As an American historian I take every chance I can to teach students about the various movements within our nation’s history that had a profound impact on American society. Within the late 19th and early 20th Century, there were several Christian organizations and churches that actually used compassion for others to reach them with the gospel of Christ. The earliest of these Christian denominations was The Salvation Army which uses compassion as an evangelical tool for spreading the gospel. The simplest way to explain their evangelism efforts is that the gospel has to have fertile soil – in other words, a broken and ready heart – before it will change a life. It is hard to share the gospel with someone who has real physical needs, such as alcohol or drug dependency issues, homelessness, hunger, or any other physical need. In the late 19th Century, this denomination saw the American city as a missions field often being the only Christian ministry to reach out to what was seen as the bottom of modern American society. The members of the Salvation Army have a long tradition of helping rebuild lives when disasters strike – a tradition that continues in our times.
One of the other Christian organizations was actually a collaborative effort between two Christian denominations – the Congregational Methodists and Baptists – who worked together to create the Lighthouse Homes. These homes were for women and children who had become homeless because of domestic violence, alcoholism, or even the loss of the husband because of industrial accidents. They also saw the importance of showing compassion towards those who had seemingly been forgotten by modern American society. Churches and missionaries worked with these people, often teaching them basic academic skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic to help this group of people rise out of poverty and become self-sufficient. Again, by taking care of the physical needs of others, they were able to gain an opportunity to share their faith in the Lord. Unfortunately, the Lighthouse Home movement would be short-lived because of increasing secularization and the creation of government operated social services and growing tensions between the Baptists and Methodists.
There are literally dozens of more Christian organizations, such as the Pacific Garden Mission, that continues to serve the Lord Jesus through compassion towards others. Just as with the Lighthouse Homes movement and the Salvation Army, it is their desire to allow the compassion Jesus has called them to show as a way to provide the opportunity to reach out with the gospel message. While the Lord does not call all of us to start organizations such as these or to join those that may already exist, He does call all of us to demonstrate His love and show compassion to others. I often wonder if the active demonstration of compassion was one of the things meant by the apostle James when he wrote, Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works (James 2:18). Our compassion should stem from our faith in the Lord. Our faith in the Lord should compel us to demonstrate the love of Christ to others especially when they are hurting. Reach out to someone and make a difference today.
