Mercy Ministry Principles
Mercy Ministry should be motivated by our understanding of God’s grace and the gospel which results in adoration and gratitude to God and the desire to serve our Father through serving/loving others.
Christ’s mercy for us was not based on worthiness… our mercy to others should also not be based on worthiness.
Our outpouring of generosity to others should be based on the undeserving mercy/grace that we received.
Mercy ministry is our opportunity of being the “hands and feet of Jesus” through deeds, compassion, support for others.
Humility is a core principle in what we do. We are not doing this for attention, recognition, to make ourselves feel better, to look better in God’s eyes. It is not about us, it is about Him. “We love because he first loved us.” He was amazingly generous to us so we choose generosity to others.
Scripture calls us (not optional) to care for the vulnerable, marginalized, poor, widows, immigrants and orphans. Jesus talked about this repeatedly. Every human being is created in and bears the image of God and deserves human dignity. We help to provide that dignity.
Much of the work of the diaconate is to provide relief to someone in need with the ultimate objective of them achieving self sufficiency.
“Faith without works is dead”. You can’t just love people through words and evangelism and ignore meeting their practical and material needs through deeds. That is why the diaconate and what we do is so important to the church. You can’t separate the Word from deeds. Mercy is a mandated work of the church just as the ministry of the Word.