When you think of mercy ministry in the Scriptures, stories of an individual meeting Christ often come to mind—the blind man calling out for mercy, the Syro-Phoenician woman begging for her daughter to be healed, or the widow in Nain having her son raised. The story of one person or family experiencing the mercy of Christ gives a focal point to God’s glory. The resultant power emanating from this person’s changed life can minister beyond that individual in incredible ways.

I should know. God used one such man to impact both our entire congregation and me.

The Story of Bill

Years ago as a young pastor, I nervously entered the chapel of the Kokomo Rescue Mission to begin a Bible study. The dilapidated building had the musty aroma, missing plaster, and dim lighting one might expect in a ministry to the poor. Around the crooked table sat a dozen men with tattered Bibles. As numbers go, the study was not very successful. Within a few weeks the attendance had dwindled to one guy named Bill.

Bill was in his late fifties when we met and was a classic hobo. He had lived under bridges and railroad cars for many years before coming to the mission. He drank and smoked heavily, his rough voice created by the four to five packs of cigarettes he smoked each day. He was the “ragman,” taking the mission’s donated clothing unfit for resale, cutting it into square cloths, then bundling it for local factories to use for rags. Bill gruffly answered my questions and declined my early invitations to church. Yet as the weeks went by, Bill’s heart softened.

Eventually Bill responded to the gospel from the ministry of Ron Visser, the men’s director at the mission, deacon in our congregation, and the man who had arranged the study.

Bill visited church, and then began attending regularly. He professed publicly that “he had been taken from the pit and set on the Rock” and joined the church. He started showing love. The children would often get some candy or a small toy from Bill on their birthdays.

Over the years Bill drew the whole church together, especially as we watched the effects of his hard living and diabetes ravage his body. He first lost toes, and then had to have a leg amputated. Deacons carried him in his wheelchair up the stairs for worship. Families visited him at his new apartment, bringing him groceries, cleaning his place, and coordinating his appointments. Bill eventually had to have his other leg removed. The church oversaw his finances and attended to him when he was moved to a nursing home. When he nearly died twice within a few weeks, his family in Christ stood by his intensive-care bedside reading Scriptures and praying. Once, when he was transferred to Lafayette and hovering near death, the nurses there told me a large group of students from Purdue, hearing about Bill, had visited and filled the halls of the hospital with beautiful psalm singing. Incredibly, Bill recovered.

As Bill had struggled in expressing trust in Christ during this time, I believe the Lord gave him more time to renew his confidence and make him heaven-ready. One time in the 18-month period between these illnesses and his sudden death in 2009, he and I were sitting outside the nursing home on a beautiful, sunny day. I was reading 1 John 1 to him. A lady who knew him walked by and, picking up what I was reading, asked, “Bill, are you walking in the light?” Looking down at his wheelchair, Bill responded, “Naw, I’m rolling in the light!”

If a church’s efforts in mercy are used by God to impact only one person, that is not a trite matter. It will change the entire congregation. Helping an individual or family makes mercy ministry directed and focused. Most importantly, being involved personally in the life of another shows we are taking seriously our worship when we gather each Lord’s Day.

The Other Regulative Principle of Worship

Reformed Presbyterians are known as those who believe, rightly, that there is a biblical principle that regulates our worship. The regulative principle of worship states that as we worship we must take great care to do only as the Bible commands.

However, we must also remember that worship is to regulate us! Biblical commands exist which insist that, when we worship, our behavior is being examined by the Lord Himself. We might call that the “other regulative principle of worship” for, as we worship, we must take great care to do for the needy as the Bible commands. We should pray this is what we are known for as well.

God’s Word states this plainly. James 1:27 describes living faith and true worship in this manner: “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” The psalmist reminds us, “God takes His stand in His own congregation; He judges in the midst of the rulers. How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Vindicate the weak and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and destitute. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them out of the hand of the wicked” (Ps. 82:1-4).

This weekly testing of God’s people as they worship on the Lord’s Day is preparation for the final judgment on the great day of the Lord. When Christ comes in glory, He will separate the sheep from the goats. By what means will He determine if a person’s faith was true or not? To the righteous He will say, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me….Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me” (Matt. 25:34-36, 40). Notice the Lord’s emphasis is on caring for individual people in particular situations.

For those who sing psalms because of belief in the regulative principle, we cannot escape this “other” regulative principle as we do. Woven right into the fabric of the Psalms are calls to remember the poor, echoes of the laws God gave to Israel and prescribes to His church. The church sings of God’s love in delivering us from slavery.:

He remembered us when low,

For His steadfast love endures.

Gave deliv’rance from our foe,

For His steadfast love endures.

—Psalm 136A, Stanza 6, The Book of Psalms for Worship

We praise and follow the God who cares for the widow and orphan:

His name is Lord! Be joyful in His presence.

He is a Father to the fatherless,

A judge who helps the widow’s cause;

God is within His house of holiness.

—Psalm 68A, Stanza 3

We are the ones whose hearts are to beat with God’s compassion for the destitute in society:

He will always render justice

For the sake of those oppressed.

He gives food to those who hunger,

Satisfies their emptiness.

Captive ones the Lord releases,

To the blind the Lord gives sight;

Those brought low the Lord will lift up,

He relieves them from their plight.

—Psalm 146A, Stanza 3

We are even to call on God for justice against those who are cruel and hurt the weak and helpless (see Psalms 9 and 94). So what are some practical steps you can take so that your congregational worship leads your local body to serving the poor?

Five Practical Steps in Developing Mercy Ministry

1. As you come into worship, heighten your awareness that God is examining your heart’s intent regarding care for the distressed (Ps. 82:1-2; Matt.25:31-46; Jas. 2:14-17). If our worship is not prompting us to express love for the hurting around us, we are not truly worshiping. Indeed, according to James, we need to make sure our faith is alive and not dead.

2. Never forget the poverty of your own spiritual state (Ps. 34:6; 40:17; 68:10; 69:29; 70:5; 86:1; 109:22; Matt. 5:3). The streetwise can smell an insincere Christian a mile away. Seeing your own needy soul is the chief way you identify with the poor. Being sure to confess sincerely your own sin is not only an issue between you and God, but between you and people.

3. Ensure that the rich and poor worship and fellowship on equal ground (Ps. 49:1-2; 72:9-14; Jas. 2:1-10). When the poor visit the church, be sure they are welcomed and treated as anyone else. I love the way our ruling elders, despite being higher on the socioeconomic ladder, do such things as intentionally sit with the poor at fellowship lunches and spend personal time with them during the week.

4. Equip the saints to meet the great needs of the poor (Ps. 12:3-6; 41:1-2; 101:7-8; Matt. 5:6). When I became overwhelmed as a church planter by the needs of the people we were helping, though I knew little of what I was doing, I began a four-month preaching series on ministering to the poor. The day of the very first message, Ron Visser, starting his new job at the mission, visited with his family. What a sign to us of God’s desire for our church to grow and learn how to do such ministry! Though I cannot promise this result, God will honor the efforts elders and deacons make to train the congregation in mercy ministry.

5. Open your home and life in hospitality to the needy (Ps. 112:9; Luke 14:12-14). Such a simple thing as a meal around your table is a wonderful expression of the love of God. One of our deacons, Robert Jones, has been led to go even further. Robert becomes the friend to many homeless men through such things as outdoor sports and camping trips. He has then developed a small leatherwork business and opened up a room of his home for homeless men to learn work skills and/or to live.

In a setting of a local congregation in worship, Jesus said He came to “proclaim good news to the poor” (Luke 4:18). Hopefully in your local worship setting, your congregation is demonstrating faith in the gospel Jesus preached and lived.

—Barry York is pastor of Sycamore (Kokomo, Ind.) RPC and professor-elect of the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary.