendance during the offertory (including pastors, musicians and all people on stage, children, etc) and return your “usher card” with the total written on the back to the Info Table.
• Remember to wear your name tag!
• Carefully look over the assignment sheet you receive in email, consult the Usher & Reader Instructions PDF and contact Elizabeth if you have a question or anything is unclear.

Readers: Serving as a reader is voluntary. Elizabeth will send passages in advance so you can practice. Here’s a helpful pronunciation guide for any tricky words in your passage: http://netministries.org/bbasics/bbwords.htm.

• May-Aug 2010 Usher/Reader Schedule (same as at top of page).
• Usher & Reader Instructions PDF: This PDF has detailed guidelines for ushering – a good read for everyone, but especially for those who’ve never ushered before!

Need A Replacement? We all have those last minute trips out of town that catch us by surprise. It is your responsibility to provide a replacement for yourself and notify the proper person who your replacement will be (Usher? notify: Elizabeth; Nursery? notify: Lisa Moore).

• If you have advanced warning, start by offering to switch Sundays with other people on the schedule. You can consult the Members Directory for contact information, or just reply-all the email you received containing the schedule.
• Email your Community Group! Hopefully someone can stand in for you if you’re really in a jam, then you can arrange a trade after the trip.