How the Church Changes Social Conditions

Kevin DeYoung has me thinking about this issue. I'm still wrestling through it, but it caused me to think of this quote by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones:

It is not the task of the church to deal directly with these problems. The tragedy today is that while the church is talking about these particular problems and dealing directly with politics and economics and social conditions, no Christians are being produced, and the conditions are worsening and the problems mounting. It is as the church produces Christians that she changes the conditions; but always indirectly...

The church cannot change conditions; and she is not meant to change conditions. And the moment she tries to do so she is in various ways shutting the door of evangelistic opportunity...My concern as a preacher of the Gospel is with the souls of men, my business is to produce Christians; and the larger the number of Christians the greater will be the volume of Christian thinking. It is the business of individual Christians to enter Parliament, as Wilberforce did, or to speak in the House of Lords as did the Earl of Shaftesbury, or to seek election to a local Council, and in general to act as good citizens. You are still citizens—act accordingly. (Life In The Spirit In Marriage Home And Work)

In other words, the church produces disciples, and disciples work for justice. The process is short-circuited when the church stops focusing on making disciples who will change social conditions, and focuses on the social conditions directly.

Still thinking about all of this. More coming on this later.

Rethinking the Mission of the Church

Our elders are wrestling through a biblical understanding of the church's role when it comes to issues of justice and mercy. Books like Tim Keller's Generous Justice are helpful. I spent Monday listening to Chris Wright at Tyndale as well, which has very helpful.

On my way home from Tyndale I listened to Kevin DeYoung's recent message Rethinking the Mission of the Church. It's a nuanced presentation: DeYoung's position would be easy to caricature. It's definitely worth a listen, no matter what side of the debate you're on. I really appreciated it.

Keller's book, posts like this one by Jared Wilson, and the talk by DeYoung point to the importance of the issue, and to how important it is to think clearly and carefully as we wrestle with this it.

Stackhouse on What Evangelicals Need

Gideon Strauss quotes John Stackhouse on what evangelicals need:

American evangelicals need to escape the narrow (and heretical) idea that God's Plan of Salvation is to rescue souls from a worn-out planet and whisk them off to a spiritual heaven. Their teachers and preachers need to expand the horizons of salvation to include the physical body, the church, and the whole of creation.

This divine endorsement of the whole world needs to be rooted in a strong doctrine of creation, furthermore, not just of salvation. Thus American evangelicals need to understand and embrace the so-called creation mandate, the command of God to rule over the creation, to cultivate it, to "be as God" to it as the image of God. Thus everything about the "everyday" matters to God. And in this context, politics now becomes godly work - not just for politicians, but for all citizens and all neighbors - because politics is simply the conversation and negotiation about how we're all going to get along with each other as well as we can.

How the Church Changes Social Conditions

Is the church called to address social problems? Martyn Lloyd-Jones argues that the church isn't, but Christians are. The greatest change comes through Christians who apply the gospel in every area of their lives, which then affects society:

It is not the task of the church to deal directly with these problems. The tragedy today is that while the church is talking about these particular problems and dealing directly with politics and economics and social conditions, no Christians are being produced, and the conditions are worsening and the problems mounting. It is as the church produces Christians that she changes the conditions; but always indirectly...

The church cannot change conditions; and she is not meant to change conditions. And the moment she tries to do so she is in various ways shutting the door of evangelistic opportunity...My concern as a preacher of the Gospel is with the souls of men, my business is to produce Christians; and the larger the number of Christians the greater will be the volume of Christian thinking. It is the business of individual Christians to enter Parliament, as Wilberforce did, or to speak in the House of Lords as did the Earl of Shaftesbury, or to seek election to a local Council, and in general to act as good citizens. You are still citizens—act accordingly. (Life In The Spirit In Marriage Home And Work)

Douglas Moo on a Christian Worldview of Creation

Last week I posted a link to a paper by Douglas Moo on the environment (PDF). This week I have the privilege of going through the book of Romans in a seminar with a group of pastors in Lake Geneva, WI.

As we worked through Romans 8:18-22, Moo spoke passionately about our need for a distinctively Christian view of creation. He and his son are writing a book on this topic. Here is a summary of some of his comments.

The Old Testament speaks often about the land, the world around us, land, and the non-human creation. The New Testament does not speak of this as much, except in passages like this one. This has led to the wrong idea that the New Testament is unconcerned with the world of nature. This has had disastrous consequences for a biblically robust worldview. Some seem to think that God is only interested in saving souls. Nothing, Moo says, is farther from the truth.

According to Romans, our glorification will be the trigger of bring the whole creation into glory. We tend to overemphasize the destruction of creation from 2 Peter 3:10; Romans 8 reminds us that creation will not just be destroyed; it will be liberated. It will be purged or renovated, not done away with. Paul does not use replacement language. We fail when we do not see the implications of this passage for creation. Creation has not lost its importance in God's world. It still matters to God, which has huge implications for how we treat it.

We need a distinctively Christian view of creation that embraces two beliefs: humanity as the pinnacle of creation and the theological importance of creation. Some environmental views miss the first point, and see humanity as a blight on the environment. But too many Christians miss the importance of the value of non-human creation to God. God will judge us for this oversight. We have a unique and distinct opportunity to have a voice on this issue.

If scientists are right, environmental change will kill more people than abortion. If we love our neighbor, we have to be concerned for how climate change will affect those who live, for example, in Bangladesh a few feet above sea level.

There are three key lines of thought that we need to think about in coming to a Christian worldview:

• Romans 8:18-22 - creation is waiting to be redeemed
• Colossians 1:20 - God reconciles all things
• Galatians 5:14, Romans 13:8-10 - love for "the neighbor"

We must think about how this works out, but we cannot avoid this issue.

I'm looking forward to reading this book when it comes out. It's certainly something that Moo is passionate about!