Many people who say “Lord, Lord” are unrecognized by Christ on the day of judgment (Matthew 7:21-23). I agree with the idealism of this, but what if the church has dropped the ball? Could true followers of Jesus speak up and unite with other true followers…even if some of them don’t consider themselves believers, and are not actively going to church? He also makes the point that the church should be the agency of change, not the state. That is best done in person-to-person interactions. Jennings makes a good point that change comes at the heart level. It would be a shame to miss an opportunity to connect with people because those people didn’t line up with our thinking politically. This happens to be something many liberals, atheists, and agnostics connect with. It’s a judgment on oppressive systems and people and liberation for the oppressed. The question for the church is what is our mission and who are we trying to reach? The gospel is a message of justice. It doesn’t hurt the manure but it sure messes up the ice cream. Shane Claiborne puts it like this: “Mixing faith with a political party is like mixing ice cream & manure. Now, this doesn’t mean total identification with any political party. If we don’t want to call that Social Justice… let’s call it, “Taking the words of the Sermon on the Mount seriously.” Whatever we call it, let’s not miss out on this opportunity to connect. Christians have been given a mandate to care about that as well. They care about justice, restoration, and positive change. I think we shoot ourselves in the evangelistic foot if we cut ourselves off from speaking about issues that many good people outside the church care about. I interacted with non-believers who listened to my sermons, read books I suggested and were genuinely thankful that representatives from the Christian community cared about justice in a socially vocal kind of way. As a result, I heard from dozens of people that they were surprised that a pastor would speak up and care about this sort of thing. Recently I wrote a response to Candace Owens about George Floyd that went somewhat viral with almost 25,000 shares. I am convinced that courageous empathy is evangelism for the 21 st century. Instead, I recommend that we acknowledge our shortcomings, and seek to engage the world more thoughtfully. I don’t think our response to that criticism should be to get defensive. Many people view Christians as hypocritical, judgmental, and “out of touch.” And while that is not true for all Christians, it is true for many. I believe that we are at a cultural tipping point. However, Jennings has recently written an article warning Christians to “Beware of the Social Justice Trap” I actually agree with many of the things he said and I encourage you to read it, but I would definitely emphasize things differently. I know Tim Jennings as a Christian psychiatrist who came and spoke at a church I pastored a couple of years ago and I enjoyed his presentations.
0 kommentar(er)
