Beware the needs-meeting church!

There is a much quoted adage that ‘wherever there is a need there is the Salvation Army’. And there can be little doubt that this observation is intended to be complimentary, indicating a virtuous capacity for response. But is need-meeting all it’s cracked up to be? Or should we, as a Movement, as individuals, at times be a little more discerning?

Ann Morisy in offering a ‘new approach to Christian mission’ certainly suggests so when she warns of ‘the distraction of a needs-meeting perspective’.

According to Morisy ‘when a church or a project gets caught up in a needs-meeting perspective it puts the Church and the congregation in a position of superiority. Those ‘out there’ are the ones in need, whilst those within the Church have the capacity to help’.

While this may well be a limited caricature, it is undoubtedly true that needs-meeting as an aim must imply that those who are needy are in some way deficit, whilst competence and resourcefulness are retained in the hands of the helper. Of course the Gospel with its propensity to invert everyday assumptions will have none of this – and neither should we. Rather we should seek to imitate Jesus’ own example and up-end the taken-for-granted pattern of giving and receiving.

As Ann Morisy herself warns, 'unless we can free ourselves from the liberal mantra of needs meeting, we may miss the real blessings and gracefulness associated with journeying out – without the expectation of being able to meet people’s need’.

As with all prophetic voices we ignore Morisy’s counsel at our peril.