Is It The Church’s Mission To Do Social Work?

Should your church offer resources for mental & sexual health, & addiction recovery? I respond to objections to the Church doing social work.

Doctor and two volunteers at a table — Hurt people hurt people… But healed people heal people. Photo by Mikhail Nilov: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-in-blue-crew-neck-t-shirt-standing-beside-woman-in-blue-crew-neck-t-shirt-7465700/

Harm Reduction

Two recent articles I wrote about harm reduction generated an interesting comment. What is harm reduction? In my article, “Substance Use Harm Reduction: What Would Jesus Do?” I define harm reduction as “mitigating potential harms caused by risky behaviors.” HealthLink BC explains it further:

Harm reduction is a public health approach to substance use (including alcohol, cannabis, and other substances) and drug policy. The aim of harm reduction is to support the health and well-being of people who use substances. Harm reduction aims to meet people “where they are at”, whether that is active substance use or abstinence.

Harm reduction includes programs and services to lessen the harms related to substance use and drug policy, including blood borne infections, drug poisoning (overdose), criminalization, and stigma. Harm reduction is also an approach to service delivery that prioritizes evidence, human rights, and anti-stigma.

Stigmatizing Individuals

In my article, I write: “Historically, the Evangelical church has not had much to do with harm reduction. Unfortunately, conservative Christians have preoccupied themselves with the dichotomy of righteousness versus sin.” The Church does great harm when it categorizes all unhealthy behaviors as immoral, shameful, and evil. This stigmatizes individuals in need of care.

In my article, I suggest that if Jesus walked our streets today, he would have been a harm reductionist. Refusing to judge others, he would have advocated for them and helped to save their lives. As we face today’s opioid epidemic, we need to be like Jesus and rescue our neighbors. But not everybody agrees. I expected some push-back, and I got some.

I Expected Push-Back

Some people believe that the Church actually does harm if it practices harm reduction. In “Overdose Awareness Day: How Can Your Church Save Lives?” I offer some suggestions for how local congregations can keep people alive long enough to make an eternal difference.

If your church drove its youth group to the beach, chaperones would encourage students to fasten their seat belts, wear life jackets, and apply sunscreen. This is harm reduction. In the same way, your church might consider offering things like free condoms, STI testing, rides to reproductive services across state lines, NARCAN, fentanyl test strips, and gender-affirming care.

When I authored this article, I was aware of the controversy I might start by asking the Church to offer mental health, sexual health, and substance use harm reduction. I expected the comment that I received from one reader.

A Thoughtful Comment

I am grateful to my readers who offer thoughtful comments and feedback. Sometimes, the comments are completely unhelpful. This comment, however, was useful as a writing prompt. I’ll share the entire comment here, then break it down to respond to each section.

Charitable institutions should help and educate. Would you suggest the same agenda is appropriate for public schools?

Congregations as institutions are not designed for some types of social work. Churches are spiritual support ministries.

What you suggest would be a serious distraction to the visible role of the church. Such support ministries need some separation from congregational worship and education. Filling the church building’s hallways with the homeless sounds charitable, but would be a distraction for the members of the congregation.

Your agenda seems too idealistic unless the meeting’s location, services, and agenda are designed for such ministries such as the Union Gospel Mission.

There is the assumption that most members of the congregation are where you are when many are in need of ministry themselves.

Again, I am grateful to the person who commented. Though I will disagree with their points, I am indebted to them for the thoughtful feedback, and for the opportunity to respond in this way.

To Help and Educate

“Charitable institutions should help and educate. Would you suggest the same agenda is appropriate for public schools?”

I agree completely with this opening statement. Part of helping is keeping people alive, and part of educating is making sure that people have the knowledge and information they need to stay alive. Not only would I suggest the same for public schools—I am grateful for those public schools that are doing just this.

Here are a few resources you might want to consider when it comes to harm reduction in public schools:

The commenter is completely right when they say charities should help and educate. Churches and public schools should lead the way in educating not only young people, but adults as well.

Spiritual Support Ministries

“Congregations as institutions are not designed for some types of social work. Churches are spiritual support ministries.”

Again, I agree with the commenter, after a fashion. If churches are institutions, run by committees, and operating as organizations, this may be correct. I know, because I pastored churches for over a quarter-century. Yet, this is not how Jesus viewed the Church, or how it functioned in the New Testament.

The Church is meant to be an organism, not an organization. An organization requires governance, a constitution, rules, and permission either given or withheld. As institutions, most congregations are not equipped to function as branches of the local health department. But as a living organism, the Church can offer harm-reduction techniques and products to save people’s lives. Each member can do their part:

Mrs. Jimenez doesn’t need to be a nurse to keep a bowl at her pew stocked with condoms, available for anyone, without questions.
Rev. Jones doesn’t need to be a psychologist to call Kai by their chosen pronouns.
The custodian doesn’t need to be a social worker to put an “all gender” sign on the restroom.
Deacon Jasmine doesn’t need to be a Substance Use Disorder Professional to set out a display with free fentanyl test strips.

My commenter is right when they say that churches are spiritual support ministries. But this means more than preaching and teaching. Discipling people means meeting them at all aspects of their lives—even those areas where they are at the greatest risk of harm. It would be a mistake to say that churches are only there for spiritual support and not for whole-person support.

A Serious Distraction

What you suggest would be a serious distraction to the visible role of the church. Such support ministries need some separation from congregational worship and education. Filling the church building’s hallways with the homeless sounds charitable, but would be a distraction for the members of the congregation.

As much as I have agreed, at least in part, with my thoughtful commenter, here is where we really part ways. My reader suggests that the primary role of the Church is worship and education. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Here are a couple of important points:

If the Church is to fashion its mission after Jesus, then its primary role is to sit at table with people, share tasty food and drink with them, enjoy life with them, and help them to understand God’s limitless love and grace. Yet, the institutional church values institutional things, measuring its success by attendance numbers at worship and Sunday school. If worship and teaching happen, they should be a matter of course as we do life together, not the primary focus.
My writer assumes that “the homeless” (we really should try people-first language here) are the only ones who could benefit from harm reduction. They have not considered the hidden addictions, active sexuality, and real behavioral health issues that members of the congregation might have.
Jesus told the self-righteous people, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.” Much like Jesus’s audience, my reader eschews the idea that the church building’s hallways would be packed with dirty people. But if Jesus has his way, the Church should be all about these people, with regular parishioners standing on the edges, applauding. This is the mission of the church!

A Rabbit Trail

Your agenda seems too idealistic unless the meeting’s location, services, and agenda are designed for such ministries such as the Union Gospel Mission.

I’ll give my commenter credit because they do not know me. If they’ve read my profile, they know I work in an urban setting with people experiencing homelessness. What they don’t know is the rural setting of my pastoral career. Because of the diversity of my two career settings, I am fully aware that to some extent, the type of ministry you do is determined by real estate—location, location, location!

I will also grant that when I served churches in rural Virginia, my churches had little to do with the homeless population. Mainly, because there were few people around us that most would consider traditionally homeless. There were no city streets with unhoused individuals sleeping in doorways.

Yet, others who meet HUD’s definition of homelessness lived in RVs without connection to power, water, and sewer. Still others couch-surfed from place to place, with no home of their own. So, homelessness does exist in rural areas. Sometimes it is just invisible.

But this rabbit trail is the real distraction because it confuses homelessness with the need for harm reduction. As I said before, “good (read that as seemingly righteous) church members” are also in need of harm reduction services.

Many Need Ministry

There is the assumption that most members of the congregation are where you are when many are in need of ministry themselves.

In this comment, my reader assumes my assumptions. In fact, I do not assume that most members of the congregation are where I am, on this issue. This is the precise reason for my articles about harm reduction—to convince those who aren’t where I am, of the need. If my readers already agreed, then these articles would not challenge them. In fact, just as pastors should presume that not all church members see things their way, writers should do the same.

As I conclude this article, I must return to a point of agreement with my commenter. Yes, yes, yes—many in the church need ministry themselves! I am not suggesting that every church member become a social worker to reach out to unsheltered individuals (though, some should!). I am suggesting that the Church should first minister to the harm reduction needs of its own members. There are many more of these needs than “good Christians” would presume, just by looking on the surface. After that, I am suggesting that the Church care for the community at large.

Is It the Church’s Mission to Do Social Work?

In chapter four of Luke’s Gospel, we read about Jesus returning to his hometown. Here, he declares his own mission, and that of the Church that would assume his call.

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

    because he has anointed me

        to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

    and recovery of sight to the blind,

        to set free those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

So, to my commenter, I will say, yes—it is the Church’s mission to do social work. Jesus declared it to be his mission, so it’s the Church’s mission as well. It’s been said that “hurt people hurt people.” Trauma breeds more trauma. But it’s also true that “healed people heal people.” If the Gospel has any power to transform individuals, then it’s the responsibility of those healed individuals to reach out and heal others.