I sense a growing interest among the Church to find new ways to integrate both sides of the “Gospel Coin”—the Great Commission and the Great Commandment.  New wineskins are developing as the church, para-church, government and non-profit worlds look for ways to work together.  Unfortunately, when it comes to ministries of mercy and empowerment, misinformed interventions can do more harm than good.  How can the broader Church be involved in effectively addressing issues of justice, mercy and poverty alleviation?  How can organizations focused on these issues support the work of making disciples by partnering with churches?

We at MinistrySpotlight.org have been working to provide short summary information on different “industries” within development to help individuals and churches understand how to address global needs.  Our approach thus far has been to equip people with examples of best and shoddy practice, examples of how it can support the spread of the Gospel, examples of how it can do harm, and questions to ask organizations.  In our first foray into Clean Water, for example, we have built a site (http://givetowater.org) to host information and discussion on Clean Water and the 87 organizations identified in the space.  The attached document provides some of these tools.

Is this information helpful to you as a church or ministry leader?  On which topics would you be interested in seeing more information?  How do you think institutional churches are best partnered with ministries and organizations focused on issues of mercy and justice?