{"id":62728,"date":"2026-05-01T00:00:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T06:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicsquaremag.org\/?p=62728"},"modified":"2026-05-01T00:00:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T06:00:04","slug":"the-church-is-more-than-a-charity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/publicsquaremag.org\/faith\/humanitarian-work\/the-church-is-more-than-a-charity\/","title":{"rendered":"The Church Is More Than A Charity"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/picture> Download Print-Friendly Version<\/a><\/p>\n

Forgive the provocative title. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints certainly should care for the poor and needy as modeled by the head of the Church, Jesus Christ Himself.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is, however, a consistent thread of criticism whenever the cost of a Church-involved project becomes public, that all of that cost should have been spent helping the poor instead.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The argument has even been extended to time, with critics arguing that spending time in worship is a waste when it could be spent in soup kitchens.<\/span><\/p>\n

I disagree. Worship is not an alternative to doing good. It\u2019s the engine that makes doing good last.<\/span><\/p>\n

And this isn\u2019t a new argument. A home crowded with people. A dinner. A sense that Something Big is about to happen. Then a woman\u2014Mary of Bethany, in the telling of the Gospel of <\/span>John<\/span><\/a>\u2014breaks open a jar of costly ointment and pours it on the feet of Jesus Christ. The room fills with fragrance. It\u2019s extravagantly impractical. It looks, from a certain perspective, like waste.<\/span><\/p>\n

And right on cue, a voice rises with the sensible objection\u2014<\/span>the ethical objection<\/span><\/i>:<\/span><\/p>\n

Why wasn\u2019t this <\/span>sold and given to the poor<\/span><\/a>?<\/span><\/p>\n

It comes from Judas Iscariot. And if you\u2019re honest, the line sounds persuasive. It sounds like moral clarity. It sounds like priorities. It sounds like what an enlightened, modern faith should say.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Jesus doesn\u2019t nod along. He doesn\u2019t say, \u201cGreat point\u2014let\u2019s liquidate the perfume and put together a hunger-relief budget.\u201d He defends the act.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 action should break the false spell that says devotion and discipleship are only real when they are immediately convertible into measurable \u201cimpact.\u201d It reminds us that worship\u2014direct, reverent, God-facing worship\u2014can look inefficient to anyone who thinks humanitarian deliverables are the only ledger that matters.<\/span><\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not the only time Jesus refuses to reduce the life of faith into a single social program. He commands His followers to <\/span>feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoner<\/span><\/a>, lift the heavy burden. But He also commands <\/span>love of God with heart, might, mind, and strength<\/span><\/a>. He commands prayer. He retreats to commune with the Father. He institutes ordinances. He receives honor. He welcomes adoration.<\/span><\/p>\n

In other words, worship <\/span>and<\/span><\/i> service both matter enormously. The Christian life is not <\/span>either\/or<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

If a church becomes just another version of those institutions, it loses its reason to exist.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>
\nThat\u2019s the tension underneath a modern criticism that gets aimed\u2014often loudly\u2014at The Church of Jesus Christ: Why not spend all your time and <\/span>money<\/span><\/a> on humanitarian causes? Why build churches and temples, do worship services, teach doctrine, run youth programs, send missionaries\u2014why do any \u201creligion stuff\u201d when the world is on fire?<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take that critique seriously, because the best versions of it come from a good instinct: people are suffering, and we should not be casual about it. If you believe in Christ, you should feel a holy discomfort when you see hunger, war, displacement, addiction, loneliness, and abuse. If your faith never pulls you outward into sacrifice and service, then it\u2019s not discipleship.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the critique collapses when it assumes something that sounds compassionate yet ends up being corrosive: Worship is basically overhead, and the \u201creal work\u201d begins only when worship ends.<\/span><\/p>\n

That assumption is not just spiritually mistaken. It\u2019s historically na\u00efve and psychologically backward. In practice, it\u2019s one of the fastest ways to kill the very humanitarian impulse it claims to maximize.<\/span><\/p>\n

Worship is the foundation of sustainable humanitarian good.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not because worship is a loophole to avoid helping people. But because worship is how you <\/span>make<\/span><\/i> a people who keep helping people when it\u2019s hard, when it\u2019s boring, when it\u2019s thankless, when it\u2019s politically inconvenient, when the cameras are gone, when your own life is falling apart, when you\u2019re tempted to turn cynical.<\/span><\/p>\n

And if\u2014hypothetically\u2014humanitarian aid <\/span>were<\/span><\/i> the ultimate end goal, you would still want a church to stay fiercely centered on its religious mission. Because that mission is what grows the community, strengthens the moral muscles, and keeps the generosity from becoming a short-lived mood.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even if the only goal was to maximize humanitarian efforts, a religious mission is a wise investment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Trap of Turning a Church Into an NGO<\/span><\/h3>\n

The world already has many institutions whose job description is \u201cmake material life better.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Some are incredible: disaster responders, hospitals, development orgs, refugee agencies, food systems, governments running safety nets. Many of them do heroic work, and believers should often be their most loyal partners and supporters.<\/span><\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the uncomfortable truth: if a church becomes just another version of those institutions, it loses its reason to exist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not because humanitarian work isn\u2019t holy. It is. But because a church\u2019s unique contribution is not merely <\/span>relief<\/span><\/i>\u2014it is <\/span>redemption<\/span><\/i>. It exists to reconcile people to God, shape souls, bind communities through covenant, preach repentance and hope, administer ordinances, and teach a way of life anchored in the living Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n

When a church quietly trades that identity for the safer, more broadly applauded identity of \u201ca values-based service club,\u201d it doesn\u2019t become more relevant. It becomes replaceable.<\/span><\/p>\n

And replaceable institutions tend to shrink.<\/span><\/p>\n

That isn\u2019t an abstract theory; it\u2019s one of the storylines of modern Western Christianity. Beginning in the mid\u201120th century, many churches in Europe and North America leaned hard into social and political engagement, sometimes explicitly downplaying doctrine, miracles, and distinctive worship as embarrassments from a pre-modern past. On the far edge, you even had \u201cDeath of God\u201d theology in the 1960s, arguing that belief in God had become meaningless in modern life.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time, older currents like the \u201cSocial Gospel\u201d\u2014a movement that interpreted the kingdom of God as demanding social reform as well as personal conversion\u2014became newly influential in modern form.<\/span><\/p>\n

These movements that built on the foundation of faith and religious strength produced real good. Civil rights advances, anti-poverty efforts, humanitarian advocacy, not to mention the millions of individuals given a hand up\u2014many believers gave their lives to these causes. That deserves sincere admiration.<\/span><\/p>\n

The sociological details are debated, but the broad fact of mainline decline is not. Pew Research Center has documented <\/span>significant declines in mainline Protestant<\/span><\/a> identification and retention in the United States in recent decades. And these losses have been localized in the congregations that went all in on a modern social gospel emphasis. When social action becomes the main product and worship becomes a mild preface, churches tend to lose the very people who would have fueled the action.<\/span><\/p>\n

A church that abandons worship does not become a better charity. It becomes a worse church and, eventually, a weaker charity too. Because the deepest engines of durable compassion\u2014repentance, gratitude, covenant, awe, accountability, forgiveness, hope, spiritual discipline\u2014are cultivated primarily through worship.<\/span><\/p>\n

Learning From Our Catholic Friends<\/span><\/h3>\n

It\u2019s worth noticing: even traditions that have built enormous global service institutions still insist that worship is primary.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Church of Jesus Christ has focused most of its humanitarian efforts in assisting other organizations. Two of the most prominent are Catholic Charities and Catholic Relief Services.<\/span><\/p>\n

In <\/span>Sacrosanctum Concilium<\/span><\/a> (the Second Vatican Council\u2019s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy), the Church describes itself as \u201ceager to act and yet intent on contemplation,\u201d and explicitly orders \u201caction to contemplation,\u201d not the reverse. And it says the liturgy is an \u201coutstanding means\u201d by which the faithful express the mystery of Christ and the nature of the Church.<\/span><\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to be Catholic to see the wisdom of this approach. Worship is neither a waste nor a reward after the work; it\u2019s the source that motivates the work, and connects the work to identity, rather than mere philanthropy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What Worship Actually Does<\/span><\/h3>\n

People sometimes talk about worship like it\u2019s a little more than a cultural habit, a vibe if you will.<\/span><\/p>\n

But biblically (and in Latter-day Saint practice), worship is much more like alignment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Worship is what happens when you stop treating yourself as the center of the universe\u2014and deliberately, repeatedly, bodily re\u2011center on God. That sounds \u201cspiritual,\u201d and it is. But it has very practical effects:<\/span><\/p>\n