Mercy Ministry in the Church

The local church, institutionally speaking, is called to teach. That is its job. Lose that, you lose everything. But that institution is made up of human beings who must go and do. And where institutional resources (staff time, budget monies, etc.) are available for something more than teaching, they might be wisely and wonderfully stewarded in helping church members to pursue the good deeds that Jesus commands them to do. For these reasons, 9Marks wants to offer constructive help for how local churches might pursue organized mercy ministry.
Jamie Dunlop gets the ball rolling by offering the best big picture model we can think of. We will not fully endorse any one philosophy and method as “the 9Marks way,” but Dunlop’s model strikes us as very sensible, at least for churches in the wealthy West.