First thing FIRST:
Therefore take no thought, saying,
What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:)
*for your heavenly Father knoweth
that ye have need of all these things. *
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness;
Matthew 6:31-33
The PROBLEM with the so-called "Social Gospel" (the idea that tending to the poor is the primary focus of the "church") is that it shifts focus from the Gospel of soul-saving. A modern example would be the Catholic Church and it's focus (especially with Pope Francis) on the "poor".
One needs to be able to balance the attending to the needs of the truly poor, both economic & health, with the point for the reason you have been called in the first place: for the spreading of the Gospel.
The problem with the so-called "social gospel" of some liberal mainline Protestant churches & the Catholic Church, is that it is * needs based * rather than * preaching the Gospel based *.
Both the receiver & giver feel satisfied---but has the receiver turned from sin?
NOTICE-Christ did BOTH--met the needs of the poor while preaching the Gospel
Then Jesus answering said unto them,
Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard;
1) how that the blind see, the lame walk,
the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised,
2) to the poor the gospel is preached.
Luke 7:22
For the poor always ye have with you;
but me ye have not always.
John 12:8
