Would you rather give an African clean water or save his soul?

We say of course that salvation is more important, but our money says differently.

D.A. Carson’s recent research, for example, shows that American Christians spend five times more money on poverty relief efforts than on evangelism and church planting.

“Shocked that their fellow citizens are labeling them unloving and intolerant, and naively hoping to regain the cultural acceptance of a generation past, many evangelicals are hitching their wagon to the rising star of social involvement. Social action is safe. It avoids the scandal of the gospel. It allows churches to be active and to be accepted by the world. It’s the new pragmatism: the gospel needs a lead-in because it will never succeed by itself.” (Joel James and Brian Biedebach, Missionaries to Africa)

We’re not going to Papua New Guinea to liberate women, fight poverty, dig a well, save the orphans. We’re going to preach Christ. And believe it or not, the gospel still works separate from any other attachment.

“But people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care!”

Exactly. What better way to show someone you care than by caring for their eternal soul rather than the remaining 40 years of their life on a decaying earth?

We’ve got something way better than clean water to offer the poor. We have the living water.

I have yet to see one Christian ask for donations on facebook for their birthday (and since when is that even a thing?) to an evangelistic effort. Where your money is is where your heart is. And where your heart is is your treasure. When did it fall out of love with its first love, the gospel?