The Hole in our Gospel

I just finished reading one of the most difficult books I've ever taken on. It is not for the "faint of heart." The author is Richard Stearns, president of World Vision U.S. since 1998. The title is The Hole in our Gospel. The idea behind the book is that American Christians must get beyond their insulated, isolated church buildings and Bible studies. They must get beyond themselves and genuinely, tangibly care for the rest of the world in Jesus' name.

Having spent time in the third world again earlier this year, I found that his descriptions are all too true. The issues of disease, famine, poverty, lack of education and spiritual darkness are all too real. The book challenges readers to step beyond feeling bad for the poor or simply changing the channel when the images come on the television screen. We must give and we can go and we all can pray. Let me share a few paragraphs from a concluding chapter. I challenge you to pick up a copy of the book and prayerfully read it.

Stearns challenges, "When historians look back in one hundred years, what will they write about this nation of 340,000 churches? What will they say of the Church's response to the great challenges of our time--AIDS, poverty, hunger, terrorism, war? Will they say that these authentic Christians rose up courageously and responded to the tide of human suffering, that they rushed to the front lines to comfort the afflicted and to douse the flames of hatred? Will they write of an unprecedented outpouring of generosity to meet the urgent needs of the world's poor? Will they speak of the moral leadership and compelling vision of our leaders? Will they write that this, the beginning of the twenty-first century, was the Church's finest hour?

Or will they look back and see a Church too comfortable, insulated from the pain of the rest of the world, empty of compassion, and devoid of deeds? Will they write about people who stood by and watched while a hundred million died of AIDS and fifty million children were orphaned, of Christians who lived in luxury and self-indulgence while millions died for lack of food and water? Will school children read in disgust about a Church that had the wealth to build great sanctuaries but lacked the will to build schools, hospitals, and clinics? In short, will we be remembered as the Church with a gaping hole in it's gospel?..." (p. 238-239).