How To Be Evangelical Without Being Conservative: Part 4

ON SOCIAL ACTIVISM

The title of chapter eight of Olson’s book is quite interesting in light of the last presidential election. The title of the chapter being “Redistributing Wealth without Socialism.” While this book was published in 2008, it seems highly relevant to this recent election and the current economic crisis. Pertinent in that then Senator Obama was charged with the accusation of  socialism and for “spreading the wealth around.” To which many republicans and evangelicals objected. As such Olson’s discussion of wealth, resources, the rich and the poor, and the response of evangelicals is quite applicable.

For many, any attempt to “redistribute wealth” is merely a political guise for socialism, who’s angry, but closely followed brother communism, is to be avoided at all costs. In fact, Olson states that “If there is one thing especially associated with being conservative in America, it is belief in a free market economy…many conservative Christians equate capitalism with being Christian and American.”

So in avoidance of anything remotely socialistic, the gap is ever widening between the rich and the poor. What are evangelicals to do?

The Bible certainly is not silent on the issues of wealth and money, nor is it silent on the position of followers of Jesus in regards to the poor.

Furthermore the Bible “cries out for justice for the poor and hurls invectives at the rich.”

Yet somehow evangelicals have found themselves leaning more to the right on the political scale, and in recent history has been absent from some of the largest social active movements. The Old Testament is full of prophetic warnings and curses for such neglect of the poor and marginalized. Similar attitudes are found in the New Testament, where in the Epistle of James, true religion that God desires, is one that looks after those who are neglected by society. Likewise many of the early Christians held everything in common. While there are certainly differences between the first and twenty first centuries, the principles remain the same. It is an aspect of Christian devotion to look after and care for those who are “helplessly poor.”

A third way is necessary in order to be truly evangelical. Ironically, many evangelicals who oppose Darwinian evolution, adopt and practice a form of social Darwinism, by advocating and promoting a very antigovernment and anti-welfare type of mindset.

It should be the responsibility of the rich to advocate on the behalf of the poor, and if the government is needed to implement such procedures to protect those on the fringes of society, evangelicals should see this as an ally rather than an enemy.  In fact a conservative position economically may be less evangelical than previously assumed. Olson concludes the chapter with the following thoughts, “Redistribution of wealth is biblical; an ever-widening gap between the rich and poor is not. A person can be more evangelical by being less conservative when it comes to economics.”

 

How to be Evangelical without being Conservative: Part 1

I’m currently in a History of Evangelicalism class taught by none other than Stan Gundry, Academic Vice President of Zondervan. One of the requirements for the class is a book review of a current evangelical topic. My first selection was Roger Olson’s  “How to Be Evangelical without being Conservative.” The title of the book really intrigued me, as did the contents as I started reading. Beginning today, I will be posting my review section by section.

In Roger Olson’s book “How to Be Evangelical without being Conservative” he addresses the current assumption of many mainline evangelicals and popular media that presumptuously link the titles of evangelical with conservative.  In Olson’s distinctions between the two terms, one should not associate conservative with evangelical, as there may be areas, that to truly be evangelical one cannot be conservative. In fact Olson challenges the major assumption that “Most people assume that to be evangelical is to be conservative socially, politically, and theologically.”

Olson bolsters this claim with his definition of evangelical. For Olson, a broad description of the posture of evangelicalism means “being radically open to the gospel in all of its implications, including our comfort zones and vested interest in upholding the status quo and reiterating the past…that’s not conservative or liberal; its radical, extreme, and progressive.”

MORALITY

One of the first issues Olson confronts is morality. In his chapter entitled “Building Character without Moralism” Olson puts forth the primary thesis that evangelicals in the historic definition of the word are “too rigid in their morality and too moralistic toward outsiders (that is sinful unbelievers).

Morality in this chapter is defined as “setting up a code of conduct that derives largely from tradition and seeks to enforce it on people with harsh sanctions for this who fall short of perfection.”

Although recent history has seen the rise of the Moral Majority and the  Religious Right as beacons of this mindset, Olson argues that this is far from being biblical and even farther from being truly evangelical. One truly is bewildered by the past and current attempts to foist Judeo-Christian morality onto a Protestant defined depraved humanity.  How one holds these two positions together presses the the realms of logic. The charge of inconsistency seems to be highly relevant at this point.

Olson argues biblically, that neither Jesus nor Paul, and for that matter the early church, tried to help the surrounding culture pull themselves up by their moral boot straps. In fact Paul’s language at the end of First Corinthians five seems to indicate that Christians have no place in judging the outside world.

Olson holds that the main thrust of the Bible’s moral code is a call for character reformation of God’s covenant people. Olson goes onto critique the movements such as the religious right when he says “nowhere do I see Jesus Christ or any apostle giving Christians a mandate to change the word by using political power”

In conclusion, Olson argues that to be truly evangelical, one must give up the temptation to be moralistic, and the attempts to make a pagan culture moral. Rather the true evangelicals, as biblicists, should be concerned with the inward and focus on transformation of character. Because moral conservatism is concerned with making people behave by the use of rules and shame. Evangelical morality is about “fostering an environment where God’s spirit can inculcate the desire to please God through a life of obedience.”

 

Missions in the Way of Jesus- Conclusion

A proper understanding of missions as central to the local church should show all members that missions is not to be left up to missionaries but is a responsibility for every member in the body of Christ. While giving is essential for missions to take place it cannot be the only avenues by which members of the church work out the great commission.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, global missions must embrace a mission that is rooted in the local church, discipleship, justice, and post-colonialism. Times have changed from the early missionary work that embarked from Europe and America. The landscape of missions has changed and so must its practices and procedures to remain faithful to the gospel and to change the world. While the tension between gospel and culture is a timeless one, it is a tension God has given us to articulate His message. The church must find ways to change in order to reach new and changing cultures with the hope and redemption of the gospel. The church will endure until Christ returns and it will not fail, however it is up to the church to steward the gifts God has given it in every culture and place. By embracing this new framework missions will be able to enter into the post-modern and post-colonial world with a new sense of identity and place amidst competing cultures, nations, and religions. The gospel of Jesus Christ will find its roots in new soil, ready to grow and bloom into the beautiful reality of Gods’ kingdom in a new time and place.

 

Missions in the Way of Jesus- Part 5

MISSIONS ROOTED IN POST- COLONIALISM
Since the modern era, the church has taken the reverse stance of the early church. Missions is seen in modern times as a movement from the civilized to the uncivilized, from the “haves to the have nots,” from the economically stable to the unstable. The enterprise of western world missions has clearly taken on an imperialistic framework for operations. Christianity itself becomes the problem as “so often Christian empires have taken over the symbol of the kingdom of God to justify the same kind of rule as that of the empires it was forged to oppose.”
It is precisely this attitude of colonialism that western missions must oppose and reject while promoting a post-colonial attitude towards other nations and people groups.

The attitude and position of colonialism is to the detriment and consequence of western missions and has hindered the gospel message. Most missions have adopted a cultural imperialistic mindset of colonialism, where the “Colonizing nations generally dominate the resources, labor, and markets of the colonial territory, and may also impose socio-cultural, religious and linguistic structures on the indigenous population”
Global missions must find a way to rid itself of a colonialist type mindset. They must rid the attitudes and assumptions of superiority in both morals and values and seek to learn from those abroad nationally. The tables must be turned on ideas such as one-way education, where the colonizing nation seeks to instruct or “indoctrinate” another less powerful country. Both countries must seek to learn from one another in a way that brings about change both nations.

Most people from outside the west are rejecting this trend of cultural imperialism. This is played out as Americans coming to bring their American culture, ideas, and even their religion in an attempt to colonize the other nations. America has exported in a sense the good, the bad, and the downright ugly of our culture.

Most nations are rejecting the ideas and culture of America and in turn rejecting their Christian faith as well.

The role of America in missions has drastically changed since it first began. While America was once seen as the dominant powerhouse of civilization, to which all nations wanted to become, their success story has been shattered in the area of world affairs. Instances such as Rwanda and Somalia, and not least in the Middle East to name a few have changed the world’s perceptions of America. According to a BBC pole conducted in 2007, the survey showed that “anti-Americanism is on the rise, and the more the US flexes its hard power – the more it deploys troops abroad or talks tough diplomatically – the more it seems to weaken its ability to influence the world.”
The United States’ attitude of only caring for itself and its own interests has radically changed how the world views the States.

One way this will be seen is by letting other voices come to the table of theological and ecclesiological discussions. Western thought and theology has dominated the discussion of what the church is and what they should believe. It’s not that this was a wrong approach to take, it was at least misguided and in the end incomplete. It was never intended in the mind of God that there would be one; single voice box to speak on His behalf, and it certainly wasn’t his intention that a single voice box would silence all other voices. God intended that all of His creation would declare His mission throughout the world. A community of voices is needed to accurately articulate the message of God.
The western portrait of God and theology is good, but it is incomplete. By its very nature the exclusion of other voices means that the picture is incomplete. Western church leaders and missionaries need to learn from their brothers and sisters in the Eastern Orthodox, South American, African, and the Far East traditions in order to paint a complete picture of God. If God is God of the entire world, then voices from across the globe have a vital and necessary voice to be heard. The notion of theological superiority that is prevalent throughout the West must be dismissed and an attitude of humble orthodoxy must be accepted.

 

Missions in the Way of Jesus: Part 3

MISSIONS ROOTED IN THE LOCAL CHURCH
The church’s mission is to carry forth the missio dei. They are commissioned by the authority of Jesus to declare to all creation that Jesus is Lord and the kingdom is coming, to repent from all other ways of living, and enter into God’s kingdom style living now. This is the message that the church is to spread to all of creation.

The mission of the church can also be summed up as Leslie Newbigin stated in “The Open Secret” as proclamation, presence, and prevenience. As stated previously, the church’s mission involves proclamation that God’s kingship is reigning over all humanity history and the entire world. “Mission is concerned with nothing less than the completion of all that God has begun to do in the creation of the world and of humankind.” The proclamation of God’s kingdom is for the whole world. While the proclamation is global in scope, Christians find themselves in specific places at specific times in history. This is where the global missions find its presence. While God is Lord over all creation, He sent His son to the world, to be confined by time, the first century, and by place, the land of Palestine. While God’s mission and the church’s mission is universal, for all people in all places. The church must enact its mission in the time and place it finds itself in. A church must be bound to its culture in both time and place.

Mission agencies from the west need to be dedicated to training national leaders for ministry in their own countries. This was the model of Paul, himself a missionary, who having stayed a few months in a city, built up the church’s own leadership and then left. This model will be most effective for the western world in the land of missions. It is no secret that the West has a wealth of resources in the areas of finances and education. David Wells aptly states, “If the incarnation was about parting with riches and power in the cause of self-giving love, we surely have a model for thinking about how Western Christians …need to be relating to the majority of Christians, who now live outside the West.”  These resources education and finances must enable and equip leaders from their respective countries to be trained so they can effectively minister in their countries. Today the most effective missions might come from people outside the west. Given the political and social landscape of the world and their attitudes towards Americans, it may be wise to focus energies and efforts on training national leaders who will be able to minister in their culture without the baggage of being an American.

In what ways, positively and negatively, have American shaped missions?

 

Missions in the Way of Jesus: Part 2

The third scene of redemption comes bursting onto stage in the person and work of Jesus Christ. God has not abandoned His image bearers; He is not content with the brokenness and chaos. Through Jesus, God has initiated a process to repair the broken image of Himself in humanity and to set the world to right. Jesus is the great reversal to everything that took place in the second scene. Jesus will bring wholeness to where there is brokenness. He will bring shalom to where there is chaos, and He will bring order to disorder. Through the way of Jesus, Humanity will be restored to God through his death and resurrection. We learn from the third scene of redemption that God will take creation from broken to whole, from chaos to shalom, and return order to where there is disorder. Through redemption God will turn the world right side up, beginning with His relationship with Humanity.

The final scene that is awaiting its arrival onstage is consummation. This final scene is where creation and humanity are finally and ultimately restored. This was the goal ever since the fall, to return to the state of original creation where there was wholeness, shalom, and order. Where heaven and earth collide and become one. This consummation is awaited for by all of humanity and creation. Here all of creation will be properly related to God and every part of creation will find its true purpose. In the words of Dallas Willard it is the ““eternal life as limitlessly enhanced life”, in which we are “more intensely alive” in “perfect fulfillment and yet also endless activity and newness””  There will no chaos or brokenness, but only complete shalom of the way things are supposed to be, as God originally intended. God will be able to declare once again that all creation is good.

This worldview of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation is the backdrop to which global missions takes center stage. Without creation, our view of humanity becomes warped and we are not able to see humanity through the eyes of God. Without the fall we cannot properly understand how broken humanity is or the extent to which humanity rejects God. Without redemption, a global mission has nothing to offer anyone. Redemption is the hope that things can change, things can and will be better. Consummation offers global missions their hope, that one day all of the efforts to train disciples of Jesus will find their ultimate goal when heaven meets earth.

It is from this worldview that we can begin to speak about a philosophy of Global missions. It would be helpful to use a metaphor when speaking of global missions. The use of a tree as a metaphor will be extremely helpful in understanding some aspects of global missions. Any good tree has a good root system. These root systems all contribute to allow a tree to flourish and grow. If one cuts away one of the roots, part of the tree may suffer, maybe the leaves will begin to fade and die, or maybe the limbs will not be as strong and not able to be supportive. The root system is incredibly important for any tree. As we begin to compare this metaphor to global missions we will speak of global missions having certain roots. The roots that support the tree of global missons are the local church, discipleship, and justice. These roots are vitally important to the health of global missions. Each of these roots are needed, if a global missions agency or initiative removes one of these roots some aspect of global missions will not flourish in the way its intended.

Are there any areas where you may see current missions initiatives forgetting any of these elements discussed in the last two posts?

 

New Series: Missions in the Way of Jesus- Part 1- Introduction

I’m going to begin a new series on Global Missions and our interaction with the world at large whether at home or abroad.  As I thought these thoughts this summer they in turn led to this opportunity to travel to Liberia. This series will serve to set the backdrop for my trip to Liberia. There will be questions to interact with at the end.

A global mission finds itself rooted in a story bigger than itself. This is the story of four scenes, two that have been played: creation, and the fall, one that is currently playing: redemption, and a final scene yet to take stage: consummation. The global missions story finds its place in the third ongoing scene of redemption. Like any good story, one cannot just jump into the middle and expect to understand the plot of the story. As the scenes which have gone one before add a depth of information and character that effect the present scene, and a final scene that gives the whole story its plot line and purpose.

The first scene of the story begins with creation. God began by creating the world and everything in it. The pinnacle of His creation was Humanity. Humanity was the pinnacle of creation as they bore the image of God Himself. Humanity not only represented God, they also resembled Him. God created the world with the purpose of humanity of being in relationship with Himself. This was the world that God created and He declared it good. There was shalom and everything was in its proper order and place. Humanity related perfectly to God and the world was characterized by wholeness, peace, and order. This was God’s original intention for humanity and Himself to be together in perfect harmony, in perfect wholeness. From the first scene we learn that all humanity finds its wholeness and purpose in relation to God. Wholeness and shalom are only possible when God and humanity are in proper relationship.

The second scene comes dramatically crashing into the first. The fall abruptly and violently stops the first scene. The second scene is characterized by brokenness and a vandalism of shalom. In this scene humanity rejects the loving rule and reign of God and chose to follow their own path apart from God. The fall introduces chaos, brokenness, and disorder. The world has turned upside down from the way it was supposed to be. Humanity’s rejection of God has left them as broken images of God. Now all of humanity’s choices are broken and result in broken actions and relationships. The sin of humanity is the “culpable disturbance of Shalom.” Their brokenness is only part of the fallout, the world itself is now broken and out of order from its original design. This brokenness and vandalism of shalom brings chaos to the world. We learn from the second scene that Humanity as the ability to resist and reject the ways and movements of God. We learn that subsequent to that rejection all choices are conditioned by brokenness. Humans in their brokenness choose not to see or follow God and His ways. Humanity although still carrying the image of God are now cracked and broken. Humanity is in need of restoration; the image of God needs to be restored.

How do the themes of creation and fall affect our understanding of missions? Especially the forgotten one of creation?

Tomorrow, we will look at redemption and consumantion as essential to understanding missions.