How to minister to the poor

  

If you feel the call of God to minister to the downcast, the poor, the abused and addicted, here is some invaluable advice. 

"If I  had time I might suggest several rules or cautions, particularly needed when ministering with the poor, abused, addicted and downcast. But I will offer only one or two suggestions. In one important respect your work is different from the common ministry, that is, in the distribution of your time. Your life is to be spent, not in a retired study, but very much in visits from house to house; and this has its advantages. It will bring you near to the poor, and awaken your sympathies with them, and acquaint you with their needs, and give them a confidence in your attachment which will open their hearts to listen and share.

But it has, too, it's disadvantages. There is danger that your mind may be frittered away by endless details, by listening continually to frivolous communications and suspicious complaints. To escape these narrowing influences, you should steadily devote a part of every day to solitary study; and still more, you should make it your rule to regard the events and experiences of every day as lessons, and strive to extract from them general truths, so that the intellect may enlarge itself in the midst of the humblest concerns. In the meanest hovel, the great principles of human nature and of God's moral providence will be set before you for study and observation. Every man is a volume, if you know how to read him. 

  Another peculiarity of your ministry is, that you will see human nature more undisguised, naked, and raw than we normally see. You are to go among those who have not learned how to cover up the deformities of the soul by courtesy and graceful speech. You will see more of the coarser appetites and passions. Not that you are to meet more guilt than the rest of us. The selfishness and deceit of the market or of fashionable life, however wrapped up in refined manners, are not a bit the fairer in God's sight than the artful or grasping habits of the poor. Still, we are in peculiar danger of losing our respect for human nature when it offers itself to us in repulsive, uncouth, vulgar forms and language. Remember to be candid and just to the poor. Treasure up in your memory the instances, which you will often meet among them, like deeds of generosity, patience, domestic love, and self-control; and don't forget that their destitution and suffering add to these virtues a moral worth not belong to the good deeds of a prosperous life. 

Look beneath the outward to the spiritual, the immortal, the divine. Feel that each of the poor is as dear to God as the most exalted in condition, and approach them with humanity and respect. I don't mean by this that you should use flattering words. Be true, honest, plain. Speak to them your mind. Rebuke wrong-doing openly, firmly. The respect won by manly courage and simplicity will give you greater power than any attachment gained by soft soothing words. Be rough rather than affectedly complacent. But with plain dealing you can join a sympathizing heart, and in the union of these you will find strength.  

And above all, go to Jesus Christ for guidance, inspiration, and strength in your ministry. This precept is easily uttered, but not easily followed." William Ellery Channing.