爱哪些不可爱和被遗弃的人

寻找同路人

爱哪些不可爱和被遗弃的人        

                                                                                       

祷告聚会当时已经结束了，一小群第十长老会的教会成员正裹好外套准备回家。他们正往前走的当儿，突然被蜷缩在教堂的台阶上盖着毯子的肿块挡住去路。在教会里，他们在祷告中与神相交，而与此同时在教会外，神的一个孩子正忍受着严寒的痛苦。一个教会成员转向另一个说，“我们需要对此做点什么。”（摘自《有所作为的教会》，第33页）

这就是当初ACTS事工如何在费城第十长老会教会开始的。第十长老会的信徒们看到需要并且对此回应。自1985年开始，ACTS（译注：ACTS是“藉着服事激发怜悯”的缩写，而圣经使徒行传英文名也是ACTS）开始给无家可归的人、瘾君子、艾滋病患者、监狱囚犯和他们的孩子，养老院里的人、离婚和分居者，以及有特殊需要的人传福音，提供团契和款待。ACTS有一个领薪水的全时间工作者和200多名志愿者，他们来自第十长老会以及其他地区的教会。

第十长老会向外拓展的对象是最临近的社区，以及费城更大范围，通过解经讲道（网络直播：www.tenth.org）、小组、基督教教育、校园事工、本地及海外宣教事工、植堂、国际学生事工和慈惠事工等拓展。第十长老会的公告牌上写着：“致所有精神疲倦寻求安息的人，致所有在哀痛中寻求安慰的人；致所有经历挣扎渴望得胜的人；致所有犯罪却需要救主的人；致所有需要团契的陌生人；致所有饥渴慕义的人；无论谁来——这间教会敞开她的大门，奉主耶稣基督的名欢迎您。”

第十长老会的“门户开放政策”鼓励了为许多被视为讨厌的、不可爱的、不值得的人创造出安全、好客的空间。就这样，第十长老会的慈惠事工成为了世人提供善行的另一种方案。

没有不传福音的怜悯

此外，第十长老会认为没有不传福音的怜悯。其他人可能会做善事，但第十长老会优先向每个人指向一切怜悯的源头——耶稣基督。

举个例子。第十长老会为那些无家可归或贫穷的人提供社区晚餐。但它不是那种救济的流动厨房，人们进来抢个托盘，盛好食物就坐下赶紧吃，然后离开。相反，我们先招待客人们礼拜，然后再一起享用餐厅式的用餐，我们事工的团队精心地把食物准备得富有美感，然后由教会的青年们来服务。每桌都有位基督徒主持，友好且指向福音的谈话，并且邀请客人们来崇拜及查经。我们一位无家可归的邻居说：“来第十长老会听道，然后吃顿好的，比去其他提供垃圾食品却重温空虚的地方要感觉好也很坦诚。”

事工原则：良善、平实坦诚的感觉

我们事工的原则是良善、平实坦诚：来露面、参与活动、建立关系，并且给人希望。神会做其余的事，从安妮、摩西和弗兰克的生命中就能看出来。

有个主日安妮感觉不舒服，缺席了我们疗养院的敬拜。后来她在房间附近看到敬拜带领弟兄时就叫他：“我今天没参加成。今天讲道都讲了些什么？”带领的弟兄问他可否进她的房间，并为她复述了整个讲道。当他结束时，安妮说她想接受耶稣作她的救主。他们一起祷告，她请求耶稣做她的救主和生命的主。

摩西曾是个无家可归的瘾君子，在第十长老会附近的小巷里露宿。我们中有位信徒和他谈了几个月，为他带三明治。她也邀请他参加ACTS事工面向无家可归之人的团契查经。在经历了“厌倦了成为疲倦且生病的人”的成长后，摩西最终来到查经班，几年后他获得了他真正需要的帮助。他已经得清洁并且灵里苏醒过来，恢复了与妻子及家人的关系，在基督里成了新造的人，到如今已有12个年头。

囚犯弗兰克是个新信徒，他定期参加ACTS的监狱查经，刚刚被判处23年有期徒刑。他曾希望获得减刑，并愤怒自己要蹲这么久的监狱。然后神用他给同样沮丧的另一个犯人带来救恩。弗兰克风趣地对查经班带领人说：“现在我知道神为什么把我关在里面了——带给人家好消息。”

力求容易执行，并且可复制

ACTS事工力求事工对志愿者来说是容易执行的，并且在城市或郊区的大小教会是可以复制建立的。我们帮其他教会发展了新的事工，并制订了合乎圣经的让成员发挥其恩赐的规范。我们还帮助其他教会涉足他们的社区，建立关系，并在当地的学校、图书馆、医院、退休和养老院，以及其他地方带来希望。

复制我们的事工要求不高。很多时候只需要问些正确的问题。我们可以和谁一起？有什么机会能表明我们教会的关注？我们可以去哪儿看顾“在患难中的孤儿寡妇”（雅1:27）

通常是和社区领导人（“把关人”） 联系并且问他或她，“我们能为你们做些什么？” 神会信实地打开大门，带领后面的道路。

慈惠事工并非必须做大

慈惠事工并非必须做大。它可大可小——没有什么服事是小的。慈惠事工可以根据需要量身定做。所以为它祷告，投入其中，并且信靠神。然后看着它成长。


Loving the Unlovely and Unwanted

The prayer meeting had ended, and a small group of Tenth Presbyterian Church members were bundling up in their coats to go home. They were about to step around the lump of blanket huddled on the church steps when something stopped them short. Here they had been in God’s presence in prayer, while right outside the church was one of God’s children, suffering in the cold. One member turned to another and said, “We need to do something about that.” (from Churches That Make a Difference, 33)

That is how ACTS Ministries started here at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. Tenth members saw a need and responded, and since 1985 ACTS (Active Compassion Through Service) has provided evangelism, fellowship, and hospitality to homeless persons, drug addicts, people with AIDS, prison inmates and their children, nursing home residents, divorced and separated individuals, and people with special needs. ACTS has one full-time paid staff person and over 200 volunteer staff from Tenth and other area churches.

Tenth’s outreach is to its immediate neighborhood, and also to greater Philadelphia and beyond through expository preaching (webcast on www.tenth.org), small groups, Christian education, campus ministry, local and overseas missionary endeavors, church planting, international student work, and mercy ministry. Tenth’s bulletin states: “To all who are spiritually weary and seek rest; to all who mourn and long for comfort; to all who struggle and desire victory; to all who sin and need a Savior; to all who are strangers and want fellowship; to all who hunger and thirst after righteousness; and to whoever will come—this church opens wide her doors and offers her welcome in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Tenth’s “open-door policy” has encouraged the creation of safe, hospitable space for many considered unwanted, unlovely, or unworthy. In this way, Tenth’s mercy ministry is an alternative to what the world provides.

NO MERCY WITHOUT EVANGELISM

Further, Tenth believes there is no mercy without evangelism. Others may do good works, but Tenth’s priority is pointing everyone to the source of all mercy—Jesus Christ.

Here is an example. Tenth provides a community dinner for those who are homeless or poor. But it is not a soup kitchen where people enter, grab a tray with food, sit, eat quickly, and leave. Instead, we welcome our guests to a service and afterward dine together, restaurant-style, with dinner elegantly prepared by our ministry team and served by the church’s youth. Each table has Christian hosts who provide friendly, gospel-oriented conversation and invitations to worship and Bible study. According to one of our homeless neighbors, “It just makes good plain sense to come to Tenth to hear the Word and be fed a good meal rather than revisit the emptiness and junk food offered elsewhere.”

MINISTRY PRINCIPLES: GOOD, PLAIN SENSE

The principles of our ministry are also good, plain sense: show up, get involved, establish relationships, and offer hope. God will do the rest, as seen in the lives of Annie, Moses, and Frank.

One Sunday Annie was not feeling well and missed our nursing home worship. Later when she saw the worship leader near her room, she called to him, “I couldn’t attend. What was today’s sermon about?” The leader asked if he could come into her room, and he repeated the entire sermon to her. When he finished, Annie said that she wanted to accept Jesus as her savior. They prayed together and she asked Jesus to be her Savior and Lord.

Moses was homeless, drug-addicted, and slept in an alleyway near Tenth. For several months one of our members talked to him and would often bring him a sandwich. She also invited him to attend Fellowship Bible Study, an ACTS ministry to homeless persons. After growing “sick and tired of being sick and tired,” Moses finally came to the Bible study and over a few years he received the help he really needed. He has been clean and sober, restored to his wife and family, and a new creature in Christ for twelve years now.

Inmate Frank, a new believer who regularly attended ACTS’ prison Bible study, had just received a twenty-three year sentence. He had hoped for a reduced sentence and was angry that he would be incarcerated for so long. Then God used him to bring salvation to another inmate who was equally discouraged. With an interesting look on his face Frank said to the Bible study leader, “Now I know why God is keeping me inside—to bring good news.”

SEEKING TO BE USER-FRIENDLY AND REPRODUCIBLE

ACTS Ministries seeks to make ministry user-friendly for its volunteers, and also to make it reproducible in urban or suburban settings and in large or small churches. We have helped other churches develop new ministries and have crafted a biblical paradigm for the use of members’ gifts. We have also helped other churches get involved in their communities, establish relationships, and offer hope in local schools, libraries, hospitals, retirement and nursing homes, and elsewhere.

Reproducing our ministry model requires little. Many times it simply requires asking the right questions. Who can we come alongside? What opportunities are there to show that our church cares? Where can we visit “orphans and widows in their distress” (Jas. 1:27)?

What usually follows is making contact with a community leader (the “gatekeeper”) and asking him or her, “How can we help you?” God, in his faithfulness, will open doors and help with the next steps.

MERCY MINISTRY DOESN’T HAVE TO BE BIG

Mercy ministry doesn’t have to be big. It can be any size—there is no small service. And mercy ministry can be tailored to fit any context. So pray for it, work at it, trust God for it. And then, as Tenth did with ACTS Ministries, watch it grow.

作者：David Apple

David Apple自1988年以来一直带领费城第十长老会慈惠事工。

翻译肢体：张金星

来自群组: 金灯台团契分享组