The Christian Imagination

When I’m around church people, I always check whether they are misled by the modern secular vision. Have they substituted the vision of service for the only thing that will make people whole—community? Are they service peddlers or community builders? Peddling services is unchristian—even if you’re hellbent on helping people. Peddling services instead of building communities is the one way you can be sure not to help…. Service systems teach people that their value lies in their deficiencies. They are built on “inadequacies” called illiteracy, visual deficit, and teenage pregnancy. But communities are built on the capacities of drop-out, illiterate, bad-scene, teenage-pregnant, battered women…. If the church is about community—not service—it’s about capacity not deficiency (1989:38,40)

That’s a quote from John McKnight. It resonates with me. Any comments?

McKnight, John. “Why ‘Servanthood’ is Bad.” The Other Side:38-40, January-February 1989.

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3. Building Community Through Service
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