Is what we’re doing working?
It’s a pragmatic question, I know. Christians aren’t simply pragmatists, but we do have to ask the question. Is the local church’s typical approach to public engagement making the impact we hope it will?
This article is the fourth and final in a series of articles intended to help Christians and churches evaluate how we engage with people outside of our tribe around the social issues of our day.
A gentleman approached me several weeks ago, and in the course of the conversation wanted to know how I felt about pornographic books being available in the public schools. His concerns were sincere and appropriate. We’ve lost our collective minds around the issues of sexuality and gender, and public schools have become ground zero for a sophomoric movement away from both natural law and biblical revelation.
When adults are unclear with children about the virtues and goodness of God’s design for sex and gender, we should expect the avalanche of social chaos and mental health challenges we’re now experiencing.
When adults are unclear with children about the virtues and goodness of God’s design for sex and gender, we should expect the avalanche of social chaos and mental health challenges we’re now experiencing.
But the question of pornography in the public schools provides a good opportunity to discuss and clarify the Church’s role in the public square. So, this four-part series includes articles on Persuasion to Virtue, Incarnational Responsibility, and Communication Integrity. And this final piece addresses Structural Remedies.
I call each of these priorities daubs, as daubs of paint an artist’s palette that when mixed and applied appropriately can create something beautiful for the world to see.
What are Structural Remedies?
When we think about “changing the world for Christ,” for example, faithful evangelicals most often mean sharing the Gospel so that people respond to the Gospel in repentance and faith, and are rescued from their sin and reconciled to God forever. This is the transformation Jesus called us to pursue when He commissioned us to make disciples of Him (Matthew 28:18-20).
But when we want to address social issues, whether moral, economic, or political, we don’t always have a framework for that. The “Get-Em-Saved-and-It-Will-Work-Out” approach is not satisfactory to any of us. So, to attempt to fix what’s broken in the public square, we tend to leave the Gospel at the door, and engage in one of two ways: (1) service, or (2) advocacy.
Two Common Approaches: Service and Advocacy
First, in service, it’s our hope that our efforts will meet a real need and also win the trust of our neighbors. We don’t lead with Gospel proclamation, but we hope it comes up at some point. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn’t.
Second, many Christians advocate in the public square armed with the truth. We make speeches, write and sign declarations, post clips and mems on social media, and take a verbal stand against the evils pressing against our family, friends, and enemies. We hope the Gospel comes through along the way, but our primary goal is to make a compelling argument that convinces others to do the right thing.
Both service and advocacy are vital ways the Church does good in public, but I want to offer a sincere criticism and then a viable alternative.
Wearing Our Own T-Shirts
There’s no judgment of motives here, but when the church serves the community, we often wear our own t-shirts. I love community wide “serve days,” but I’ve noticed we usually serve our community as outsiders. It’s “us” doing something for “them.” We wear our own t-shirts, not theirs because we have little connection with “them” beyond the short-term service we provide.
The same is true in our advocacy. We advocate for changes we will have no responsibility to implement. Even if our words are received by a friendly school board member, for example, he or she probably does not have the capacity to act on our recommendations. We must advocate, educate, and cast a compelling vision for a better future, but separatists rarely make great progress.
We must advocate, educate, and cast a compelling vision for a better future, but separatists rarely make great progress.
Our primary posture is that of public rebel or dissenter, hoping that somehow wayward people will discover how wrong they are and how right we are, and then they will just come on over to our side. If the issues are as critical as we contend and souls are as in danger as we believe they are, is that actually an approach we will be ready to defend before the Judgment Seat of Christ?
An Achievable Alternative: Beyond Third-Party Vendors
As long as the Church serves or advocates in the public square as a third party vendor, we will never see the lasting change we desire. Structural remedies, solutions that build institutions and social structures in a community, emerge through Christians integrating into the community and sacrificing so others can be successful.
Structural remedies, solutions that build institutions and social structures in a community, emerge through Christians integrating into the community and sacrificing so others can be successful.
Our Service for the Success of Others
Jesus asked blind Bartimaeus, “What do you want?”
When we are just as concerned about what the school board wants as what we want, when we are just as motivated to help businesses be successful as we are to see our church grow, when we are just as invested in solutions to mental health challenges as our local health council is, then we will begin to see progress toward virtue in our communities.
Pornography in public schools is unacceptable for any civilized society, but that issue is not the only challenge educators face today. Do we know what the most pressing needs are for the school principal, teacher, and other administrators?
Do your church systems encourage, equip, mobilize, and celebrate church members to help other social structures in the community be successful? Do you know what those social structures are? Do you know how to engage with them successfully?
Do your church systems encourage, equip, mobilize, and celebrate church members to help other social structures in the community be successful? Do you know what those social structures are? Do you know how to engage with them successfully?
Do your church members hear pastors and leaders praying for the success of leaders in business, education, the public sector, healthcare, arts & entertainment, agriculture, and technology & communications? Does your church remove the “sacred and secular divide,” and value, equip, and celebrate the daily impact believers are making in the community?
Integrate into Existing Systems of Care
What local churches are doing is not working the way would like for it to. Spiritual lostness, moral confusion, and social chaos are at hightide. But it’s not because the Church does not care. It’s not because we are narcissists, because we are not Gospel-centered, or because our church members are uncommitted.
What we are doing is not working because we’ve built church strategies and operating systems with too little consideration for the systems of care that already exist in our community.
We speak of missions and community engagement, but our systems are built only to celebrate people coming to our church. Instead of commissioning people to live out their faith in the spheres of influence God has placed them to help those spheres be successful, we send people out so they will bring people to church.
We speak of missions and community engagement, but our systems are built only to celebrate people coming to our church.
But I am hopeful. There is a growing awareness among evangelicals that third-party service and advocacy are not enough. There is a movement of Jesus-loving church, business, and nonprofit leaders who see that the harvest is still plentiful for those willing to go into the fields.
Live Like Missionaries
That’s why God called me to serve a local missionary through Everyone’s Wilson and The Everyone’s Welcome Network, to help local churches live like missionaries in their own community. Reach out if I can help you do good and offer lasting hope in your community.
PICTURES OF THE WEEK
EVERYONE’S WILSON | THE EVERYONE’S WELCOME NETWORK
I’m the Executive Director of Everyone’s Wilson and The Everyone’s Welcome Network—a Gospel-driven community transformation initiative. Our mission is to unite the Church to engage the community, so everyone thrives. Very simply, we’re passionate about helping Jesus-loving people live like missionaries in their local community through prayer, equipping, collaboration, and service.
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