Years ago as I prepared for a career as a social worker I had an opportunity to visit the original Hull House located at the corner of Polk and Halsted streets in Chicago, Illinois. The founder, Jane Addams, is credited with creating the field of social work, and the concept of “neighbors helping neighbors.” Ms. Addams was inspired to work with the poor after traveling to London and visiting a settlement house at Toynbee Hall. It was here that she observed well educated university graduates living in community along with the working class and poor people of the neighborhood. The settlement workers organized clubs, recreation and educational programs for people living in the neighborhood, but it was the spirit of those individuals that inspired her first efforts.

Many years after my visit to the Hull House I was introduced to the term social ministry. I struggled with understanding the delineation between social work and social ministry. What difference, if any, is there between social work and social ministry? What is it that makes work a ministry?

T.S. Eliot once declared that he “had the experience, but missed the meaning.” I have learned that through the reflection upon what it is I do makes a meaningful difference to the work being done. To find meaning and purpose in the work being done as Christians we must first be grounded in a theology of Jesus. It is a movement from being made in the image of God to developing into the likeness of Jesus. It is this inner working of one’s life that allows the outward expression of Jesus living in our midst and becomes social ministry.

Father Bill Creed, a Jesuit, and a family friend, summed it up recently as he described his work with homeless men on the streets of Chicago. “Volunteers serving in the Christian tradition seek to become aware of God’s spirit that is already present among the poor. The key is to awaken in the volunteer the gift of the poor.” I believe this awakening is the result of a three-step process of discern, act, and reflect. It is also this awakening process that gives meaning and purpose to our work and consequently becomes a social ministry. I believe the spirit of the individuals who worked in the settlement houses in Jane Addams day is the same spirit who inspires our work today as Christians and enables us to transform our world.