How ADRA Preaches Without a Pulpit

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16).

Some of the most powerful sermons I have ever witnessed were not preached from a pulpit.

Earlier this year I stood in front of a rehabilitated water station and a school that was given new life through one of our ADRA projects. Residents of the local community handed me a letter of thanks. They wrote that the water project was “not merely” a service. It was the restoration of a lifeline and human dignity. The new classrooms, they said, carried a message of hope to their children: the future is still possible.

Nobody in that village asked what ADRA believes, but they learned something about us anyway. 

We Are Always Preaching

Jesus gave His followers a striking instruction in the Sermon on the Mount. He did not say, “Let them hear your words.” He said, “Let them see your good works.”

That changes how I think about our work at ADRA. When we distribute food, set up a shelter, respond to a flood, or sit with a traumatized parent, we are not stepping away from the mission of the church. We are living it.

In many of the places ADRA serves, people may never enter a church, hear a sermon, or open a Bible. But they will meet us. And through the way we treat them, they will form an impression of who we are, what we believe, and, ultimately, what God is like.

We are preaching every day, all year long. The only question is what our service is saying.

Grounded in the Bible

This is not a new idea. The Bible contains more than 2,000 passages about poverty, justice, compassion, and care for the vulnerable. The prophets spoke forcefully about it. Some of Israel’s most important civil laws were written to protect the poor, the widow, the orphan and the stranger. Ellen White wrote extensively about the ministry of compassion and the importance of revealing the character of Christ through practical acts of love.

And Jesus defined His own mission this way: “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve” (Matt. 20:28). Service was not a side project of His ministry. It was central to it.

That is why, as the church lifts up the message of “grounded in the Bible, focused on the mission,” I believe ADRA’s work belongs right at the center. Humanitarian action is not separate from the gospel. It is a visible expression of it.

The Witness People Remember

During a humanitarian response, people observe far more than we realize. They notice how we speak under pressure, how we treat the most vulnerable, how we handle resources, and how we act when we are exhausted. Anyone can talk about compassion when things are calm. In the middle of chaos, the real thing is revealed.

Many communities we serve have heard too many promises. They have watched organizations arrive and then disappear. When they meet people who listen with respect, serve with honesty, and stay, something shifts. Trust begins to grow.

People may question our words. They rarely question genuine compassion.

James reminds us that faith without works is dead. But I do not think we are adding works to faith. We are revealing faith through works.

Pointing Beyond Ourselves

Jesus also said why—so that people “glorify your Father in heaven.” The goal is not for anyone to say, “How impressive is ADRA?” It is for people to catch a glimpse of God’s character in the way we serve.

That shapes everything. It means serving with humility rather than ego, with integrity rather than shortcuts, with respect rather than superiority, and with consistency rather than only when it is convenient.

And it is why ADRA serves according to need, never according to belief. We do not serve people because they believe as we do. We serve because we believe, and our service is an expression of that belief.

A Sermon Lived

For many people we meet, ADRA may be the only sermon they ever see. Not one preached, but one lived. So the question is not whether we are preaching. It is what message our way of serving communicates.

May it be a message of justice, compassion, and love. And may it be that those we serve will not only remember ADRA but come away having seen something of the God we follow.

The original version of this commentary was posted by ADRA International.