Borrowing eggs

Wendell Berry, my favorite author, says that "land cannot be properly cared for by people who do not know it." He is speaking about actual land, in this case, because he is a farmer and is interested in the longevity of farms and farming communities, and therefore communities in general. I think his comment reaches further than just farming communities. How can anything be properly cared for if it is not known by the ones caring for it.
One place I think this applies to is the church, or more importantly, those who the church is supposed to be caring for. How can we care for orphans and widows, captives, the blind, the burdened world if we do not know it? Far too often the church seems like it is trying hard to redeem itself to the rest of the world. But if the church is supposed to be caring for the world, who would trust it if it sold itself out to popular culture? Why would they trust it?
Going back to Wendell Berry's quote, we have to keep in mind that Christ was acquainted with grief, despised and rejected of men, they hid their faces from him, as it were. In other words, he was acquainted extremely well with the human condition. This is what the church should be, well acquainted with the world. How can the church love our neighbors if we do not know them? If we can do anything good for other people, it is to know them, and in turn, have something to offer them that might be relevant to their lives.