Therefore come out from among them and be separate says the Lord (2 Corinthians 6:17).
As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world (John 17:18).
In mid-June of this year I spent about 20 hours on Main Street in Steinbach at a booth set up by the South Eastman Transition Initiative during the local Summer in the City event. The mission of this organization, of which I am a founding member, is to “…help facilitate a transition towards more sustainable lifestyles in Southeastern Manitoba.”
All of the organizers of the Transition Initiative are passionate people of faith but we welcome anyone to participate with us in our mission. But as organizers, we bring our Christian faith to bear on what we consider to be pressing problems we face as a society at this time in history: energy depletion, pollution, consumerism, global hunger, etc.
During those two days on Main Street I made many new friends. One of them asked me a pointed question just as we were getting ready to pack it all in. Why, he asked, is the church not here on Main Street? The issues you are addressing, he said, are really important and the church should be involved in addressing them. He was not satisfied when I told him that I was a member of a church and so indirectly the church was present.
Just a short time later, a world-renowned missionary statesman (which I only found out later on in our dialogue) stated that the issues our organization was addressing should be on the radar screen of the church, but mostly they are not. The church needs to let its voice be heard on the pressing issues facing God’s creation, he noted with a good degree of passion.
And then I got to thinking. Of all the hundreds of people that stopped at our booth, as far as I know, no local pastors showed up except two youth pastors. So I began asking myself the question why none of the fifty plus pastors in our region had stopped by to either endorse or at least encourage our presence on the street. Are they not be interested in mingling and dialoguing with people of the larger community? Would it not be helpful for them to listen to voices on the street, and perhaps speak into people’s lives even though they don’t come to their church? And I wondered what would be their message if they had a chance to address the larger society as a whole, not just their regular church members who show up at church on Sunday morning?
When I asked some of these questions of a pastor on Sunday morning I sensed I had touched a raw nerve. He told me that since I, as a church member, had been on the street the church in fact had been there, because I represent the church. And that makes some sense. But the problem is that my church has never spoken to the issues the Transition Initiative is addressing, so do I really represent the church or just my own visions of what the church “should be” addressing. In further dialogue with this pastor, he did indicate that our discussion had prompted him to reflect more seriously on how the church could or should be present in the world.
And indeed, that is the question that needs a lot of discussion. A quick review of the biblical text reveals a double action dynamic, as the passages quoted above indicate. On the one hand believers are called out of the world but on the other hand they are sent into the world. It seems to me that the church needs to keep these two mandates in a healthy balance. A quick historical overview shows that sometimes we have done a better job than others in keeping this balance.
Nineteenth-century evangelicalism appears to have had a fairly robust holism about it, in spite of its many failings. There was a general understanding that God’s desire was to transform both individuals and society so that all of creation would reflect more fully God’s vision of reconciliation to God’s purposes (Col. 1:15-20). The church in England, for example, was on the front line in an attempt to abolish first the slave trade and then slavery all together. It was there as well to end the abuses of child labor and many other injustices society was perpetrating.
Then came the early 20th century with what Steve Corbet and Brian Fikkert call “The Great Reversal” in their book, When Helping Hurts. As evangelicals battled theological liberals over the fundamental tenets of Christianity a major cleavage developed. Fundamentalists insisted that Jesus had come to “save souls” while liberals proclaimed he had come to bring social change. And so came a major shift within evangelical Christianity. All social action – that is attempts to transform society – were seen as concessions to liberalism. So from within the fundamentalist worldview evangelicals became crusaders. Their association with the world was basically designed to save souls and snatch them away from a world that was perishing.
But beginning near the middle of the 20th century the evangelical church began to rethink this unnatural divide. So it is heartening indeed to hear increasing calls from within the church for a more holistic approach to mission once again. In a sense the 21st century church is gradually moving toward the more integrated approach of the 19th century. The prayer on its lips increasingly is, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” In other words, more and more evangelicals are rediscovering a theological foundation for being in the world as emissaries of King Jesus who is in the process of reconciling all things to God.
This is good news because it provides a renewed impetus for the church to be on Main Street. But what should that look like? That needs further exploration.
