The Gospel What exactly is "Outreach"? Why is it important? These days, you see Churches and Christian groups sending out and supporting missionaries to every corner of the globe, having local ministries and people standing on corners handing out pamphlets and talking about the need to repent of your sins. A lot of humanitarian efforts have been undertaken by Christians, and you could be naturally curious as to why they give their time money and resources to causes like that. Or you could be like me and have a preconceived notion about it and choose not to explore it further. Myself, I've taken it for granted for the majority of my life that these actions are just a means to an end, to spread the "Good News" that Jesus loves you and if you believe in what he says you'll receive eternal life. The whole thing about sending medical help to foreign countries is about getting your foot in the door in order to proselyte and convert people so they'll go to heaven. I've been wrong and limited in my vision for the great majority of my life. Doing more reading about what this concept of outreach is, it has changed the way I think about Christianity and what it really means to do those things. If you go back to the beginning of the bible (and the world), you see and understand that God created the earth, made everything in it, and saw at that moment that what he had made was good (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). Man and woman were placed in the world to care for His creation, to love Him and express that in thought and heart, but also by taking care of his possessions (Gen. 1:28-29, 2:15). Man was given the capacity for individual thought, and was happy to do God's bidding, caring for the world and everything in it. Everything that was perfect, that was new and beautiful, as was intended. In a nutshell He asked man to worship him and take care of the world. It was the purpose of Adam and Eve's existence, it is the purpose of their descendants, to put our efforts into making the world a better place than we found it, to worship the Lord by tending to everything under the sun. Yet Adam and Eve chose to disobey this command, giving into their own idea of what they thought was best and thinking for themselves in the sense that they didn't think that the creator of the world knew better than them (Gen. 3:11-19). God was disappointed and punished their disobedience by forcing them to have to work for their living, breaking the relationships between God and Man, man and nature. God wanted man to recognize their fault, to return them to their original place, and chose Israel as a vehicle to restore that broken relationship, to show the world that God was at work, in order to convince man that there is something more rewarding to working towards making God's world better, towards believing in God (Gen 12:1-3, Exodus 23:23-33, Joshua 1: 1-6, 1 Kings 4:20-28). So many initiatives and programs have been put into place in our lives in order for us to be able to give of ourselves in order to "make the world a better place". Yet, while God does seek for the world to be changed, he seeks for the hearts of those he Loves (all of us) to be changed even more. That we do these things is a good thing, but that we are motivated to do them to serve God takes on greater significance in the sense that we realize that we're putting aside our selfish rationalizing to repair the broken relationships between God and man, Man and the Earth. Still, Israel as a nation had many problems with God, and ended up doing God?s work in their lips and hands, but not their hearts and beliefs. God, seeking for us to realize our faults and our selfishness (sinfulness), chose to send his Son (Jesus) to be an example of that. For a large part of His earthly ministry, He talked about God?s Kingdom (Matthew 18, 19,20, Mark 4:1-34, etc.). It has been described as something metaphysical and abstract, but He insisted that God?s kingdom is here. This world. In the healing of countless people, in the miracles being done on earth. Everything in the world is God's creation, and our duty to maintain. Jesus was a man, but did not think for himself: everything was directed to God and his service, the flawless example of what we as humans should be. Jesus and his death were a sign of the age to come. This age is that that we, not as Israelites, but as people, if we believe in God and his Love and devotion to us, are able to restore our relationship to God (with His help, of course. See Matthew 22:34-40, John 21:15-19, the Book of Acts) Being a Christian is expressed in loving God in our hearts and through our actions, doing things, not for us, but to restore God?s kingdom, to be an impetus for change in the lives of others, in the environment, in social issues, in our economy, in politics. No matter what we do, what we eat or drink, it's for God's glory (1 Corinthians 10:31). We are doing this by reaching out, to give of ourselves not for ourselves. It's belief in action. It's for God. --Ken Tang, Outreach Coordinator

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