Mindset: Those “Less Fortunate”

Have you ever been in church and heard someone say something along the lines of “This week we are going to serve those less fortunate than us”?  A pretty common phrase.  But have you ever thought about that phrase “those less fortunate”?

When you really think about that phrase, it kind of says a lot of things.

But let’s just look at one thing that it says.  When churches say that they want to help “those less fortunate”, they are automatically saying that they are fortunate.  There is a difference.  There is an “us” and “them”.  There is a “higher” and a “lower”.  In our churches, our language and mindset is bent towards us being fortunate – and them being ‘less fortunate’.  We are fortunate; they are less fortunate.

Is this such a bad thing?

Not necessarily.  But it is more of a reality than I think we realize.  Even though our churches are extremely well-intentioned, they are also extremely ‘fortunate’.  How did all of our churches become so ‘fortunate’?   And why is there such a distinction (and distance) between our churches and those less fortunate?  Christ Himself was not ‘fortunate’.  What do we do with that?

This is definitely something that needs further consideration and processing in order to lead us to a sustainable and wise course of action.  But I think the question/observation is extremely valid.

When we say in our churches that we want to help those “less fortunate”, we are showing that we ourselves are fortunate.  Why is it this way?