I am sitting at a martini bar in the Detroit airport waiting for my flight back to Grand Rapids from my first experience at Catalyst, a conference for young leaders in the Church from a variety of walks—be it youth pastor, worship leader, associate pastor, poet, blogger, activist, and beyond.
The Catalyst Conference 2011 was an interesting experience for me, since I had preconceived expectations thanks to my Catalyst veteran wife (this one marked her 6th, I believe) and didn’t get a chance to see all the session because of some work. It was also interesting because I am probably more aligned with a conference the likes of SBL or ETS, than the type I experienced this week, which was more church and ministry focused, rather than wholly theologically or biblically oriented. That doesn’t mean the bible wasn’t there. It was, and rightly so. It was just a different crowd than the ones I tend to roll around in, which was good.
I liked Andy Stanley’s talk by in large, which was on the reality that church leaders just can’t do it all or attend to everyone, and it’s OK to admit that, name that, and work with that. Francis Chan gave an excellent talk about being present in God, which fit well because the theme was “be present,” and so Chan emphasized the need to do so in Christ in order to live out our identity as a leader in the Church. My favorite though, which was unexpected, was from Mark Driscoll, who taught on fear, and what it is as idolatry and gave good encouragement and a good reminder that we have nothing to fear, because Jesus has conquered the grave!
The most interesting part for me to see and experience—and something I’ve been feeling for a while, actually—is what I want to call the “social justice-ization of the mission of the Church.” And that phenomenon was on full display this week at Catalyst in countless talks and sessions and promos and give aways that all centered on this social activism that seemed to almost replace the central mission of the Church, which is what Jesus gave to the Church in Matthew 28: disciple the nations, teach the nations, and baptize the nations…all about and in Jesus Christ.
In short, the central mission of the Church is to proclaim the Story of Jesus—life, death, burial, resurrection, exaltation, and coming again—and to provoke people to enter into that Story through repentance, belief, and baptism.
Gospel proclamation and provocation.
Reflecting back, and even as I write this, I am sort of grieving the fact that this central mission was eerily absent. It’s as if building wells and schools and clinics and literacy programs have replaced the clear mandate of the Church to “gospel.” And I think that this is a generational thing. I also think it’s much more easy to do and say than to call people to evangelize their community
Now please don’t get me wrong: I am not in any way trying to diminish the amazing wells and schools and clinics and literacy programs being visioned and built and stewarded and maintained in the name of Jesus and in response to his Kingdom call. I was blown away and inspired by people like Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOM’S Shoes, for instance. As disciples of Jesus we are indeed called to live out the Jesus Story and live out his role as servant of the Kingdom of God well.
I also want to express the need for the Church, in all of its micro-expressions that are scattered across the Western world, to be actively involved in visioning and building and stewarding wells and schools and clinics and literacy programs because the Church should be discipleing agents of the Kingdom of God who do these things—agents of the way things are supposed to be.
So don’t get me wrong. There is a place in the Church for being socially active and especially leading efforts at testifying to the way things are supposed to be.
My problem is that it seems like these efforts have replaced gospeling efforts. In fact, there was nary a word about the need for this generation to boldly and courageously proclaim the gospel of Jesus—His life, death, burial, resurrection, exaltation, and coming again—and actively call people to repent, believe, and be baptized.
Lot’s of call to build wells, but hardly any call to faith in Jesus.
And I think I know why this is the case:
Isn’t it easier to ask someone to buy a pair of TOM’S shoes so someone around the world in need can get their own pair of shoes than to ask someone to declare Jesus Christ is Messiah and Lord?
Isn’t easier to get someone to sponsor a child than to get someone to actively tell and re-tell and tell some more the gospel of Jesus?
Isn’t easier to provoke someone to action through emotive videos and testimonies to give their lives in some foreign land to building wells and schools and clinics and literacy programs than to provoke someone to give their lives in some foreign land to proclaiming the gospel of Jesus and provoke people to repentance, believe that Jesus Christ died for sins and was raised that third day, and be baptized in His name under His Lordship?
Isn’t it easier to do social justice than to do evangelism?
I mean who doesn’t want to be about building wells or schools or clinics or literacy programs?
But the proclamation that every person on the planet is a rebel in need of a rescuer? The exclusivity of Jesus for the salvation and rescue we all desperately need? That Jesus Christ is the only one true God of Creation? The reality of judgment?
Seriously, when was the last time you heard someone passionately provoke our generation to sell everything they owned and move to Burundi to make disciples of them through the bold, courageous proclamation of the gospel of Jesus? Or how about encourage a whole new generation to get advanced degrees in linguistics and join Wycliffe Bible translators so every people group can encounter the Jesus Story in their own language?
Build wells and schools and clinics and literacy programs? For sure.
Evangelize (which is a euphemism for colonialism)? Hell no!
Again, don’t get me wrong. The Church should be on the front lines of building wells and schools and clinics and literacy programs.
Something has gone wrong, however, when New Tribes Missions has been replaced by World Vision as the central focus of the Church’s mission. And that’s what’s happened in my generation, which Catalyst 2011 seemed to perpetuate.
Jeremy,
I think you make some good points about the separation of social justice from the gospel. Many in our generation are more concerned with doing justice than in talking about why we do justice, and we're missing out on great opportunities when we do that.
But I disagree with some of the conclusions you make. If we could agree that the end of Matthew 28 is the central mission of the church (which I would argue against, since this "Great Commission" was seldom talked about in the early church, and certainly not emphasized the way it has been recently), I still come to a pretty different conclusion than you. I think a better translation of this passage is, "In going, disciple all who aren't yet in the community. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." The main command is to disciple, and Jesus' followers would have understood this as "live as I have lived. Set things right, and tell people about God and about me." In teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded, they would teach people to look out for and love and take care of the poor and the oppressed. Jesus lived out social justice, and commanded his followers to do the same. How can one tell people about Jesus without telling them about the good news for the poor and the oppressed? How can I tell someone that Jesus loves them and came to save them if they haven't eaten in three days? I do not believe it is possible to preach the whole gospel without living out social justice, and if we try to do so we do the gospel a great disservice.
Hi Steve. Thanks for your thoughts! I absolutely agree with you with your series of questions: How can one tell people about Jesus without telling them about the good news for the poor and the oppressed? How can I tell someone that Jesus loves them and came to save them if they haven't eaten in three days?
For me the issue is not either/or, which evangelicalism has made it out to be from either end of the spectrum, it seems. And the point I was trying to make is that it seems for our generation and the people who are provoking our generation toward activism it's all about the social justice aspect of our identity as the Church, with little provocation toward "gospeling."
And re: your interpretation of Matt 28, I respectfully disagree. The verse is clearly translated "go and make disciples" and the early Church would have understood that primarily as a task of proclamation and provocation: proclamation of the gospel of Jesus (which Paul explains in 1 Cor 15) and provocation toward repentance, belief, and baptism (which we find in Acts). Of course there are ethical implications that result from one's decision to become a disciple of Jesus, which you state. But those are the results of the reception of the invitation to become a disciple of Jesus, which result from the "go and make" command of Jesus in Matt. 28.
Hey Jeremy, I can’t speak to things at Catalyst, since I wasn’t there. But are you sure you're not perpetuating a false dichotomy between justice and proclamation, albeit from a different starting point?
Yes, we should take the Great Commission seriously. We should also pay close attention to Jesus’ inaugural sermon in Luke 4. (And if we reduce words like “poor,” “blind,” and “oppressed” to spiritual metaphors ONLY, then it shows how little we understand the context Jesus spoke into.)
Yes, proclamation matters. Jesus used plenty of words to reveal who he was and what he was about. But he also showed it through actions that brought tangible healing to those around him.
The cliché “actions speak louder than words” is true in at least one sense: actions create opportunities for the words to be spoken and heard. It’s the approach Peter advocated: do good, THEN be ready to answer whenever somebody wants to know what makes you different (1 Peter 3).
Let's be honest: some Christians have a track record of forcing answers on people who aren't even asking questions. Instead, don't we have to earn the right to be heard by showing we care about the whole person?
In which case, I would argue that social justice is every bit as central to the church’s mandate. Which is why I don't think it's good enough to say, “there is a place in the Church for being socially active.” That sounds too much like you're saying social justice is all well and good, as long as it’s confined to a corner of the room.
For my money, I'll take World Vision over New Tribes Missions any day. Why? Because WV earns the right to be heard. (And for what it's worth, proclamation is a much bigger part of their work than you might think.)
Also, I think it would help to acknowledge that many evangelistic efforts of the past WERE linked to the destructive forces of colonialism. (Rwanda is a perfect case study; read Mirror to the Church by Emmanuel Katongole.) Sure, we shouldn't let past mistakes become an excuse for not finding respectful ways to share our story today. But simply dismissing the link between (some forms of) evangelism and colonialism is no less of a copout.
Finally, I'm not sure about your claim that it’s easier to dig a well than proclaim the gospel. OK, to be fair, the glamorization of social justice IS a mixed bag. On the one hand, it’s got a lot of people talking about important issues. On the other hand, for all the good they've done, the Bono’s and Blake's of the world have helped fuel the notion that social justice is sexy…that’s it’s all about flying to exotic locations and being hugged by cute African kids. (I remember talking to church leaders at one conference on behalf of WV…it was obvious that not everyone wanted to do the hard work of seeking justice. Some of them just wanted to go on a trip to Africa b/c Bono made it look cool.)
Anyway, doing justice may seem easy. Or sexy. But the real work is anything but. During my time at WV, I got to know a lot of people who actually do the work of providing clean water or education or fighting malaria or protecting trafficked kids. And believe me, there is NOTHING remotely easy (or sexy) about what they do. And there are plenty of instances where proclamation would have been impossible if not for their efforts, because either (a) those in need of proclamation would be dead or (b) they wouldn't have any reason to listen to a single word.
You get this! Yes, it's a generational thing, and it will only continue as people are blind to what the world really needs. Bread doesn't profit man at all, unless it's the Bread of Life. I think of the thousands on the Mount of Blessing and Jesus telling His deciples that the reason they followed was because of the loaves and fishes. So many miss the object completely.