Not Just a Soup Kitchen is for churches that are desperately seeking answers on how to do diaconal ministry effectively. It is also for anyone who works with people ordinarily stigmatized and not welcomed in churches. The book deals with the fears many have of coming alongside those in need, and chronicles stories about homeless and addicted men and women, nursing home residents, prison inmates, and others, while providing a user-friendly guide to establishing relationships.

 
Today, so many churches are comfortable following the practice of previous generations that didn’t involve themselves in ministries of mercy. Many today are fearful of thinking “outside of the box” and lack vision and biblical direction. In 1983, one small group at Tenth Presbyterian Church in downtown Philadelphia challenged that same attitude and subsequently many others caught the vision. Wanting to feed the hungry, they asked the question, “How can our ministry be different from a soup kitchen?” Because of their actions, lives have been transformed and captives have been set free–both those outside the church and those in the pews. What would your church look like if you did the same? 

I came to salvation in Christ as a college freshman. This was through the mercy ministry of a Paterson, New Jersey inner-city church plant. Their leaders and members were passionate in their outreach to sinners like me. 

Today, I don’t see the same zeal in church, whether urban or suburban. Whenever I consult with church leaders on diaconal and mercy ministry I hear reports of deacons and churches not being equipped for the word and deed ministry to which they are assigned. The questions I receive from them are always the same: “What do I do in this situation? How much do I give and when do I stop? How do I deal with difficult people? How do I avoid burn out? How do I partner evangelism and mercy?” And more.  Not Just a Soup Kitchen: How Mercy Ministry Transforms us All (publication date, September 9) is written to answer these and other questions. This work is the product of fifteen years’ personal diaconal experience, over twenty-five years directing Tenth Presbyterian Church’s Mercy Ministry, and my life’s story.

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