We Are a Matthew 25 Church

This call encourages churches to live out one of Jesus’ final teachings on discipleship found in the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew 25:31-46 may be a familiar passage to many. It calls all of us to be actively engaged in the world around us, displaying our faith through our actions and how we treat our neighbors. Briefly, it tells of Jesus praising those who in life had shown him compassion by feeding him, giving him water, welcoming him, clothing him, caring for him when he was sick, and visiting him in prison. Shocked, the righteous do not remember doing any of these things for Jesus, to which he replies, “I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these siblings of mine, you have done it for me.”

These words from Matthew 25 serve as our guiding call: serving others IS serving Christ.
 

Being a Matthew 25 church involves more than just serving our neighbors. It invites us to ask the question “Why?” Why is there such a great need in our community? Why do hundreds of people need to visit our Community Pantry every month to get help with groceries? Why do so many of our neighbors depend on the Salvation Army’s Matthew 25 Café or the Food of Faith ministry to get a hot meal? How can Sleep in Heavenly Peace build 60+ beds every month and still not have enough to fulfill every request for a bed? Being a Matthew 25 church invites us to ask the “why” question, to learn about systemic, generational poverty and structural racism, and follow it up with, “What am I going to do about it?”
 

Compassion. Reflection. Action. That’s what being a Matthew 25 church is about. That’s what Westminster is about.