Let’s be honest, Christianity doesn’t have a great “popular” image in our country.
Whenever a high-profile church, denomination or pastor messes up, it becomes national news. When was the last time you can remember the church, a pastor, or Christianity in general being portrayed in television, books or movies in a positive light?
However, let’s consider for a moment what our country would look like without the impact of Christians and Christianity.
According to the Liberty Journal, in an article by Dr.
Roger Schultz; “Puritans established Harvard College in 1636, shortly after arriving in Massachusetts Bay. Harvard’s mission statement, given in 1642, was clearly evangelical: ‘Everyone shall consider as the main end of his life and studies, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life.
John 17:3.’ The Harvard motto, from 1650, emphasized its core Christian commitment: ‘In Christi Gloriam’ (‘For the glory of Christ’). Over long decades, conservative Puritan ministers served as Harvard’s presidents.
“Almost all Ivy League institutions had similar beginnings. They were established by conservative Connecticut Congregationalists (Yale), pro-Awakening New Jersey Presbyterians (Princeton), devout Rhode Island Baptists (Brown), and mission-minded New Hampshire evangelicals (Dartmouth). These schools shared common commitments to the authority of the Word of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the need for a Christian influence in society.”
Moving on, many hospitals like our local Mercy Hospitals began as Christian ministries.
Children’s homes like the Missouri Baptist Children’s Homes care for kids who are orphaned, displaced or homeless. Homes for the aged, originally known as “almshouses” and later as “old-age homes” that cared for the old, poor, disabled, orphaned, alcoholics and more, were primarily operated by charitable Christian groups.
Soup kitchens and homeless ministries are other examples of the church quietly and selflessly addressing the needs of their day where God had placed them.
For all those who hate all things Christian, I would simply ask you to consider where our nation would be today if it were not for Christian people through the ages who saw needs and sought to meet them.
I certainly cannot speak for all pastors or churches, but I can speak for many of the ones I work with locally and even though we are not perfect places filled with perfect people, we still try to make our world a better place by meeting the spiritual, emotional, and physical needs not only of our own flocks but of those who come to us for help.
The next time you are tempted to “throw the baby out with the bathwater” and lump all Christians, pastors, churches, or Christianity together because of the actions of a few or one, remember that there are many wonderfully imperfect churches out there quietly trying to carry on the work of Jesus Christ as He commissioned us to do. You might want to consider trying one out for yourself. It’s at least something to think about.
Source: https://www.liberty. edu/journal/article/christianity- and-the-american-university/.
James Weaver is the pastor of First Baptist Church, located at 602 West St. in Cassville. He may be reached at 417-847-2965 or info@fbccassville.org.
