In two previous blogs (Here
and Here),
I expressed concern over the ease in which Christ-motivated initiatives to
address societal concerns can easily become secular enterprises. I used what was once a Christ-driven mission
called Alcoholics Anonymous as an example.
AA is currently a social program not far removed from any other
self-help “religion”.
I once met with a group of concerned people regarding ministry to
First Nations communities. The unleashed
brain storming soon arrived at a plan that involved everyone from including
native spirituality to Roman Catholicism.
The participants were professing Christians, but their views were so
inclusive and ecumenical I knew this wouldn’t work.
No, to keep Gospel-centered initiatives, Gospel-centered, I
believe we need to:
#1. Refrain from unholy alliances.
#2. Keep God’s holy
character is the benchmark.
And thirdly,
#3. Embrace evangelicalism to
a fault.
Perhaps to some, to be “evangelical” is to belong to a
certain denomination or subsect within Christendom. But it is more than that. The word has its roots in the Greek word for
Gospel, or “Good News”. The Greek word (εὐαγγέλιον)
starts with the formation of the word “good” plus “message”. This Gospel message was exemplified by Christ
and the Apostles. In summary the message
was simply:
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven
has come near” (Matthew 3:2, NIV); and “When they arrived, he said to
them: “You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I
came into the province of Asia. I served the Lord with great humility and with
tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents.
You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to
you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. I have declared to
both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith
in our Lord Jesus” (Acts 20:18–21, NIV) (Emphasis Mine).
Cultural reform was never that high water mark in the New
Testament Church – it was “repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.” We hear the plea of the Apostle Paul to his protégé
Timothy, “Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care . . .” (1
Timothy 6:20, NIV).
Our first and primary duty as Christians is to proclaim
salvation. Social initiatives, cultural
reform and collective justice are important, but if they eclipse the
ambassadorial call of the Church (2
Corinthians 5:20), we fail.
Application
Let’s say that my Church opens up a soup kitchen! It’s just a
soup kitchen! It’s just a fantastic
humanitarian effort to feed the hungry!
No one would think anything untoward about a soup kitchen. But if that
soup kitchen is designed in any way to provide spiritual reform, not secular reform,
there has to be some standards in place.
I would argue that as a minimum, this soup kitchen should:
a. Be comprised of “born-again”, regenerated people, who are
committed disciples of Christ. The
inclusion of nominal, liberal Christians or nonChristians will always erode the
ministry to a secular status.
b. Be grounded in the Father’s love for the hungry. This means the rhetoric, the metanarrative
that is uppermost is that this is not our love or our compassion for the
recipients; but it is God, the Father’s love and mercy. The story of the
kitchen should point people to the Father and His provision of One who is the
Bread of Life. And to transition to the
next point, it then provides the basis to say, “Or do you show contempt for
the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s
kindness is intended to lead you to repentance” (Romans 2:4, NIV)?
c. Thirdly, (and certainly not less important) seek above
all the salvation of the lost. As crass
as it sounds, it makes no little good for satisfied, well-nourished people to
go to Hell. Or stated otherwise: “What
good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, [be well fed] yet forfeit their soul? Or
what can anyone give in exchange for their soul” (Matthew 16:26,
NIV)?
Conclusion
To summarize a sermon by Mark Driscoll entitled “Resisting
Idols Like Jesus”, Driscoll’s point was this:
We all define our own Hell. For some Hell is being poor; or
being sick. For others Hell is our unrighteous
government, our immoral education, or our murderous health care system. For others, Hell is being treated unfairly or unjustly.
When these things become our Hell, then the advocacy groups that address these
concerns become our savior. The end
result is that a good thing becomes a god-thing, which is a bad thing.
When spiritual reform (or better: Gospel transformation) is
sought, cultural reform may follow in tow.
When cultural reform is sought, Gospel transformation will never
happen. That would be sad. So, as Dr. James K.A. Smith correctly
observed:
”. . And when that
happens, [insert your social concern] becomes something else altogether — an idol, a way to effectively
naturalize the gospel, flattening it to a social amelioration[1]
project in which the particularity of Jesus as the revelation of God becomes
strangely absent."
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